August 22, 2008

I have a client with a 7 month old Rottie who was doing some serious resource guarding of food bowls, couches, dog toys etc. The owners, who got him at 8 weeks felt that apparently since birth this dog had been very assertive.

The dog had had no structure in this home for 7 months straight, so, unfortunately both dog and family were on a one way journey down the wrong path of life with the potential for some serous harm.

It all came to a head when the wife tried to remove a bone from his space, the dog bit her. So, how did we fix it?

I explained to them how important structure and routine are to dogs, much the same way those two things are important to children. So we started the behavior modification.

When you are training your dog your choices are: compulsion training (hands on shaping the dog’s body to sit or down) or inducement training.

Either one is acceptable because if done correctly, compulsion training is not done harshly. Which method you choose pretty much depends on the dog and if your dog will not work for food then use positive based compulsion training or clicker training. I say, if the end result is the same, who cares?

Without getting into extended sits, downs, stays or “proofing” your dog around distractions, here’s how I help people start with treat training then, most importantly, progress to not using treats, just using hand signals and voice commands.