I have a small dog; whenever she misbehaves I just pick her up and tell her “bad doggy.” Isn’t this enough training? Why should I go through behaviour classes?
There are several negative consequences of training a dog in this way. The first issue here is that your dog will learn whenever you pick her up she’s been bad. Is that the way you want your dog to relate to your touch? The second issue is that this is not training, this giving her a conflicting situation. She wants to be held by you and you are teaching her this is the way to be cuddled; this is a negative reinforcement of bad behaviour.
Enrolling yourself and your puppy in Obedience Classes will teach you and her the best way to deal with problem behaviour. In Obedience Class you will learn how to give her commands she can understand. She will learn the proper response to the commands. In addition, she will also receive positive reinforcement that is not confusing or conflicting.
Here are the areas we cover in Obedience Classes:
- Appropriate toileting skills
- Chewing appropriately
- Walking calmly on a leash
- Responding to commands like sit, and come
- Not to bark incessantly
- Social manners
If you’ve ever been introduced to an uncontrolled dog, one that jumps on you, is aggressive, or refuses to behave, you have seen the results of an untrained dog. A dog needs training to know its boundaries, regardless of its size.
