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Discipline Your Dog Instead Of Punishing Him

Too often, dogs do not understand why they are receiving punishment or which behavior produced the punishment. Dog owners attribute unrealistic reasoning abilities far beyond the animal's mental capacity. The owner may believe the dog knew what he was doing wrong because he had the "guilty" look on his face when the owner yelled, "WHAT IS THIS ON THE FLOOR!" while pointing to a mess. The belief that the dog knew better incites the owner to severely punish him despite the fact that the destruction occurred several hours before the owner got home. The dog connects the punishment with the owner coming home, not with the misbehavior that took place several hours ago. The next day, the owner is prepared to find a mess, and the first thing he or she does upon arriving home is search the house for evidence of dog damage.

The posture of an owner searching for a pile of unmentionables is not at all friendly and loving. The owner's hunched over shoulders and wiggling nose, searching for a mess, make the person look mean and contorted. The verbal greeting may go something like, "So what did you destroy today?" The "guilty" look is the dog's response to the owner's weird behavior.

The dog is remembering previous inexplicable punishment. In his mind, greeting the owner at the door will result to punishment. The dog forgot about the mess that he made hours ago. Punishing your pet long after the crime has been committed, rather than during or immediately after the act, has no purpose other than to confuse or make the dog fearful. Many owners report that they do not even suspect a problem when they walk in the door, and yet the dog still looks guilty. Maybe there have been enough messes for the dog to realize that a mess on the floor is a good indication that a correction is approaching when the owner gets home. However, the dog simply does not have the ability to connect that refraining from chewing at noon will prevent a punishment at 5:30 pm.

There is no evidence to suggest that dogs deliberately misbehave to make their owners angry. Dogs misbehave because they were not taught proper behavior, or they are bored, frustrated, and anxious, to name a few reasons. Dogs chew, bark, etc., to satisfy their immediate needs and emotions, not to spite their owners. Dogs want to please their owners and not spite them.

Face Licking

Dog caresses and shows affection by licking; it is his way of showing love and appreciation for the person he does it to. But face licking should be encouraged and needs to be stopped. If he is stopped from doing this as a small puppy, he will learn to lay his face against his owner's cheek without the licking.

Licking, after all, can be a cause of infection to owners in rare cases, and not all dogs live a completely clean life. Most of them drink water from the toilet, eat manure, and lick their behinds which not only their own but those of other dogs that might not be as healthy as yours. Therefore you should train your dogs the command "No Lick" to be followed by a kiss behind their ears and then have their chests very slowly and gently scratched.

So many dog owners rub their dogs when praising them, which makes most dogs bad-tempered. Rubbing the hair the wrong way is particularly obnoxious to a dog, whereas the gentle smoothing of the hair on the chest or on the rump is particularly pleasing to them. They love being scratched on top of the tail because it is an area of pleasure. In addition, there are other areas of pleasure; behind the ears, under the lower jaw, on the ribs behind the front legs, on the tummy and especially between the front legs. Dog owners must find out which pleases each individual dog best and keep that pleasure for a reward, as well as to please the dog.

If you notice that your dog is excessively licking their bodies, this could a sign that may indicate an allergy, constipation or a skin disease. Some people think that dogs wash themselves like cats; well, they do not. Sometimes when dogs get their paws wet, you will see them licking that area to dry, just as a female dog licks her puppies to clean and dry them. Dogs should be allowed to lick the hand because hands can easily be washed before touching food. However, generally speaking, licking should be avoided and stopped at an early age.

Please click on List of Dog Behavior Details to read about many different aspects of Dog Behavior.