Anger Is a Time-Waster
Jolanta Benal, CPDT-KA, CBCC-KA
Some trainers still advise us to communicate with our dogs as if they understood human moral codes. But dogs don’t have that understanding — or, at least, it doesn’t look as if they do. What if we’re blaming our dogs for doing wrong when they don’t know right from wrong? We’re expecting too much of them and, probably, wasting our time being angry.
So the next time you’re super double sure your dog knows that she did wrong, and knows what she did wrong, take a deep breath and think again. Maybe you need to train a little more, or change something about your dog’s daily schedule, or get professional help with a behavior problem. Whatever’s going on, a good first step in dealing with it is always going to be “Turn off your mad.”
Image courtesy of Shutterstock
About the Author
Jolanta holds professional certifications in both training and behavior counseling and belongs to the Association of Professional Dog Trainers and the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants. She also volunteered with Pet Help Partners, a program of the Humane Society of the United States that works to prevent pet relinquishment. Her approach is generally behaviorist (Pavlovian, Skinnerian and post-Skinnerian learning theory) with a big helping of ethology (animal behavior as observed in non-experimental settings).