There will be days when the dog’s behaviour raises your blood pressure. You may be having a bad training day. You may catch the dog breaking the house rules. You may have had the worse day at work. Whatever the circumstance, you are ready to explode and let the anger flow - and sometimes the anger is directed at the dog. Don’t! Don’t do it.

Don’t crush the dog.

An unwarranted, prolonged outburst of anger may cause long term harm to your relationship with the dog. This may seem like a preposterous notion but experienced trainers know this for a fact. Often, they have had to learn this the hard way - and exercised patience and restraint with the second, third and following dogs.

Dogs have a basic expectation of fairness. This can be seen with how the mother dog corrects her pups. The correction is swift and appropriate and then it is finished. The lesson has been taught and it is completed. There is no brow-beating. There is no harangue - there is no ranting and raving. Pup learns the lesson and mother dog has not damaged the trust that pup has in her. Pup will continue to explore and learn the limits of what is acceptable and what is not.

In a moment of anger, it is possible to damage the trust that your pup / dog has in you. People who think that the dog will forget are mistaken. The dog will not forget. The dog may forgive but that dog’s trust in you as a fair leader will have been damaged. Have you forgotten an unwarranted explosion from a boss or from a respected teacher?

In extreme cases where the human response has been too severe, the dog will cease to try. In effect, it freezes - and not just temporarily. The dog will be afraid to give any response. It becomes afraid to try any response. And that is truly sad to see.

Remember that your long term goal is to have a happy, bold and confident dog. The dog trusts you - and a good leader never violates that trust. Never.

Catherine Forsythe
Director of Operations
FlyingHamster:  http://flyinghamster.com/

[tag]dogs, training, anger, restraint, patience, trust, relationship[/tag]