The Three Problems

Almost all behavior problems come from just three issues. Now some dogs have one, some have two, and some have all three.

They are:

Pack Order Confusion. In the pack the pecking order is very clear. Every dog knows how high they are in the pack. Pack order changes from time to time. A young dog, as it matures, may move up. Ultimately a new male and a new female will become the alpha pair. And the old pair will move down. But everyone knows their place.
For many dogs in homes, the pack order is not that clear. A dog with high alpha drive may challenge you to become alpha if your leadership is not clearly established. A dog with low alpha drive may still challenge you because your lack of clear leadership makes the dog insecure.

Fear Aggression. All aggression in dogs comes from fear. When the dog is triggered by an event the aggression shows. For example a dog bitten by a badly socialized large dog as a puppy may become aggressive with all dogs, with big dogs, or just that breed. I have a lot of dogs come in that are afraid of vacuum cleaners. So I have what I believe is Colorado Springs only dog training vacuum cleaner.

Trust. Your dog can love you, be a faithful companion, and still not trust you. This is the one that is always hardest for my clients to hear. Because trust issues almost always come with the dog when you first get it. But people want to blame themselves. And they don’t need to.

I have some breeders who bring all their puppies to me for imprinting prior to being sent to their new homes. Now I know these people, I know their dogs and kennels, and I know how they raise their dogs. But in a litter of six, I know I will find two or more puppies that have already developed problems trusting not only humans but other dogs.

The key to successful training is to identify which of these issues exist in your dog and making sure they are dealt with during training.

Doug