Dogs need love and affection but also a dominant, alpha leader; a being who is calm and strong-minded. Just like a corporate structure where there are managers vice presidents presidents and so forth each with clearly defined obligations and limitations it needs to be clear to your dog what his place is in his pack and is your job as alpha to make this clear. Dogs crave this leadership and guidance instinctively. Unstable insecure humans make unstable insecure dogs. Dogs don’t respond to commands from a human who lacks confidence. A good pack leader does not correct his dog with anger. Your dog should not fear you, it should respect you. When a dog respects you it will happily want to follow you and please you.
Being dominant over your dog does not mean you should be mean to your dog. The pack leader is the stronger minded being, calm but firm. Pack leaders set rules and they expect them to be followed; they also set boundaries and they reinforce them; they define limits on what is allowed and not allowed and they expect everyone to stay within the limits. Pack leaders are not abusive or aggressive, they are calm and assertive.
In order to be alpha over a dog the message must be clear and to accomplish it you have to stop thinking like a human and start thinking like a dog. How do dogs or wolves communicate in the wild? They don’t yell and scream at one another or talk their head off. When a dog is treated like a human or a little toy the dog can lose their real sense of being. This can affect their behavior and be devastating to them mentally and emotionally. So many people corrupt their dogs by humanizing them. Even dogs that were well bred from stable parents can be corrupted by humanizing them. These pups are off to a good start until they get home with their new families who, with the best all good intentions, treat them so much like babies that they begin to partially lose their natural instinct. Although these instincts may not be lost forever, the animal becomes unstable because the resources around them are unnatural. Folks, dogs are happier been dogs, they don’t want to be humans. Our responsibility as dog owners is to give the dogs back their natural instincts. Love them but treat them like dogs, not like little humans, so they can be mentally stable and happy as they were born to be.
Be your dog’s calm, firm and confident leader and it will respect you and look to you for guidance, will follow you and want to please you. Anger, bullying or been pushy does not work. Take the time to learn to read your dogs body language and enjoy a relationship with your dog as you have never experienced before.