There are very few to possibly no exceptions to the rule that a poorly behaved dog is the responsibility of the owner. Dogs are usually very easy to train and there really is no excuse to have a dog that behaves badly.
If you are going to be a dog owner, the most important thing that you will need to do is to establish a pack order. You must be the alpha dog. Dogs are natural pack animals and they adhere closely to pack order. You and every human member of the family must be above the dog in the pack order. That means that when a human family member speaks, they listen and obey.
Dogs are unlike humans. They cannot reason. You are not being mean to your dog when you insist that he obeys you. You have to be the leader and he will love you more for it.
In order for your dog to be safe and your family to be happy, you need to be able to control your dog. When you say, "stop" he needs to stop. When you say, "Sit", he needs to sit. In short, when you are the leader of the pack, he needs to respond to you and when you establish yourself as the leader he will always respond to you.
There are a few tips that are important to consider when training your dog. First off, dogs respond to positive reinforcement. You can always get better results with praise and treats than you can with negative reinforcement, such as anger and yelling.
It is best to ignore bad behavior while rewarding good behavior. If you respond to bad behavior you could end up creating fear in your dog instead of obedience and compliance. Also, again remember that dogs cannot reason. They truly do not understand why you are angry at them.
In order to reinforce behavior you must respond to your dog immediately, otherwise he will not associate the wanted behavior with the reward and you will be spinning your wheels. As soon as he exhibits the desired behavior you must reward him. You can reward your dog with treats, praise, toys or even just a pat on the head. He will respond to loving and positive rewards no matter what form they take.
After your dog understands what you are asking and he is consistently doing what you ask, then you need to only reward him intermittently. Intermittent reinforcement is actually more effective for cementing in the behavior than giving him a reward every time.
If you are consistent with your training efforts, your dog can become well trained quickly and easily. Just be sure that you are the alpha and that you consistently expect the best results from your dog.
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