A dog’s mouth is his primary tool for everything. Their mouths are very powerful; designed to crush bone! If a dog feels afraid and trapped, he WILL BITE. I don’t care how nice a dog he is, HE IS A DOG. It is unfair for us to expect a dog to never bite under any circumstance; his mouth is his only protection. This is why we must teach our dogs to control their mouths. Puppies do a lot of play biting and roughhousing with each other. It is their way of experimenting, learning to communicate, exploring, and testing their boundaries.
What can The Dog Lady do?
The problem of play biting is controlled by teaching bite Inhibition. Bite inhibition means your dog controlling the intensity (pressure) of his bite. A dog that has been taught bite inhibition as a puppy is likely to cause less serious injury as an adult if he bites. This is by far the most important single manner you can teach your puppy. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO WORK THROUGH ADULT BITING PROBLEMS ON YOUR OWN. If your puppy is less than 18-20 weeks of age, then there are exercises you will learn from The Dog Lady to effectively teach bite inhibition. This problem in dogs older than 20 weeks of age should be evaluated on a case by case basis to determine the cause and solution. Under no circumstances should you hit your dog for biting. This could cause your dog to be afraid of human hands and make the problem worse.
A frequent problem reported by dog owners is destructive chewing. Often destructiveness takes the form of chewing everything—usually, your possessions. Chewing is a necessary activity for all dogs; not just puppies. It keeps a dog’s jaw muscles in shape and helps to keep their teeth clean. They need to chew. Your challenge is to get them to chew the right things. Remember, dogs have no concept of the monetary value of a bone verses a dining room chair.
What can The Dog Lady do?
Every dog is different but most puppy chewing is from teething and most adult chewing is from a lack of physical and mental stimulation. The Dog Lady will teach you how to properly manage your home environment and protect your belongings during a puppies growing stages. You will also learn how proper socialization, exercise and mental stimulation can drastically reduce your dogs need to chew your belongings.
Your dog may dig for a variety of reason. The most common reasons are; boredom, escape, and just for fun. Some dogs dig to escape the heat (or yard) and some breeds are programmed to dig while hunting for small rodents. An evaluation of the environment helps to discover why your dog is digging.
What can The Dog Lady do?
Fortunately dog habits are easier to change that human habits. By managing the environment you can minimize your dogs chances of escaping and redirect his desire to dig into habits that are less destructive. The Dog Lady will show you how to make sure your dog has a stimulating and enriched environment to play in, which goes a long way in keeping him out of your garden!
There are many reasons for excessive barking. Before you can stop this behavior you have to figure out why your dog is barking. The most common reasons are; alerting to a perceived danger, demand for attention, fear and boredom. It is unreasonable to think that a dog will never bark but a well adjusted dog should not bark excessively.
What can The Dog Lady do?
There are many techniques to deal with excessive barking, depending on the reason the dog is barking. The Dog Lady can show you how to put the behavior "on cue" to effectively teach your dog when you want him to stop barking or how to redirect the need for the behavior to another activity. Most of all, remedial socialization and proper mental and physical stimulation are important for a well adjusted dog that does not feel the need to "talk" excessively.
What can I do about the constant jumping on people?
Behavioral studies have show that dogs jumps as a greeting behavior. Jumping on you, your visitors and even strangers on the street is a common problem. This type of behavior is an immature behavior such as puppy play biting. Though it is very natural (and cute) for a puppy to jump, they do not grow out of it. Continuing to allow this behavior and/or pushing your dog away with your hands can reinforce their desire to jump on you and others.
What can The Dog Lady do?
Your dog wanting to greet people is a good thing. The Dog Lady can show you how to reinforce other acceptable greeting behaviors without making your dog afraid to greet people. With this comes a progression of your dog learning to stop jumping and respect the personal space of all humans.
If you are having trouble potty training your dog, you are in good company. In theory it is the easiest thing to do but in application the one most dog owners have trouble with. Why? Operator error! Yes, potty training is all about what you do! There are many methods you can use, of which, not every method works on every dog. For this reason, dog owners can get confused, switch methods to quickly, become inconsistent and give up.
What can The Dog Lady do?
With The Dog Lady's help you learn which method works for your dog and your household .You will learn why a dog can be potty trained and what to expect at each each stage of the process. Understanding your role and how important consistency is usually makes the difference you are looking for. Don't get frustrated, get educated!
If you are a first time dog owner then there is no surprise that you might be confused about what to do. There is no end to the information (and misinformation) you will receive from friends and family. But, what worked for them may not work for you. Like humans, dogs have individual personalities. Each different dog, owner and household will have different problems requiring different solutions. Don't become discouraged; just because you wanted a dog does not mean you understand them. By working with The Dog Lady you can learn how to raise your dog, avoid many common mistakes and take pride in being a responsible dog owner. Educating yourself on how to train your dog often makes the difference between having a problem pet and a loving canine companion.
Depression, Fearfulness, Separation Anxiety, Aggression, OCD and General Lack of Training
If you have rescued a dog or adopted from a rescue organization then you deserve a big "THANK YOU". Five million dogs are euthanized annually in this country because there are not enough people like yourself willing to give them a chance.
Just because a dog falls into the category of rescue does not mean they will have behavior problems. But, in your efforts to help by taking a rescue dog into your home you may have special issues and behaviors, like those listed above, to work through. Most rescue organizations will have little if any background information on the dogs they adopt out. Most of the dogs will have been neglected, some even abused. Behavioral science is now verifying what dog owners have know for some time; dogs have emotions and feelings similar to our own. Put in similar stressful situations, dogs responses are similar to those of human children. We do not know for sure why the same environment can cause one dog to develop anxiety disorders and another will be well adjusted. But, we do know that being abandoned or neglected will increase the odds that a dog will suffer some sort of negative emotional response. Usually in the form of behavioral issues. These issues have too many variations, causes and treatments to address in general. Each case should be evaluated individually.
Now, here is the good news! Most of the behavior problems are from a general lack of training, socialization and mentally stimulating environment. These are things that you can change. We have seen great success even with severe depression through remedial socialization and proper training for both handler and dog. And the best part; some of the most loving and loyal dog owner teams began as a rescue dog and an inexperienced owner. Give The Dog Lady a call; she wants your dog to stay with you forever!
