Gotta Love Those Naughty Dogs
Sunday September 28, 2008
No matter how much your dog "acts out," you still love her, right? However, it doesn't make it any easier to cope with constant barking at three in the morning, holes all over the yard, or coming home to utter destruction in your house. When my dog was young, she destroyed almost everything I owned - books, candles, shoes, clothes, you name it. I kept wondering what was wrong with her! Then I got wise and realized that part of the problem was me. A good dose of training, plenty of exercise, and a few years later: the problem was basically solved.
Ok, my dog still has the occasional urge to misbehave, but things are much better. Bottom line, you have got to understand your dog's behavior problems in order to really begin solving them. I'm sure I am not the only one who has experienced common dog behavior problems. Share your stories of dogs behaving badly - what has your dog done to really show off that naughty side?
Photo Scott Barbour / Getty Images
Comments
I’ll tell you one thing my 2 dogs have done and still sometimes do. When my wife and I go out and are gone for a couple hours or so, sometimes we’ll come home to find that our two dogs have tipped our trash can over and have scattered trash all over the house. The funny thing is, they know they’ve done something bad because as soon as we come in they jump right on the bed and put their heads down or crawl under the blanket.
Once in college my dog sienna ate a jar of vaseline and pooped all over my DJ room mate’s record collection. What do you expect his room smelled like socks. But it was a bad scene.
My dog learned a lot easier to be “good dog” when when found out about crate training. It sure does make it easier to handle a new puppy too.
When told to behave herself, my dog Luna shows her teeth and ‘talks back’ while either pulling herself around the carpet on her belly or rolling over on her back. At times it almost seems like she says ‘I will not!’
Training will help these issues, like aggressiveness, barking, separation anxiety, and so on. You can do this yourself… with the right tools.