The Thing About Dogs, part one

If there was one piece of advice I could give a new puppy owner, it would be USE COMMON SENSE. Dogs are loyal, intelligent, and adaptable. But they are not complicated. If you approach your human/canine relationship from a complex place you set yourself up for failure and your dog for confusion.

To a canine, things almost always boil down to cause and effect. Whether you look at housebreaking, obedience training, right play vs. wrong play, behavior issues, or pack rules, keep the cause and effect in mind. That’s what I mean by common sense.

This morning I watched cause and effect at work. There were squirrels under the bird feeders when I let Penny out. Now, keep in mind she is a Bull terrier mix. The operative word here is terrier. All terriers were originally bred for some form of rodent hunting. So, the door opened and Penny took off after the squirrels. They scattered and she chased one. She got close but not close enough. It raced up a tree. Penny ran around the base of the tree, walked up the side of the trunk, circled some more, then sighed and came back to the house. She actually pranced back to the house. I believe the chase is as satisfying to her as actually winning is.

Here is the simple cause and effect of this situation. See the squirrel. Chase the squirrel. Squirrel goes up tree, can’t get it. Sigh and run back to the house happy for the chase. Penny didn’t pout and moan or get angry when she missed the squirrel. She went to the next thing, which is curl up in a tight warm snuggley circle at my feet. Life is not complicated to our best friends.

Make your dog ownership common sense and cause and effect. Go potty outside, get a treat. Accident inside, get scolded. Obey on first command get praised. Ignore a command and get corrected.

The other day I watched a man repeat the SIT command no less than ten times. He didn’t make his dog sit, just kept saying the command. When the dog finally sat, he gave it a treat. I cringed. Cause; ignore commands as long as you want. Effect; obey when you are ready and get a treat. In the common sense world of the dog, this man taught his dog rewards come from disobedience.

Don’t overthink. Know what you want from him, teach him how to do it then praise him when he does. Cause and effect, and common sense works. See you next week for part two.