|
Problem Pets
Since a large majority of the dogs I do have personality problems I
thought it would be useful to add a section on how I deal with these kinds
of animals. The first thing to keep in mind, no matter how much a person
loves their dog and considers it part of the family, it is still an animal.
Most people don't realize that psychologically dogs have different needs
than humans do. Their brains work different and doing a simple thing like
giving a dog love and affection at the wrong time does not help them. In
fact doing something like giving a nervous dog love and affection is only
re-enforcing the behavior and making the dog worse. They can tell what you
are feeling and will react to how you behave. I can put a nervous dog on my
table and after a few minutes they will almost always calm down. We humans
have different needs than dogs, the main thing a dog needs is a strong pack
leader, Someone who is confident with being in charge. A dog will allow you
to be the pack leader if you understand how they think. It is not about
being stern or mean with the dog. A human can not force a dog into following
them. It has to be done on the dogs terms, in a way that a dog understands.
In the pack dogs use body language and we humans are communicating with our
dogs the same way. Just by doing something as simple as changing your
posture will change a dogs behavior. Emotions can play a huge part in how a
dog behaves as well. The two worst emotions to have around dogs are fear and
anger. If a person has either of these a dog can become either aggressive or
fearful and react in a negative way. However if a person feels confident and
in charge the dog will feed off of this and behave accordingly. I have
groomed many dogs that no one (sometimes even the owner) have been able to
handle by using these techniques. Dogs that have bitten other groomers
usually give me very little trouble because of this pack mentality. If you
have a difficult dog let me know when you make the appointment and I will
tell you the steps to take at home right before I come out to make his/her
experience much better. These are also things that you can do on a daily
basis to help manage a dog with a behavior problem.
|
