What are you waiting for…??

I would say that most people call me when a problem has gotten so bad that it's a habit and they can't take it anymore. About 8 out of 10 people call me about their dog because they have a behavioral problem that is driving them crazy. Chewing, digging, jumping, and aggression are some of the most common problems that becomes disruptive people’s lives. Well the best time to call about dog training is when you first get the dog! Not when you are just reacting to a problem that it in essence you've allowed to exist. Think about it; if you get a new dog (puppy or adult) and it's never been in your house before, never lived in your world, how would he or she know what to do? How do you communicate with him or her? Dogs are not verbal by nature so understanding English, Spanish, Russian or some other language is not innate to a dog. Your best move is to teach the dog some basic commands (obedience training) so that you can communicate the things that will make it's easier to live with. For example, when a door opens, “sit stayt” can be very useful. Otherwise how would the dog know NOT to run out of the the door. If you don’t teach these useful commands, you're really just hoping that the dog's behavior is going is going to be good enough for you and doesn’t create headaches and problems. But that's almost never the case. You see there are over 60,000 dogs euthanised in the United States every week! That's a lot of dogs! And why? It’s because somebody didn't like the dogs breed, color, or size. More times than not, the owner took the dog to the shelter or it esacped of behavioral problems. Think about it! Let’s stop the needless and epedemic destruction of dogs by promoting training and responsible ownership. VS waiting until problems arise, start teaching early. Seek professional help if you need to. But you got a dog to enjoy, so do the things you need to do to ensure that you can.