When asked how to build a bond, gain respect and still maintain a leadership role with our dogs, the answer is that we must make sure the dog understands that we will always be fair with him. With that said, he has a responsibility to follow known directions and if he refuses there will be consequences.
Dogs see life in black and white terms. This means they see life in terms of "things that are good for them" and "things that are not good for them." They don’t understand English and for the most part they don’t reason; they just react to the black parts of life and the white parts of life.
Through the experience gained in training we show the dog that we are only going to ask him to do things he knows how to do. When he does something correctly we always let him know he is doing the right thing and we are happy with him. Likewise, when he does something wrong we will ALWAYS let him know he has made a mistake.
We never correct our dog in obedience training for things that he has not been trained to do. This supports the black and white rule. We don’t correct because “WE THINK HE KNOWS BETTER.” We only correct because we know, through experience gained in training, that he understands a command and is refusing to do it.
The dog must learn that we are 100% consistent in how and when we administer corrections. Being consistent at all times is one of the most important parts of being a pack leader. For example we can’t ignore aggressive behavior towards guests in our home and then correct the dog when he wants to be aggressive while on walks.
I train protection dogs. My dogs learn that the only time they are allowed to be aggressive is when I tell them it's OK or when I am attacked. Through training this becomes clear and is very black and white for the dog.
If you study pack behavior, or even herd behavior, you will see that rank issues in the pack are often dealt with very subtly or passively but disrespect is dealt with very quickly and aggressively. The same thing needs to happen in a relationship with a dog.
For a correction to be effective it must be administered within 1 ½ seconds of an infraction not an hour after the dog peed on the floor. When I hear people say “He knows he did something wrong while I was gone,” I shake my head and feel sorry for that poor dog.
One of the most important parts of training is for the handler to learn to administer corrections at a level that produces harmony in the family pack. This means that the handler must learn when simply saying “NO” is enough of a correction to let the dog know that he is doing something wrong VS. learning when to administer a level 10 leash correction. (e.g. showing aggression to a child)
One of the most difficult things for new trainers to learn is when to administer a correction, what type of correction to administer and and how hard that correction should be. I wrote an article titled THE THEORY OF CORRECTIONS IN DOG TRAINING, I recommend that all new dog trainers read this article.
New dog trainers need to remember that a dog learns through repetition. It often takes 30 repetitions for a dog to learn a new command. Trainers are often guilty of thinking their dog understands a command when in fact they have not repeated an exercise often enough for a dog to completely understand that exercise. This results in owners unjustly correcting their dogs for something the dog does not understand. This breaks the black and white rule and destroys the relationship with the handler and dog.
