Animal Behavior: Why Does My Dog Do That?

By Garrett McMahan


Does your dog jump up on you or guests? Is excessive barking driving you crazy? These are but two of the annoying behaviors that some dogs exhibit. A few others include chewing on furniture, urinating in the home or even running away from their owner. While we love our pets, difficult behavior makes dog ownership difficult, and it's important to understand why a dog misbehaves.

While each dog is an individual, there are many common reasons why these animals misbehave. Sometimes it's simply a lack of good training, but sometimes a dog is bored or perhaps lonely and scared. While people usually can handle being alone for a while, dogs have a pack instinct and they don't like to be separated from their pack, which is your family. When the family is away, dogs can become quite upset. In addition, many dogs need tons of daily exercise and if they are cooped up in the house, this leads to boredom which can lead to destructive behavior. A couple of good long walks and some playtime often can cure boredom-based misbehavior.

A dog with an anxious temperament also can cause problems. Take chewing, for instance, which actually is an instinctive habit. Sometimes dogs chew because it soothes them, and the anxious dog might be chewing on your shoes or furnishings or other items. You can help by providing items that the dog is allowed to chew on and perhaps by crating the dog when you are away from home. The crate can be a safe, secure place for a dog and keeps them out of trouble. If you are going to be gone for a particularly long time, ask a friend to come take your dog on a walk or hire a pet sitter or dog walking service.

Even if you understand why a dog is acting the way he is acting, it certainly doesn't decrease your level of frustration when you come home and find your home transformed into a disaster area. Finding a way to stop problems before they occur is important, and the best way to do that is to train your dog how to behave in the first place.

There are many reasons why training is so important, and one of the biggest is to prevent these aforementioned behavior problems. When you open the door to find that your dog has destroyed all of your pillows and peed on the rug, you are probably going to be quite unhappy, and while you might reprimand your dog after they have done something wrong, this is not going to correct the problem in the future. Dogs get that you are upset, but they don't understand why, the simply see that you are mad at them. The only way to stop bad behavior is to teach them how to behave so that they don't do these things in the first place. Your dog also will be safer because of training, which will teach them to sit and stay on command. You can teach many other commands as well, and you and your dog both will be happier after teaching these techniques.

Dog training doesn't have to be difficult, but it does take time and patience. Purchasing a helpful DVD dog training program such as The Dog's Way can simplify the process, providing the owner with clear, easy-to-teach lessons that get results. After you finish the program, your dog should be able to follow all the important basic commands such as sitting, staying, walking on a loose leash, jumping on people or furniture, coming when called and much more. You can set boundaries and rules that your dog will follow for a lifetime and this will make your time with your sweet dog all the more wonderful.




About the Author:



0 comments:

Post a Comment