Training Virus’s. 24 Dodgy Pieces of Dog Training Advice.

Yesterday afternoon I was working with one of my clients and her gorgeous Labrador down near Curriumundi who happens to do a very similar job to me, except with horses and horse’s owners.  Through the course of our sessions we usually talk about pet peeves that are common in both our industries.  Late cancellations, the odd difficult client…(which of course is very rare because I have the best clients! 🙂

Anyway we got to the topic of what I call ‘training virus’s’, which gave me an idea for the blog!

A ‘Training Virus’ is what I call a really useless or even dangerous technique or piece of ‘information’ that goes through the training world, into general public knowledge, and seems to hang around forever wasting my clients time explaining why it’s actually not going to help us achieve our training goals.

Lets start with a few of my favourites.

• Rope play / tug tug / tug of war will make your dog aggressive

• Making sure you always eat before you feed your dog will establish dominance and help solve behavioural / aggression problems

• Rubbing your puppy’s nose in it’s own faeces or urine will teach it not to mess indoors.

• Too much protein will make your dog aggressive

• Particular types of protein will make your dog aggressive

• Particular brands of dog food will make your dog aggressive

• Turning your back every time your dog jumps on you will stop your dog jumping up

• Putting a harness on your dog will stop it pulling on the leash

• Putting a choke chain on your dog will stop it pulling on the leash

• Letting your dog have puppies will ‘settle her down’ and solve behavioural problems.

• Desexing your female dog will calm her down / stop aggression

• Allowing a dog to attack or be aggressive / ‘dominant’ towards your dog will assist in training your dog.

• Your puppy will grow out of his bad habits

• You don’t need to train your puppy until he’s at least 6-12 months old

• Using treats in training will make your dog only behave when treats are present

• ‘Alpha rolling’ your dog TV show style will train him not to be aggressive or assist in training.

• Avoiding eye contact with your dog will show him who’s boss and stop behavioural problems

• Behaving aggressively towards your dog will stop him being aggressive.

• Ignoring problems will make them go away

• Dragging your dog over, showing him things he’s done wrong and yelling / smacking him will teach him not to do things such as chewing or digging.

• Yelling at your dog for barking will stop him barking

• You should always walk your dog on a tight leash held firmly next to you

• Using a harsh ‘UGH UGH’ or ‘BAH’ noise every time your dog does something you don’t like, is a magic psychological way of communicating your wishes to your dog.

• Uncontrolled socialisation of an aggressive dog with other dogs will stop aggression.

Have you heard any of these lately?

-Melissa Bruce