So by now many of you know that I disagree with a lot of “conventional dog training wisdom.”
The “experts” are always telling dog owners to:
Never let your dog sleep on the bed.
Never play tug of war.
Always use a choke chain.
Don’t let your dog out the door before you.
Wait until six months old before training.
You know that my take on all of the above is phooey!
Let your dog sleep on the bed, play tug games, never use a choke chain, walking out the door – please, six months before training is a sure fire way of having a long list of behavior problems.
Here is some very popular advice:
“Feed your dog on a schedule. Make sure you feed your dog at the same time every day.”
Bad advice.
Let me break it down for you chief.
FIRST: If your dog was feral, living in the wild, there would be no feeding schedule. Food would come at random times.
SECOND: Schedules can create problems.
I know, many of you disagree with me which is shocking at this point in our relationship but I understand.
I am patient.
I will back up my reasons.
Many moons ago I was asked to help a dog that had become destructive. The dog was eight years old and was never a problem for the owner.
We were baffled about why this dog would start chewing and destroying after eight years.
Luckily, I have a fertile and investigative mind.
And had no idea why this dog was doing this behavior. I was about to leave when the man’s wife came home.
She made an offhand remark about him going to work that night and to remember to feed the dog before leaving.
I asked him if he ever forgot to feed his dog. That’s when he shared with me that his work schedule had changed. He was now working second shift. His routine had changed and so had his dog’s.
With a little more digging, I found out that his dog was fed every day at the same time without fail.
Now that the schedule had changed the dog had not adjusted and was stressed because he had no idea why he wasn’t being fed.
Once we got him back on his old schedule the chewing went away.
With the change of the clocks happening this weekend, be on the look out for any behavior changes in your dog.
Just a friendly public service announcement.
One more thing before I go.
If your dog has some behaviors that you’d like to change, The Good K9 Manners Program was developed with you in mind.
Learn how to END behaviors that you don’t like. All the details about the course are HERE:
Best,
Eric