Wednesday 17 November 2010

Dog Training Advice - Understand Your Dog

Before we can begin talking about training our dog or getting specific dog training advice, it's important that we first try to understand our dog and where their behaviors come from. The dog is a fascinating creature who likes nothing more than a simple pat on the head or an occasional belly rub and, in return, gives us back his undivided devotion, companionship, and attention (hmmm, well, ok, maybe not undivided attention but we can work on that).

Dog has been man's best friend for thousands of years, and this friendship has been built on over the years by man and dog helping each other. The dog provided his help by being the man's hunting mate, and would receive a juicy bone or slab of meat in return. Then the dog would sit outside the man's cave, hoping for food scraps to come his way and all the while guarding the entrance to the cave to ward off any other animals that would be sniffing around. Back in the day, the caveman could see the benefit in keeping the dog around the caves as not only was the dog a good hunting mate and protector for the caves, but being the scavenging type he also kept the cave clean.

The relationship between man and dog became stronger as they both realized they had nothing to fear from each other. The dog would become more than just a watchdog and hunting companion and would soon be allowed into the caves to share the food and shelter of the caveman and his family. This then led to an emo­tional tie being formed between man and dog. The dog was no longer a servant or guard, but a member of the family.

Today, our dogs are not much different from those of the caveman. Despite the many breeds of dog that exist today, modern dogs are still more of less meat-eating predatory animals, with a built in desire to run and hunt. At the end of the day, the dog is a member of the wolf family and as such, our dogs today are simply tame wolves - that's a good bit of dog training advice right there, you'd do well to remember this point!

The domestic dog has often been forced to adjust to abnormal surroundings. He does this voluntarily, even though it may make his life more difficult. However, by his willingness to live and work with man, the dog has put himself in a posi­tion of dependency. He no longer has complete freedom and counts on man for his physical necessities and his emotional well-being.

A free piece of dog training advice you can get right now is that in order to have a good relationship with our dogs we must ensure that the physical and emotional needs of our dog are satisfied. If we are to fulfill our dog's needs, we ourselves need to understand our dogs, what their instincts are, and what influences their behavior.

John Murray is an internet based businessman who works from home on his dog training information websites. His passions include the outdoors, hiking, photography, and, of course, dogs.

For more information on dogs go to: Dog Training Advice

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