The puppy stage is the most important stage in a dog's life. This period is not only the process of their physical development and maturity, but also the process of them understanding and understanding the world and learning to coexist with the world. Many habits developed during this period are likely to will accompany them throughout their lives.

Therefore, for pet owners, if they want to have a dog with a good personality and stable emotions, they should start their own "good dog training plan" during the puppy stage to correct the puppy's behavioral problems as early as possible. In this issue of the Good Dog Classroom, we will take a look at the behavioral problems that puppies are most likely to have and how to correct these behavioral problems.

Bite

First of all, we need to make it clear that when puppies have biting problems, in most cases they are not aggressive. They just have not learned to control their own power. Puppies are just like human babies. They like to use their teeth and mouths to explore the world. This is their innate instinct, but this also means that they will swallow everything they see into their mouths. Teeth are used to feel the presence of objects, whether they are food, toys, or the owner's hands and feet.

Biting and fighting with each other are also the most popular things for puppies, especially when they are with brothers and sisters. Although when they are just born, because they have not started to grow teeth yet and the protection of their skin and coat, they do not They can accidentally injure each other, but as baby teeth begin to grow in, this too rough play will gradually become dangerous.

However, dogs also have their own ways of dealing with it. When two puppies are fighting with each other, if one dog feels that it is hurt by being bitten, it will remind the other party by barking loudly, which usually makes the other party let go. , of course, sometimes older adult dogs will also intervene in the dog fights to avoid more dangerous situations. Through these two methods, puppies will learn to control their bite force when fighting with each other to avoid hurting each other.

Pet owners can also use this method to teach their dogs the difference between "playing" and "biting". When you are playing with your puppy, if the puppy bites your finger or ankle, you can make an exaggerated cry to let the puppy know that it hurts you. When it lets go, you can let it cool down for fifteen to twenty seconds before continuing to play. The entire training process cannot be repeated more than three times within 15 minutes.

It should be noted that if a puppy bites someone, the person who is bitten must stop the current behavior, maintain a still posture, and do not continue to play with the puppy, especially do not run away from it immediately, because this On the one hand, it will trigger the dog's chasing instinct; on the other hand, it will also make the dog unable to realize its "mistake" and think that you just changed it.The way to play.

The purpose of this kind of training is to let the dog learn how to control its strength and excitement during play, and learn to play more gently, but they will still use the owner's hands or ankles as targets for biting, so after completing After this training, we need to help the dog "reposition" the bite target.

The core of "repositioning" is to make the dog realize that the toy (or other object we want the puppy to pounce on and bite) is the object of their play, not the owner's hands, feet or other parts. When playing, the owner can move the part where the dog wants to bite when it tries to open its mouth, and wave the toy around the puppy to attract its attention until it bites the toy. However, it should be noted that when the puppy bites the toy, do not drag the toy too hard. This will make the dog more and more aggressive in future play and increase their aggression.

Usually, owners can also prepare a few more toys and put them in different places at home, because when we are petting or holding puppies, they will also try to bite the owner's fingers, or "ambush" the owner around a corner. At this time, the puppies can also be trained using the methods mentioned above.

If your puppy still bites after you have been training it for a few weeks using these methods, then you need to consider that the biting behavior may not only be due to curiosity or play, but also may be due to fear, defense, or other reasons. , then the intervention of a professional dog trainer is needed to improve the dog’s biting behavior.

Pounce on people

This scene must be familiar to many dog ​​owners. When you come home from get off work after a busy day, your furry children at home will see you come in, and they will quickly run over and jump around you to welcome you back. Many people think that this is the dog expressing its love and longing for its owner, hoping that the owner can hug him when he returns home. Indeed, many owners do this. But the final result is not good, because most puppies learn to pounce on people because of this kind of interaction.

Why do owners’ behaviors of expressing love to their dogs become the culprit of behavioral problems? Let’s first take a look at why dogs jump around you.

First of all, we need to know that for dogs, they do not have the concept of hugging. We have never seen two dogs hug each other first after meeting. Most of the time, they communicate through pheromones in the smell. Dogs When dogs meet, they usually circle each other and then sniff each other's butts, specifically the anal glands, as that's one of the areas where dog smells are strongest.

The same is true for dogs greeting humans. Human mouths and private parts are the two parts with the strongest smell, butThese two parts are located relatively high for dogs, so they can only smell these two parts by standing up or even jumping up. In addition, in the native environment, adult canines will carry prey back to the cave with their mouths. The sooner the pups can lick the adult canines' mouths, the sooner they can get the food spit out of their mouths. For puppies, when the owner returns home, the adult dog returns to the cave. However, because humans are upright, the puppy cannot reach the owner's mouth, so it can only express this wish by picking up the owner's legs.

If the owner picks up the puppy at this time, it actually strengthens the puppy's behavior of jumping on people, because it achieves its goal by jumping on people. In the future, the puppy will associate the two and feel that as long as I jump on people This can achieve my goal and eventually develop the habit of dogs jumping on people.

The method to correct the jumping behavior is not complicated. There is only one thing the owner needs to do, and that is to do nothing, because attention is a reward for puppies, and neglect is a kind of " "Punishment", neglect does not mean ignoring the problem of puppies jumping on people, but changing the puppy's idea of ​​​​associating jumping on people with achieving the goal, letting the puppy know that these behaviors will not make the owner pick it up. fulfill its wishes.

Returning home and leaving home are the two most frequent scenarios where puppies show aggressive behavior. Let’s use these examples to illustrate. When the owner returns home or leaves home, if the puppy runs over and jumps around the owner or jumps on the owner's legs, the owner can turn away from it or stay still. During this process, the owner should avoid any eye contact with the puppy. Like not seeing it. Until the puppy can stand or sit relatively calmly, the owner can pet its head or reward it with some snacks. If the dog jumps up again during this process, the owner can repeat the "ignoring" process again until the dog returns to a calm state again. At the same time, the owner should maintain a relatively calm mood when giving rewards to the puppies, and do not be too enthusiastic, which will make the dog become excited again. In addition, owners can also train puppies to learn commands such as "sit" and "stop" to cooperate with the training to correct the dog's jumping behavior.