Behavioral problems in dogs have four main root causes, while some dogs' behavioral problem may be rooted in one cause, it is often that the behavioral problems we see with our dogs may be due to a combination of different causes. Identifying the cause is crucial in understanding exactly how to treat the problem. One cannot just look at the behavioral problem outside a context of the dog's history, feeding, how it has been corrected, leash walking and many other things. First of all we cannot expect a dog to be well adjusted if we ourselves are not meeting our dog's basic needs. Paul Owen in the "Dog Whisperer" identifies the nine basic needs and they are:
1) A healthy diet
2) Medical care
3) Exercise
4) Play
5) Stimulation
6) Socialization (with other dogs, animals and humans)
7) A job to do
8) Rest
9) Affection
Any lack of these basic needs will result in a set of behaviors. I won't refer to them as behavioral problems because they are not truly problems with the dog's behavior as much as it the dog attempting to fulfill these basic needs because it is unable to depend on us to fulfill them. Usually behaviors related to an absence of these basic needs tend to disappear once we fulfill them. For example, I have visited many clients who have puppies, their main complaint is usually the excessive play biting. Immediately I recommend that they give their puppy play time with other and dogs and exercising the puppy through walking or light jogging depending on the puppy's energy levels. Immediately following exercise and socialization all my clients reported a significant reduction or even a complete end to play biting.
True behavioral problems do not disappear when we fulfill a dog's basic needs, they are the result of long systematic, usually unconscious, interactions with the dog, and the remediation is also is inevitably a long systematic process albeit a conscious one. Based solely on how we interact with our dog results in what I consider the four root causes of behavioral problems. The first, damage to the dog-human bond, which has been sufficiently described in the previous post. The second is miscommunication, the third is species misunderstanding and the fourth is accidental reinforcement.
Miscommunication as a cause is usually easily treated. Once we are able to communicate to the dog exactly what it is we are trying to say, we immediately start seeing changes in that behavior. Miscommunication happens when what we are saying in human is the exact opposite of what we are saying in dog language. For example, we might be calling the dog and asking it to come. We look at the dog and instead of coming towards us, our dog will sit down or even lie down. So naturally we will go up to the dog closer and call it again and ask it to come. The dog still refuses to move. Well, for starters dogs respond much more effectively to visual signals than audio signals. So we can call the dog to come as often as we want, but if our body language is telling the dog to stay in its position it is more likely that the dog will stay rather than come. For dogs a face-to-face interaction usually causes most dogs to sit and not approach us no matter how many times we tell it come or how loudly we tell it to come. Understanding the visual cues that dogs respond to is usually essential when interacting with our dogs. Secondly, when we approach the dog because it refused to come we are in dog language telling the dog its okay not to come, we are telling it is doing a great job at listening to us to not come. So its not that your dog is disobedient, stubborn or deliberately trying to piss you off, in fact in the dog's mind it is doing exactly what you've asked it to do.
When the dog does not understand the difference between humans and dogs, the dog becomes extremely confused as to the nature of our relationship to it. Signs of dominance aggression start to appear. This is natural in a dog hierarchy and since you have confused your dog as to the nature of your species identity, it is only natural that as your dog starts coming of age it will attempt to take its position and try to ascend the hierarchy. In other words your dog will challenge your position. I cannot assert enough times to my clients that we are not pack leaders once we become pack leaders our dog will eventually challenge our position. We are the human caretakers and dog's understand the difference up until we confuse them. Our species distinction is maintained by never physically trying to overpower our dogs whether it is through games, like rough playing or tug of war, or when we attempt to physically force our dog to do things, like yanking them on the leash. Many trainers unfortunately do not understand this very well and the result is a dog that will constantly challenge its owners for a position in the hierarchy and this often can result in very serious and potentially dangerous consequences for both the dog and its owner. This cause can be easily treated through changes in our own behavior to remind the dog that we are humans and we are not dogs.
Finally, the final cause just like all the previous ones lies in how we interact with our dog. When our dog does a certain behavior it is up to us to either signal the dog that its okay to continue doing it, or to signal the dog that its not okay and that it should not do this behavior. Unfortunately for many people, they tend to accidentally teach their dogs behaviors that make everyone's lives much harder. For example, the first time your puppy grabs a pair of your socks our initial reaction is to approach the puppy, your puppy starts running and you start chasing, then you proceed to try and pull the sock from your puppy's mouth, what a game that is. So instead of telling your dog it is not okay to chew on socks, congratulations you've just taught it that sock chewing is one the funnest games on this planet. If you really wanted your puppy to understand that this behavior was unacceptable, had you just walked away from it, I can guarantee you that your puppy would have looked at you with a sock dangling from its mouth, probably followed you for a few steps then dropped the sock. Barking is another one of these annoying behaviors that we often accidentally teach the dog. Certain forms of aggression can also be accidentally taught to our dogs. Generally speaking these behavioral problems depending on how long the dog has had them for require a long and systematic program of retraining which can often last months.
Whatever a dog's behavioral problem maybe, it is usually because of something we as humans have done. A slight modification and a remediation program can work wonders.
