It’ s All a Matter Of Communication

The single most important trait that distinguishes the dog from other animals is that every dog, even those that are seemingly most disobedient and defiant, wants to please his master. In fact, the happiest dogs are those that have learned a skill they know is useful to their masters - sheep dogs, guide dogs, even a household dog who knows he's acting the way his owner wants him to.Thus training is essentially not a question of discipline but of communication - of letting the animal know what you want him to do.

Get To Know Your Dog

One of the basic mistakes most dog owners make is to assume that all dogs are essentially the same and should be taught the same way. Actually, no two dogs are alike any more than any two people are alike. If you observe the actions of individual dogs in a group as they play and fight among themselves, you'll see all the varied personality traits that you'd observe in a group of children in unsupervised play: the leader, the follower, the bully, the coward, the dumb one, the sly one, and the friendly one. In fact, dog personalities and abilities vary so widely that the characterizations you hear of dog breeds - that German shepherds are suspicious of people, poodles are smart, retrievers friendly, mutts smarter than pedigrees, etc. - are virtually useless as a guide to the traits of the individual dog. Every personality type can be found in every breed.

Here Are Some Familiar Types

The "Self-Right" Dog - This is a term used by guide-dog trainers to describe what they regard as the ideal animal. He's self-assured, outgoing, friendly with people and other dogs, but with a strong sense of his own rights, his own dignity, his own intelligence. He'll greet guests with a wag of the tail, but he has too much dignity to jump on them. He's not a biter nor a fighter with other dogs, unless it's to protect himself or his family. He's neither shy nor aggressively friendly. He's the easiest kind of dog to train because the training involves no correction of his personality traits. If he were a child, he'd be called well-adjusted.

The Pest - This is what Billy was before his training - a dog with too strong sense of self-right. The main trait of a dog like this is that he's constantly pushing himself to the fore. With guests, he's always demanding attention by jumping on them, nuzzling them, giving them his ball to throw. What this dog needs, is special firmness, even sternness, in his training. He's basically a good dog, but he has to be taken down a couple of pegs or he'll quickly be running the whole family.

The Fear Biter - While some dogs are inherently vicious, most dogs that bite are insecure and do so out of fear: Fear biters will never aggressively attack you, as will a vicious dog; they'll retreat, circle around behind, and snap at you. If the fear- is hereditary and cannot be cured by training, then, as with the vicious dog, he should be put out of the way. If it's acquired fear, taught to the dog by cruel handling, it probably can be cured. By extra-gentle handling, first teach him that he has nothing to fear from you, his master; then gradually expose him to the world around him.

"Hard" and "Soft" Dogs – Some dogs don't take notice of even the hardest whack, while others are so physically sensitive that they squeal at the touch of a grooming comb. Thus a mere jerk on the leash can be painful to what trainers call a "bodily soft" dog but not noticed by a "hard" one.

How to Improve Dog Training - Dog Training Manual Part 2

How to Improve Dog Training - Dog Training Manual Part 3