Always positively reinforce
appropriate behavior with praise and petting. In general, you should respond to
unwanted behavior in one of three ways: ignore it, interrupt it, or redirect it.
You should always monitor your dogs in order to detect and correct unwanted
behaviors.
Ignoring
your dog is a social snub and lets her know the behavior isn't acceptable in
polite sense. Give your dog the cold-shoulder treatment as part of an immediate
correction for an unwanted behavior, but only keep it up for 10 to 15 minutes.
(Any longer than that and your dog will have forgotten what happened.)
Interrupting
the behavior helps break the habit and encourages the dog to try another
strategy. Interruption works best when it comes unexpectedly; otherwise it can
be programmed in as part of the cycle of unwanted behavior. For example, if
your dog barks at the mail carrier every day at 2:00 p.m. and your response is
to go and get the shaker can, after a few days your dog will expect you to do
it and just keep barking. The idea is to set up interruptions so the dog
doesn't know it's coming. That way, the correction gets associated with the
behavior and not with you.
Redirection
is a more advanced technique and should be used once your dog has learned a
basic vocabulary of commands such as sit, down, off, wait, leave it, and out.
Once your pooch has these commands nailed down, you can use them to stop unnecessary
behavior in its tracks. So, when your pup starts to jump up, you can tell her,
"Sit!" or "Off!" instead. When she's eyeing your shoe as a
chew toy, you can tell her to leave it (or if the shoe is already in her mouth,
"Out!"). The wonderful thing about redirection -- and an obedience-trained dog -- is punishment is almost never
necessary. You give the redirecting command, the dog responds, and you praise
her. It's a win-win situation: The unwanted behavior stops, and Fido gets to be
a good dog!
Now
we'll move to a part of dog care that makes life more pleasant for everyone: grooming and bathing.
