Dog Training-A Way of Life

The title says it all, dog training is a mind set, we as owners need to embrace and make a part of our daily routine, in order to have happy contented pets that are a joy to have around our family, and a credit to both them and us.
Therefore we need to understand what drives the dog and how they think and why they react certain ways, in short think like a dog and provide leadership, and structure, and respect, and you will have a stable loyal happy companion.
I have been training and had dogs for over 40 years and in that time used and been trained in a number of methods all popular at some point in time.
We have gone from pure compulsion methods thru soft methods, like pure encouragement , food training, and play training, fact is no particular training method is wrong all are applicable under certain circumstances. What causes problems is when wrong method used for the particular instance.
However probably the most important requirement needed is consistency. Don’t allow the dog to do today what you will not allow tomorrow and if you give a command ensure it is obeyed, because if you do not, you are teaching the dog to ignore you. So do not give a command if you are not going enforce it.
Dogs have a natural instinct to fit in a pack situation and if leadership is not provided then they will assume the mantle. Look at a litter situation the bitch assumes total control over offspring-she may be loving, playful, controlling in either a passive or dictatorial way all within seconds—this teaches babies boundaries and behaviours which last it’s lifetime. That is why pups should not be separated from the bitch before 8 weeks old.
Also, that is why we as owners need to continue that same structure and control, that the bitch originally instilled in the pup when it comes home with us-that way the transition is easy and the dog has assurance because it is treated much the same –so very little confusion and it will be amenable to learning correct