English Case

Your friendly pup jumps up on everyone he sees. He especially loves children and elder folks. They like him, too- or so they say. Your dog chews your shoes and the furniture. After a while you just give up and shrug your shoulders. You say he's just a puppy and that he'll behave better when he grows up. But soon your neighbors are telling you that the minute you leave the house your dog starts barking and doesn't stop until you come home again. Since this behavior is absolutely not acceptable; dogs can and should be trained to obey.

It's amazing to me how many people tolerate misbehavior from their dogs. Some dog owners believe that training a family dog will make it less loving and playful. They may believe that only guide dogs, police dogs, and the like need to be trained. Sometime owners get frustrated and continue to let the dog do whatever it likes. Some may feel that assuming control over the animal is somehow cruel and harsh. In some cases, with biting and aggressive dogs, such misguided owners also create a threat to others. An untrained dog can be a menace to the vulnerable and a nuisance to everyone else. He will get only negative attention and will end up a miserable creature.

Dogs, like children, need limits. As pack animals, they need to know who's in control. When dogs were wild, they ran in packs, each pack controlled by a boss dog. Somebody has to be in charge and make the rules. If you, as its owner aren't your pet's "alpha dog" or leader, it will attempt to take control, often with catastrophic results. Dogs also need to work. Throughout recorded history, dogs have had work to do. They have herded sheep and other animals. They have rescued people who were drowning, or lost in remote snowy mountains. They have been watchdogs, assistants to the blind, hunters and baby-sitters. These days, the work most dogs need to do is learn to fit in as cooperative, loving (and loved), well-trained members of ordinary families like yours and mine. But dogs can't train themselves. That's where their owners come in. We need to train our dogs. More important, we need to train ourselves to understand a dog's mind and behavior.

I know from personal experience about the need for training. We have a dog that used to chew everything within reach. He barked all the time, and jumped on anyone who came to the door. When I took him for a walk he'd get away from me and go running down the street, lunging at strangers and dashing in front of cars. He would pull so hard on the leash when I walked him that people made fun of us. "Oh, I see your dog is taking you for a walk," they'd say, laughing. He didn't know any better, and neither did we. We told him "No!" and yelled at him all the time, but it didn't make any difference.

For some reason, I had the idea that a dog trainer would take all the spirit out of Chico. But my mother