I tell people my dog should respect me, cooperate and try to do what I ask. If I have that then I can train the dog to do almost anything. For me this is not just "good behavior" it is "expected behavior." There is a difference a huge difference between a dog that tries to follow directions and fails and a dog that refuses to follow a command. That's a very important concept that new trainers must work out in their head.

Many people own dogs that are disrespectful and behave badly. When these owners start to train their dogs and the dogs start to mind, the owners mistakenly think their dogs now respect them. These owners are often wrong.

Respect is earned, it develops over time and is the result of good leadership techniques. It's not uncommon for a dog to mind 80% of the time and still not respect it's owner. When dogs like this are asked to do something they don't want to do and the handler pushes the point to try and force the dog to mind these dogs often become handler aggressive. Their owners find themselves scratching their heads wondering why and what went wrong. What went wrong was a lack of pack structure because a dog with solid pack structure is not going to be aggressive in the presence of it's pack leader.

The opposite of this problem are people who ask rather than tell their dogs to do something. They act like they are begging their dog to mind. If you go to any beginner obedience training class you will see this happen again and again. The sad thing is that this attitude in dog training not only produces inconsistent behavior it produces behavioral problems which can also lead to aggression and a dangerous dog.

When owners learn to apply responsible pack structure techniques and they master the concepts of a learning phase, a distraction phase, a correction phase along with a maintenance phase they are on the road to being a pack leader.

Getting out and actually working with the dog will give people the experience needed to learn the levels of praise and correction that are required to get a dog to do what is wanted. Applying sound pack structure principles in your day to day lives will establish you and family members as higher pack members in your family pack.

I wrote an article titled THE GROUND WORK TO ESTABLISHING PACK STRUCTURE. You may want to read it.

Never forget that "most dogs prefer being followers." Most dogs don't want to be pack leaders. When a dog owner learns to control the lives of a pet he will become the pack leader his dogs want him to be.