A Dog for the Family

When you first thought of getting a dog for your family, what did you have in mind?

If you’re like most parents, when you’re thinking of adding a dog to your family you tend to think of adding  a furry, four legged  “person”.

I know it seems like an obvious statement, but dogs are not people.  Dogs are dogs and as people, we need to TRAIN our family dogs to fit into OUR family.

That’s why choosing the right BREED of dog is an important first step when choosing a dog for your family.

All dogs are pack animals – that’s why when you adopt a dog into your family, they bond closely with you and your children.

It’s a dog’s instinctual  “pack” mentality that can be the source of great joy – or great disappointment – when you bring a dog into your family.

DOG TRAINING BASICS:

All dog training is essentially based on understanding the “pack” mentality of dogs.

Dogs are pack animals and within the pack there is a hierarchy – an order.  There is the top or “alpha” dog and every other member of the pack is then assigned a place in the “pecking” order.

Every dog in the pack understands the pecking order.  If a dog wants to “move up” the ladder – then he or she will “challenge” the member ahead of him/her.  If the challenger “wins” the fight – then there’s a new pecking order.

This is where the choice of dog breed is SO important for your family.

When you adopt a dog into your family, you’re bringing the dog into your “pack”.

Ideally, you want your dog to be at the BOTTOM of the pecking order.  You want every human in the household to be “above” the dog in the pack order.

Some dog breeds, like Labs and Shetland Sheepdogs, are generally happy to remain at the bottom of the pack order.  Other breeds, like German Shepherds, Rottweilers and Dachshunds NEED to have a strong, intelligent leader in charge of the family “pack”.  Many members of these and other breeds will decide to “take charge” of your family and assume the role of pack leader.

(Some breeds, like Boxers and Great Danes – need dog training because of Boxers and Great Danes have a LOT of “puppy energy” even when they’ve grown MUCH larger than puppy size!)

If your family dog decides that it wants to “move up” the ladder in the pack order – then you’ll have a problem.  A BIG problem that needs hands on with an experienced, dog training professional.

Again, there are many breeds of dogs that, in general (whenever we’re talking about a “breed” we’re talking “in general” which means there may be dogs of a breed that don’t exhibit these tendencies) won’t EVER want to move “up” in the pack order.

There are some dogs and dog breeds that, while they can benefit from dog training, don HAVE to be obedience trained to live happily with your family.

With that said, many, many dog problems can be solved by simply training your dog in basic obedience.

When your family dog is taking orders from your children – such as “sit” or “heel”, then the family dog is being constantly reminded that his/her place in the pack is ON THE BOTTOM RUNG!

This is a GOOD thing – really.  Your dog won’t suffer self esteem problems from being situated “below” humans in the pack, as a matter of fact, your dog will be HAPPIER because he/she KNOWS where his/her place is in your pack.