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Dogs are evolutionarily pack animals. Wild canids, such as wolves, coyotes, and hyenas typically live in packs with a lead dog, the alpha dog. Without a strict hierarchy, the pack would not survive. There can only be one leader at a time.
When you bring a puppy or adult dog into your family, the humans become the dog’s pack. The dog will often try to become the alpha dog of the pack, but this is totally inappropriate. The humans are the dominant members and the dog must learn to be submissive. This is NOT accomplished by brutality and physical harm. Dogs must be treated as children. Taught who the boss is, that they must listen, and there are consequences of each action. Children are given both positive and negative responses to behavior to reinforce what the parent desires. The same principles go for raising a dog. If a child has a temper tantrum in a toy store and the parent tries to calm the situation by buying the child what it wants, that is reinforcing to the child that screaming and crying gets them what they want. These are what are more commonly known as spoiled brats. If you try to clean your dogs infected ears or cut its nails to prevent them from growing into the pad, you need to be able to accomplish this task. However, if your dog howls and growls and tries to bite and then you stop the treatment the dog has just won by a temper tantrum and will try it on you over and over.
Neither children nor dogs live in a democracy. With most children there are no votes on going to bed, whether to play in the road or when to say please and thank you. You’re your dog, there should be no “vote” on whether you can look in its mouth, give it a bath, brush its teeth, clean its ears, cut its nails or give it medication.
Children are often taught what acceptable behavior is by reinforcing the positive and punishing the negative. We advocate teaching puppies what a “time out” is since yelling and hitting a dog gets worse results than with a child. We show owners how to handle and restrain their dog so the dog understands who is dominant and in charge (the human) and who is expecte3d to behave and be submissive (the dog). The dog or puppy may not like having its muzzle held or being forced to lie on its back or lay on its side, but this is the best way to train the dog.
Those dogs in the wild? The alpha dog bites the other dogs across the bridge of the nose to exert dominance. While we don’t advocate biting your dog’s nose, we do advocate holding it like a muzzle would, so the dog is being told who is dominant and who is submissive. The dog may scream and squirm, but you are not stopping in from breathing; it is just acting like a 3 year old toddler who isn’t getting what they want. Eventually, if you don’t give in the child and the puppy will learn that there will be positive things to happen if there are no temper tantrums.
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