Your Dog Needs Leadership and Guidance

Dogs having a natural instinct, being “pack” animals. Just like their ancestors, the wolf, dogs think in terms of partnerships and teamwork when it comes to certain activities. Similar to the way a sports team work together in order to accomplish the combined goal of winning. Your dog looks towards you and the rest of the family as its “team” and counts on you all to help it survive, learn the rules of the house and condition his behavior.

Like a winning team, there are certain disciplines that must be adhered to by all members of the family, Without this structure there would be chaos and very hard for your dog to recognize who is in charge and leading its team.

Dogs and puppies need this understanding of leadership and who is to play that role in order to be happy and feel a sense of belonging. Regardless of who is considered the leader in your family, it doesn’t matter to your dog, so long as there is one, then your pet will be happy and feel a sense of security.

For those family households that have more than one member living inside the home, your dog will recognize a specific hierarchy that develops in time. For example, a home with a wife and daughter who all coexist with the family pet. The dog recognizes its role as the bottom of the leadership chain and it is quite happy with that. It understands that all of us play a more dominant role in the “pack” than it does. Because there is structure and it is trained to know who is in charge, even though there may be multiple members of the family, its sense of security and well-being is guaranteed.

Most dog behavior problems stem from lack of rules and discipline

At this point you have learned that all dogs need to have rules and boundaries firmly set in the household, in order for them to be happy. It is the same way with children. Without mommy or daddy to set the rules and enforce those rules, kids can end up with with an enormous amount of personal behavior problems.

If your dog does not recognize the family as a team and has no sense of who is in charge, its behavior problems can be a nightmare. It is your job to start creating a social order in your house immediately. You must learn to communicate with your dog by reading its body language.

The job will be a lot easier if you get all members of your family on the same playing field. They must all agree with how your dog should be treated. This will help tremendously, so that your time is not wasted as you work hard to create a pack within the family. This team work will make your dog a happy, well-trained family pet.