10 Common Dog Owning Mistakes

Compare your dog owning, to these common mistakes made.

Useful tips are incorporated in the article.

Dog Bed

Do you always go and tidy your dog’s bed. Dogs like to crumple up their bed blankets. There is a good reason for this so try and leave their bed making to them.

Dog Food

Never leave your dog food down for your dog to graze on throughout the day. Food is a very valuable resource for your dog, and the process we do when feeding our dogs is equally as important. Your dog might be telling you they don’t like the food.

Feed scraps from the table now and then

This is called intermittent rewarding and you will always find that your dog is by the table waiting when you and the family are eating. Intermittent rewarding is the hardest behaviour to break in a dog. My advice, don’t start this type of rewarding.

Allow your dog to just jump up onto you

Put your dog on a pay as you earn scheme. Let me explain, replace the word pay with the word respect. Get your dog to respect your space, by getting him or her to do something before you allow them to have affection. Like sit then invite them into your space. But your dog must respect when you want to stop this ritual and get of your lap as well. Be careful too much affection can cause conflicts in your dogs mind!

Comfort your dog when they show a fearful reaction to a stimulus

It’s very easy to give a human response to a dog when we see they are being fearful to a stimulus. This causes a conflict in the dogs mind and can intensify the moment. Finding the trigger point behind this reaction is the key to helping the dog, not by showing affection. My 1-2-1’s can help with problems in dogs who show this reaction.

Not acknowledging the breed in the dog you have

How I see dog’s is this (Animal, Breed, then Dog) The animal part is feeding the correct diet and looking after their needs. Next is the crucial part, acknowledging the breed. What ever breed of dog you have, supply mental stimulation on the walk to acknowledge that breed. You can even give a job for your dog to do in the home around that breed. Start today acknowledging your breed of dog.

 
Getting frustrated with your dog

It’s all too easy to get frustrated with your dog. The underlying factor is that the dog doesn't understand what you are asking of them, or what you are getting upset with them for. All my dog classes and 1-2-1’s give you the code and how to communicate with your dog. This then takes the frustration out of your dog relationship. But if you haven’t been to my AGILIO classes or had a 1-2-1 then start being calm around your dog and ask yourself how you could improve your dog relationship. Call me I can help you 07917164402

Sending the dog to their bed as punishment

I have witnessed this a lot when was a young lad growing up. I would hear “Get in your bed” said in a very stern way. A dogs bed should be a place of relaxation, no intimidation etc. I have already written an article on this dog bed. Under the classical conditioning rules if you send your dog to their bed as punishment then their bed will mean possible fear, anxiety and stress. I never endorse any punishment behaviours. Why not give me a call first if this is your dog relationship at the moment. 07917164402 or contact me. And remember always let lying dogs sleep..!

Winding up the dog or play fighting

I have never undertaken doing any of this with my dogs, why? Well as a dog owners to our dogs we should demonstrate a calm but assertive manner. If we teach our dogs it’s acceptable to mouth and bite humans by instilling this into our dog on a regular basis, not only will the dog see you as excitement and have lack of respect for you. But will choose to interact like this with friends and even worse children. Be constructive with your interaction with your dog, put all that energy from play fighting that you do into instilling good obedience and discipline. You will see good results in the long run, and you won’t end up with a dog that thinks all humans are fair game.

Concentrating to much on the negatives in the dog

It’s very easy to only concentrate on the negatives in our dogs. However if we forget to reward the dog for doing something right, then the norm will be the wrong. And after a period of time the dog will choose to do the wrong because they perceive to get the same reaction when they do something right. They will see the touch and vocal as we tell the dog "No" as a reward and will carry on doing this unwanted behaviour. From the dog’s point of view these are types of rewards.  There has to be clarity when it comes to communicating with dogs, why because they are a (Animal, Breed then Dog) Dogs read non verbal communication far greater than anything else.

What to do now

Thank you for taking the time to read through my 10 common dog owning mistakes. This will help prevent some problems in dogs. If you require any help with understanding on how to achieve a better dog relationship or would like to have a go at AGILIO or require a 1-2-1 to help solve any dog problems in your dog, then please contact me using the contact form or call on 07917164402. Thank you.