Why does the little dog I bring home with so much joy has so many headaches and bad problems, and how can they be corrected? This is the most frequently asked question by some novice owners. . When the full of love is transformed into endless barking, urination without warning, and random gnawing on furniture, and the expected cute and cute pets turn into little devils, they will be disappointed and powerless to complain to me. Indeed, for a novice owner who has no professional training knowledge, these are indeed headaches. But it is precisely because these new members of the family are still in their infancy, and the behavioral habits of this period will affect or even change the dog's life. The puppy period of a dog is like a blank piece of paper, and the pattern after that is filled in by the owner's doodles. If the owner can establish good habits for the puppies, then you will all be based on this for the next few decades. Harmonious and happy companionship. On the contrary, these problems that do not seem to be too serious now will be more thoroughly exposed and more difficult to deal with when the dog becomes an adult.

Samoyed

Every dog, every Families may have their own different problems, and I can’t come up with solutions to each one face-to-face, but I think the most important thing is that you need to understand the two principles of dealing with dog problems. In theory, you only need to do two things well. This ensures that your puppy will grow up the way you want it to: with the right rules and good environmental stewardship.

Have you taught a dog what is right?

I ask many new owners who have this question: Have you taught a dog? What's right? Most of their responses were No, but I told him what was wrong, and I'm sure he knew, because he looked at me pitifully when I taught him. As the owners say, if the dog knows something is wrong, why does it still make mistakes after a period of time (maybe just a while)? Is it because it knowingly made a mistake, doesn't take the owner's words seriously, and deliberately provokes the owner?

We always assign many meanings to our dog's behavior according to our interpretation: for example, it understands our language, it is human, or it understands that it is wrong. If it goes its own way and repeats its mistakes, it probably doesn't recognize me as the master, and it feels that it has a higher status than me. Unfortunately, the development of animal behavior and animal psychology has gradually verified that these dog's inner monologues you guessed are likely to be wrong, at least not necessarily correct.

In fact, although the intelligence of most dogs can reach the level of children around 2 years old (puppies have lower intelligence because they have not fully developed), they are far from being able to communicate with people and understand human beings. The demands are still far away. Facing the owner, the dog is actually establishing a connection from beginning to end, but this connection is often direct and does not represent the connection of human interaction. Like making a sorry look to you when the dog did something wrong, or simply running away. This does not mean that it knows it is wrong, but because it has been punished for it, it may be scolded, or it may be beaten, and its sorry is just a direct response to you punishing it, not you It is expected that it understands the connection between this punishment and the wrong thing. Simply put, it is just afraid, not that it understands.

Is punishment really useful?

Some people put emphasis on the timing of punishment, thinking that as long as punishment is timely, it is enough. For example, the puppy urinates everywhere. He thinks that as long as he catches the moment when he is making a mistake and punishes him, he will understand. It is a pity that this is another wishful thinking of human logic speculation. The dog is punished at the moment of peeing. The direct connection it establishes is peeing and the owner. It will think: I can't pee in front of the owner in the future, because He will murder me, which may cause it to secretly urinate behind your back in a place you can't see, so that you have no chance to be punished. Even if we take a step back and say it understands that it can't go to the toilet here, the point is does it understand where it should go to the toilet? It's like locking a person in a room without a toilet and living forever, I'm afraid he will eventually make mistakes by abandoning the toilet habits that humans have formed. So many things are not because the dog doesn't want to be right, or deliberately provokes you, but it simply doesn't understand how to be right, or even what is right, because the owner has never drawn the boundaries of right, the owner The right area is often hidden unconsciously.

That's the first principle I'm talking about -- tell the dog what's right. Stop hiding the masters and tell your darling what's right. This is when you see it start to smell the ground in circles (a sign before urinating), gently pick it up, put it where you think it is right, and then gently and gently encourage it, before it does When it is right, praise it happily, and then give it some food it loves. After a few times, you will find that it will come to you excitedly after going to the toilet, as if saying to you: Look, I did it right, Should I be rewarded for something? Now that you and the dog are happy, isn't this the best outcome?

In fact, teaching puppies the right things can be applied to almost any behavioral problem, such as chewing on furniture, we It is taught that only when it chews its own toy can it get our attention and reward; for example, recall training, we teach it that every time it is recalled, there will be a big hug and delicious food from its owner; for example, the dog is very active, we I hope it is quieter, then we praise it more when it is quiet, and when it is naughty, we try to minimize the interaction with it... These are the positive reinforcement often mentioned in training. : Reward it for its correct behavior, and the correct behavior will continue to occur. (It is worth explaining in another article about positive strengthening, so I won't repeat it here)

Do a good job of environmental management to prevent possible mistakes!

While you may already be able to tell your dog the right things, sometimes mistakes are inevitable. For example, you can't ask a completely untrained puppy to remain calm in the face of a sudden food temptation, you know Food is more attractive to puppies than anything else. I hope that unattended dogs can sit back and relax in the face of readily available delicacies? It is nothing short of fantasy. In the dog's world, eating delicious food is an instinct, they don't have the concept of stealing is wrong, it's just a rule set by us humans.

At this point, you need to use the second principle - good environmental management. What is environmental management? It sounds like a very professional term, but the truth is very simple, so simple that you forget to use it - remove your meat and don't put it on the table. Yes, this is good environmental management, it can prevent possible mistakes and prevent problems before they occur. Consider that if you have a 2-year-old baby in your home, you might put things you feel are dangerous to the baby (such as power cords, pills) out of his reach. The same is true for puppies, organize things you don't want them to touch (such as shoes, food) and put them out of reach, so that there is no chance of making mistakes at all, and naturally there is no need to Fixed the error. Environmental management can also be applied widely. For example, if you don’t want your puppy to develop the habit of going to bed or sofa, you can limit the dog’s movement area when you leave the house, so that it does not touch the bed and sofa. How can it go wrong when it has no wrong choices?