Dog traning: stop these 3 things right now

Dog with behavioral issues? Excessive barking, marking, aggression, and so on.

The first thing you should be doing is to seek professional help.  The professional dog trainer will be able to observe the dog and you and assess the problems.  That way he/she should be able to come up with a plan to fix the issues. But regardless, you still want to stop these 3 things now to stop making matters worse. 

#1 STOP HUGGING, HOLDING, OR PATTING YOUR DOG.

I know you love your dog and we express our affection by hugging. But for dogs, hugging doesn’t mean love. Sure, some dogs get used to hugging from humans but dogs in nature don’t like hugging. It is hostile and dogs will take this gesture very threatening. The same thing goes for holding and patting. Patting is a way to praise but for now, if your dog has a behavioral issue, let’s cut it out for the time being.

#2 STOP LOOKING AT YOUR DOG DIRECTLY.

Second, staring at your dog will make your dog nervous. In other words, staring is not a calming gesture. Most dogs get uneasy when we stare at them directly. Dogs will interpret that body gesture as confronting and they usually try to avoid that confrontation. Staring at your dog will oftentimes make your dog get nervous and may result in unwanted behaviors.

Let’s make our friend a little more comfortable by looking away. Try this. When your dog is around you, look away and yawn big. Yawn is a calming signal that might ease the tension that your dog may experience.

#3 STOP TALKING TO YOUR DOG

Lastly, some of you will not like this. However, you will have to stop talking to your dog. A dog will hear human talking to him/her as whining. That is not a good way to communicate with your dog. Whining will be heard as a sign of weakness and that is something that you want to deliver to your dog.

Easy rules, right? Wrong. Try this for a day. Let me know how it went. Very simple rules but difficult to follow because we have been like that for a long time. Imagine how difficult it is to change our behavior. It is the same with your dog’s behavior. Most importantly, don’t try to fix your dog’s behavior overnight. It is not going to happen. Just practice with patience.