A Canine That Behaves
There’s no ‘magic’ or luck behind creating the perfect dog. It is done through creating a balance of trust and respect between you and your dog. With total trust and respect, you needn’t worry about the “what if”s, such as “what if my dog bites?” “what if my dog runs off?” and so on. These what ifs are based on a lack of mutual trust, which is created between human and dog when the human knows how.
Main aspects involved in developing respect and trust:
The dog walk – one of the biggest factors in deciding if your relationship with your dog is as healthy as it could be, trust and respect both ways is earned on the walk.
The leader of the walk sets the position and the followers look to the leader for guidance on where to position themselves. So a simple technique is to start off by having your dog on a leash, and keeping him next to or behind you, and not pulling, that means no tension on the leash. This means that you are setting the position, and the dog will soon get the point that you are leading the walk, you earn respect as the dog looks to you for direction on position.
If you find that tension occurs on the leash during the walk, one of two things is occurring. One, you are not projecting leadership and confidence enough, perhaps you are frustrated or in a rush, are you holding your arm in a relaxed manner so that you are not transmitting stress down the leash? Give trust by trusting your dog will not pull or misbehave and give respect by respecting their need for discipline and structure, particularly on the walk.
Loving your dog is one thing, but if your dog misbehaves or acts up on the walk, maybe you should try and give another kind of love. Love to dogs means structure and work beforehand. Consistent rules such as when to leave for walking, when to awaken, when to play, the leader sets all of these rules and it results in a healthier relationship wherein the dog understands the love you are giving.
Some of this information was gathered from the site of dog behaviorist George Manning.