Top 3 Things You Should Never Do To Your Dog

In my line of work I see people doing horrible things to their dog, some things that are excusable because that is all the person knows and some things are absolutely horrific.

I'm hoping with this post that it will encourage, you the people reading it, to walk up to people doing these horrible things to their dogs and explain that "it's not necessary", make them feel embarrassed for what they are doing and say "the dog did nothing wrong".  I want these people to see that the public does not like it when they treat an animal that way and hopefully urge them to think differently.

#1: Physical Reprimands/Corrections

This means touching a dog with any kind of  force that causes the dog discomfort (mentally & physically). This includes, kicking, smacking the snout, grabbing the snout, jabbing the dog in the side (yes, Cesar style), grabbing the scruff and physically manipulating the dog and so on.

This is not just morally wrong but it doesn't even work majority of the time! If you are doing this more then one time per behaviour, it DOESN'T WORK, so you're just abusing the dog for fun.

I've said it before and I will say it again, we lack the right timing and proper amount of pressure to use a correction properly.

#2: Verbal Reprimands/Corrections

This falls under the category of yelling at your dog, speaking in a firm/mean tone to intimidate your dog into submission or causing emotional damage. By yelling at your dog and intimidating him or her you are lowering their confidence, causing unnecessary stress and creating negative associations, all these things are what you see in your classic case of an aggressive dog.

#3: Seclude Your Dog From Social Situations/Interactions

I still don't understand why get a dog if you don't want it near you? This is very frustrating to explain to people who leave their dogs outside all day/night and then ask me "why is my dog out of control?" I say, "well, it's probably because you never interact with him and he doesn't know how to act around you, so he does what he knows."

A dog need opportunities to be shown how to act around people. If you constantly avoid social situations because your dog is annoying or goes crazy you need to analyse your priorities.

 #1 - Should you have a dog if you can't even spend time to train it.

 #2 - Do you have ridiculous expectations that no dog nor human can live up to

 #3 - Is the training you're using working for your dog

I went through the same when Luna was young, wanting to avoid many social situations because I knew Luna would be annoying; want to say hi to every one, jump on people if I wasn't watching, beg for food, possibly bark at a weird looking person. But I had my goal in my head, I wanted Luna to be able to come with me EVERYWHERE and be a outstanding canine citizen, so I dealt with the crazed social situations and trained her in them. 

Now Luna is 3 yrs old, she can go in stores, public area's with kids screaming, dogs barking and running off leash and she is amazing, her focus is on me and what I'm doing. It didn't take over night I can tell you that, it took a lot of patience, understanding and slow training but we got there. I took 1 year of not really having fun anywhere I went (cause I had to train my dog and watch her like a hawk) but I get 12-15 years (hoping for) of a wonderfully behaved, sweet dog that I can trust.

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