Everyone functions far happier when there exists rules and guidelines to keep us in check. Either through laws, taboos or social norms we instinctively realise how we must behave. Dogs are exactly the same. Just as the back garden they dash around in has a fence, they must have similar mental fences so they can behave in an acceptable and appropriate way. Here let us discover the importance of establishing boundaries in obedience training dogs and precisely how we go about doing it.
I will beginwith a rather fitting analogy. If someone were to put a few fleas into a jam jar, they would, one at a time, leap out. If you put a lid on the jar, the fleas would hop and constantly be hitting the ‘ceiling’ but after a time would connect jumping that high with a bashed head. It would then be possible to lose the lid and the fleas would never hop out of the jar. The fleas would have established a boundary on themselves by repetition and, even thoughthe physical boundary had been got rid of, would still be conditioned by the mental boundary.
In exactly the same way, you must create behaviour boundaries for your dog when it is very yound or new to the house. The most important rule about establishing behaviour boundaries is that you are totally consistent. It would be inaffectice, for example if you overlooked your dog getting onto your chair after a bath when it is all clean and fluffy and then getting upset when it hops on when it has just been rolling in the mud. The dog does not differentiate between OK if clean and not OK if dirty. The sofa/bed/chair is allowed unless there is a behaviour barrier that has been consistently reinforced to say that it is not allowed. In addition, if the sofa is allowed to your dog in your house, you should not be shocked if it immediately gets onto other peoples’ sofas when out.
Just the same applies with what may be acceptable for a puppy but not for the fully grown dog. A wolfhound puppy asleep on your lap while you are watching TV may be warm and comforting for both of you. However, when dog is fully grown and you have to sit on the floor whilst your hound sits on the sofa watching television, things won’t be quite so warm and comfortable.
When first getting a dog you must decide upon and establish the expected behaviour boundaries. Then its vital to reinforce these behaviour boundaries without fail in a totally consistent manner for the dog to learn properly. In a short while, your dog, exactly like the fleas in the jar, will be happier without constantly creating a headache for both of you!
When training a new puppy or dog, it is important to start in the correct way as mistakes made early on could be hard to rectify later. At Poochdogs.com there are inexpensive and best-selling training books and courses which cover all topics about obedience training dogs including separation anxiety in dogs
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