Tips to Better Understand Your Dog

IN THE DOG WORLD:  Dogs have a different way of establishing hierarchy than we do in our families.  We base our hierarchy, or our standing in the family, on age; from parent to first born, next younger and finally to baby. We assume that we bring a puppy or dog home and they are in the "baby of the family" position.  Dogs are pack/social animals and need interaction with your family. In the dog it is an inborn - or inherited trait - to assert dominance to see which "rung of the ladder" they will occupy in the "pack", and that is how they view your family.

They use dominance assertion behavior to determine their ranking in the family/pack.   Dominance assertion behaviors are those things we don't appreciate in our dogs.  For example, jumping, play-biting or mouthing, stepping on feet, leaning against us, pushing their head under our hand to get us to pet them, barking until we give them attention - either positive such as putting the food bowl down or negative such as a "be quiet!" - they don't care which it is.  The problem is, they take your reaction as a clue to determine who is in charge or who is the "leader".   And, in the dog's world, either you have to be consistently the leader or the dog HAS to be because that is their inherent nature.

We teach you how to communicate with your dog on the dog's level, because the dog can NOT communicate to us on our human level.  In the dog's world, they always need consistency; a word can only have one meaning to the dog.  Down can only mean lay down, it can not mean get off the couch, bed or table, or don't jump up on me when I'm in my business clothes.  Dogs also can not understand the inconsistency of being able to jump up on you at some times and not other times (i.e. when you are dressed for work or when you are in your casual clothes and ready to "play".)

At Gameland Kennels Dog Training Center, we will show you how to establish the boundaries of territory and the parameters of acceptable or unacceptable behavior so your dog will feel safe and secure with you as leader.

Dogs do not learn when they are bored or tired and they have short attention spans - much like small children's - so do much better with 5 to 15 minute training sessions several times a day and several days a week.

PLEASE REMEMBER, you MUST BE CONSISTENT and use REPETITION to train your dog.