What are the fundamental reasons why dogs disobey or challenge their owners or family members? What is the appropriate response?
Dogs have a history of living with humans for over 10,000 years, and the shadow of dogs has been everywhere in human history. They help owners hunt, help owners guard, and often bring joy to owners, symbolizing loyalty and obedience. It has always existed in the owner's home as a helpful assistant, which is the main reason people keep them.
In modern life, it is very normal for many families to keep a pet dog. Dog owners choose them for their loyalty, obedience, intelligence and agility, and the ability to relieve the owner's loneliness and bring joy to the owner and family. But there is no absolute, people have discovered that not every dog brings joy, and sometimes owners are angry with them, suspecting the necessity of keeping pets.
A small dog playing with its owner in the summer grass
The owner's wish for a dog is to be obedient and sensible, and kind. However, we cannot deny the objective nature of its animal attributes. No matter what kind of dog, it is still a dog, and dogs come from wolves, and they naturally have certain wolf genes, and their inherent aggressiveness is inevitable. Ultimately, it is the owner's lack of understanding of dogs, rather than the dog itself. It is based on a shallow understanding of dogs, rather than a real understanding.
A new dog owner may occasionally find that the dog barks, growls, refuses to obey the owner's intentions, or shows obvious provocation and attempts to resist, which is similar to a child glaring at their parents. This is an emotional release. If further angered, it may pounce on the person, including the owner. This is what is often called 'dog face', a very dangerous behavior. The dog owner's inner feeling is anger and sadness, feeling that they have taken care of the dog like a family, but the dog suddenly turned its back on them.
The reason for this hostile behavior is actually the mistake lies in the dog. It really means that you haven't treated it as your leader, that is, the real owner. It will naturally obey whoever it considers its owner, and all its behavior must prioritize the owner's family members, and respect and protect them. It also naturally reflects the owner's family members as peers.
However, if there are acts of disloyalty or untrustworthiness in the family, the fundamental reason is that it never considered you its leader. Of course, it may be due to instinctive territorial awareness or food guarding behavior, threatening or attacking you. This is dangerous and unacceptable. These behaviors are caused by the owner's excessive pampering, and the owner's failure to meet its requirements. We should reflect on our own behavior and not allow the dog to develop a sense of being the boss. Building trust is essential. Therefore, to make the dog completely obey, we must establish our authority in the dog's eyes. How to establish this authority? It takes a long time to accumulate from multiple aspects, and can also be guided through the dog's daily eating, living, and traveling.
Specifically, dogs generally attach great importance to food. We can establish the owner's authority by controlling the dog's diet. Whenever the dog wants to eat, we must allow it. For example, if the dog is emotional when eating, we immediately take away the food. This stabilizes the dog's eating. At the same time, we can also limit the dog's area, such as the sofa and bed are where we sit, and the dog needs our permission to come up. When traveling, the dog needs to follow our direction, and cannot run around randomly. These aspects can be used to establish the owner's authority.
In short, only by completely conquering the dog and making it know who is the boss in the house, we can eliminate the dog's 'arrogance' behavior. But we must use scientific training, and excessive violence or long-term scolding will easily make the dog fearful and trembling when seeing the owner, which is not what we want. Scientific, patience and trust are the best ways.
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