Dog Training: Train the Owner, Not the Dog

Train the owner and not the dog - that's oh so true, and this is coming from someone who isn't the greatest at dog training. Still, I recognize my shortcomings in this department and I've been around long enough that I've seen plenty of dog owners who are superbly dog trained by their pet. I've been there, too.

Why do people have a hard time training their pets? There are several reasons in my opinion, including the following:

1) Training is cruel. A puppy is a like a baby, and making them stay in a crate or lie down in a doggie bed sounds cruel to us. Those puppy eyes stare at us, pleading. We can't do it. Making our babies sit over there in 'their spot' is cruel. They want to be over here, with us, on the sofa or on the bed. That's what we struggle with. Where's the balance between the training and being cruel, be it real or imagined? That's our emotional struggle.

2) Ignorance of methods/Affordability. Many people just don't know how to train their pets. Even reading books or watching 'how to' programs doesn't help them. Some may even try a school like PetSmart offers. Regardless, the problem exists because either they don't have access to training methods, can't afford to pay for training tools, or just aren't good students themselves. Whatever the reason for it, these owners are ignorant of the knowledge they need to truly train their dogs. Some could obtain it with some effort. It's not as easy for those struggling financially.

3) Time. It's a busy world out there, and we all have priorities. Unfortunately, our priorities don't always include the time to train our dogs. Training requires one-on-one time with our dogs and a bit of determination to make sure that we devote that time, every day for as long as it takes to succeed. Between work, outside activities, and family obligations, time is sometimes a factor why our dogs train us better than we train them. What some fail to recognize is that these dogs are our babies, and they deserve equal attention. They *are* a priority.

4) Love means indulgence. For some people, love means giving their child everything they want. This translates over to dogs. I've seen this a lot and up close, in fact. It's actually very easy for me to recognize. I watched how my mother responded to our dogs. They owned her, lock, stock, and barrel. She rewarded them with biscuits when what they really wanted was attention. This touches very close to home and is sometimes painful, but it does exist. It's easier to bribe or shift the real needs by giving food. To some, indulgence is how they love. For my dogs, they quickly learned that if they just kept nudging my mother, they'd get food. My beagle began to ask to go outside every hour because when she got back inside, my mother would give her biscuits. Try as I might, I couldn't train my mother. It was a lost cause.

It's just not easy to get past some of these barriers. The problem is mostly ours and not the dogs. We feel guilty for eating in front of the puppies. We get nervous or don't know what to do in order to properly train them. We have all kinds of excuses in lack of time and/or money to explain away our inattentiveness. Lastly, some of us would rather show our love by rewarding inappropriately and thereby creating more bad habits. Those are the barriers that need to be overcome if the owners are finally to train their dogs, instead of being led around their human noses by these very intelligent canines.