Variety Is The Spice Of Life For Dogs Too

Dogs are no different from children when it comes to boredom. When not distracted or entertained dogs and children become bored and with boredom usually comes bad behaviour.

Dogs can suffer from a wide variety of behavioural problems, especially rescued dogs. In the case of the latter you also have the added complication of not knowing what previous poor treatment has triggered the current bad behaviour. Whatever the behaviour, if you can understand the cause you have a much better chance of solving it. For instance if a dog has been given loads of attention for a period of time and then has that attention withdrawn for whatever reason, the dog is likely to react to this. He will undoubtedly feel bored, as his previous playmates are now not playing with him so he has nothing to do. Therefore when not sleeping is he likely to be causing some form of havoc or damage in an effort to amuse himself. This really cannot be blamed on the dog. Human interference causes such problems and as such if you don’t teach the human what they did to cause the bad behaviour, they will make the same mistake over again. You cannot dip into and out of a dogs life any more than you can a child’s and expect them to understand why you are all play one minute and no play the next.

When you bring a new dog into your house, whether a puppy or a rescue, you will undoubtedly give it a lot of attention at first. Some owners will always give the dog the attention it needs or demands because they are in a position to do so, perhaps because they are retired. Others however who cannot, will likely end up with a bored and destructive animal, which is a pity because with a little forethought this could have been avoided.

A good parent doesn’t bring children into their lives and then ignore them when the novelty wears off, so why do some pet owners do this? This is a perpetual source of amazement to me. If you buy a puppy, lavish attention on it, and then leave it for hours on its own while you go to work, just what do you expect. Its going to get bored – then it will chew, destroy and probably foul the home, and all because he is bored. You just can’t tell a dog to grow up and get over it – they need you to balance your treatment of them and give them what they need – they can’t make such decisions for themselves.

All dogs, especially younger ones need some distraction. If you have to leave them make sure that they have been exercised first, and that you leave them with favourite toys to amuse them. When they are very young I would recommend that you exercise them and then leave them in a cage with a favourite toy (see my earlier newsletters on the site where I dealt with using a crate for training). They won’t mind at all unless you leave them too long and then they will get distressed as a dog will never foul their bed area unless they are totally desperate. When you come back home let them out straight way, and walk the dog or play with it for a while.

The real message here is don’t get a dog if you work all day and cant get help to let the dog out and walk him while you are away – it simply isn’t fair.

No dog is naturally destructive. There is a cause for this behaviour and you will need to find it. Shouting at the dog or otherwise punishing it will do no good at all, and if you just end up making the dog afraid of you, you’ll then have a host of other, possibly worse, problems to solve. Remember that unless you can point out their misdemeanour immediately they do it, there is no point at all doing it later on. They simply will not connect that event with the punishment. And, let me also say that the only punishment that really works is to speak sternly in a lower voice tone than normal. Turn your back on the dog and leave him be. Don’t then take pity immediately and cuddle him, that will destroy the message. Believe me he is going to be more upset with a stern word from you than any amount of smacks. If he has a crate, immediately put him back in it when he’s naughty. Leave him 15-20 minutes and let him out again, with a few words of praise to be a good boy. Keep your high voice tones for praise and the lower ones for commands/reprimands.

One of the other problems with a bored dog is barking, and even if you don’t mind it, its likely to drive your neighbours mad. Again, if you exercise and then crate the dog before you leave him, this should keep barking to a minimum, but only if he’s not left for too long. A young dog that’s trained well will not bark and will stay that way. Older dogs that bark are harder to retrain but it can be done with patience. Play toys like buster cubes may help (they are play toys that have food or dog treats inside them that the dog must work at to get out – these will keep some dogs entertained for hours). Screaming and shouting at a dog to stop barking will make him nervous and highly strung, both of which lead to more barking.

Finally, and here’s the clincher: to a dog ALL attention is good attention. So, if he’s bored and is barking for no reason, then he’s attention seeking. If you shout at him to stop barking he will have got your attention and he’s won. It does not matter to him that you are not pleased with him, he still got your attention. So when a dog behaves really badly and you can see that he’s doing it deliberately to get attention then ignore him. He will stop. If he’s barking pick him up, don’t speak to him and place him in the crate and leave him there until he is completely quiet. Do this every time he barks (unless he is barking in response to a noise or visitor – you don’t want to discourage him from being a good guard dog for your property.

If you don’t really know how to start retraining your dog then my book will help you out or alternatively you can keep reading my newsletters for more inspiration!

 

Warmly Debbie Boffa Author of “Instant Dog Obedience” http:www.trainingdogsrus.com