If you have ever complained about the behavior of your neighbor’s dog, remember that you simply must train your dog, whenever you choose to bring one home. For this to happen, you need to teach your dog the difference between acceptable and unacceptable behavior. Even you know that a dog that hasn’t gone through any instructions, training or boundaries will never know what you want out of him. But in teaching him, you teach him a code of conduct, which will lead you to live in a more orderly household, besides being with a healthier and happier pet.
If you have an untrained pet dog:
If you have an untrained pet dog, he is most likely to misbehave since he does not know how to behave himself. If, as an owner, you let him be himself and misbehave, then not only do you suffer but also anyone who comes in contact with him does too. As his owner, you suffer because you live with a dog; the dog suffers because everyone criticizes him for his bad behavior; your neighbors suffer because they live next door to a difficult dog who’s no one’s idea of fun; and finally every dog owner, because each case of a dog’s bad behavior increases the public feeling of anti-dog sentiment, besides giving enough of a handle for legislators to introduce tough legal restrictions on all dogs.
Often, pet dog owners feel that once they bring home a pet and it begins to live with them, it will soon teach himself how to live in a family of human beings. Sadly, however, nothing could be further from the truth than that. In fact, we often tend to forget that our pets are canines, not humans who need to be taught to suit our lifestyle and expectations, much like a newborn baby, or he will continue to display predominantly animal traits such as:
Soil the house or his immediate environment:
He needs to be toilet or crate trained or else he will use any part of your house or yard as his “bathroom or toilet” area. To prevent this from happening, you will need to teach him where to eliminate by marking an area or spot in your yard meant specifically for this purpose. Now, accustom him to using this spot as his elimination ground by training him to “pee or potty” there alone. If he is in the habit of marking out his territory, you will have to break this habit by intensifying his crate training. In order that he understands just what you expect of him—and that includes cleanliness—you will have to clean up after him with cleaners comprising organic digesters.
Also, remember never to use bleach or ammonia because its smell resembles urine to a dog. If you crate train him for a month and accompany that with leash training, he will soon begin to urinate and pass stools in the designated area.
Dig things out of their places, drag shoes or clothes from room to room, scratch walls or furniture. Until he learns good behavior you must take responsibility for your things and keep clothing, shoes, trash, eyeglasses, magazines, books, and other nick knacks out of the dogs reach. Until such time that he obeys house rules you will need to be with him when he is loose or crate him when you are busy.
Place his favorite toys with him so that he is not bored also please remember he must not be crated for very long periods. Dogs get bored and need plenty of activity so you must arrange a schedule that includes frequent walks, yard time, training time, and people-time (when he interacts with unfamiliar people and so on). A busy dog does not create mayhem. Also he must feel that creating mayhem will not get him any attention. Some dogs do so to get attention. Don’t punish but give him your love and understanding.
