There are very many reasons to love a dog. The dog is appreciative, patient with its owners, loyal and protective. Because of these, even the sternest of dog owner’s fall into the trap of pampering the dog sometimes unmindful of the effect of the temporary indulgence. Who would not? It is so difficult to refuse a dog giving you dog eyes when you are sitting at your table begging for man food. The charm though is easily lost once there are guests. It feels very nice to be welcomed by a dog with a furiously waging tail, very excited at your coming home, jumping at you, or bolting out the door to meet you. It is embarrassing though when the dog does the same when there are other people around.
On occasions such as these, the owner will attempt at stopping the dog from continuing, but when the dog is not trained, all the dog hears from its owners is just another bark, an important bark maybe but incomprehensible.
It is also a natural instinct among us to not create “fences” among those we love but if the dog is allowed full run off the house, sooner, even those characteristics in a dog that charmed us will be an irritant. Obviously and for very practical reasons, the dog needs obedience training. Little coaching like sit, heel, stop, stay, and come, goes a long way in teaching your dog manners that are very useful in situations when you would want to communicate with the dog and be understood. The dog is also likely to respect the owner more if the owner is consistent and firm with what he wants the dog to do.
Setting limits on what the dog can and cannot do is within the dog’s nature. In fact, dogs enjoy hierarchy; it wants to know who the boss is. It is its tendency that is natural to dogs. Dogs trained in obedience are not only much more enjoyable as companions; dogs also are less likely to suffer and are loved more when it knows its limits.
While mans love affair with dogs are many centuries old, dogs originally were predators in the wild. Even through all these years these instincts are not totally shed. In the wild, dogs lived in packs. As such, there has always been an established hierarchy among them that were useful if they were to survive, and so dogs instinctively obey rules. If rules are not provided and the dog is allowed to do as it wants, it starts thinking that it is the alpha male and will become dominant because contrary to our beliefs, it does not see people as people but as members of the pack where he is a part or where he should lead.
Loyalty, sociability, protectiveness, gentleness with those that the dog is familiar with, fierceness to those it does not know and sometimes meanness when there is a perceived violation of territories are real to the dog that endears him to us but these traits are natural instincts practiced within the pack which by extension is given to humans.
Dog training then is very important if these traits are to be sharpened to our benefit.
Posted in Adopting a dog
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