21/11/2019
The secret to a well-trained dog is the work with their canine behaviour and not expect them to behave like humans.
DOGS ARE NOT CHILDREN
A dog is a DOG.
Canis lupus familiaris.
It is NOT a "fur baby."
It does not speak English. It speaks DOG.
You cannot warn a dog about consequences, or explain to them why you are taking away their allowance.
A dog does not have morality, does not believe in heaven, and does not fear hell, or what his grandparents will say “when they find out”.
If you punish a dog in the afternoon for what it did in the morning, it has no positive impact at all.
Not so with a child.
A dog eats on the floor and it eats dog food. As a rule, this is discouraged with children.
A dog needs a collar and a tag, and it needs it to be walked on a lead for 30 minutes twice a day at the very least. Do this with a child, and child protective services may be called.
A dog should sleep in a crate at night. Do this with a child, and child protective services WILL be called.
Do not give your dog the remote control to your TV and expect it to change channels. It will eat the remote, and you will have a very expensive veterinary bill.
Do not give your dog a computer. It will not turn it on, but it will eat your couch because it got very bored because you did not understand that a dog's basic needs are NOT the same as a child's (or a fish, or an elephant, or a parrot).
Do not give your dog a book. It will only eat it.
Do not expect your dog to crap inside the toilet bowl. If you do, it will crap on the rug.
Dogs drink from puddles, bark routinely, bite on occasion, and turn around three times before they curl up in the grass. If your child does this, please seek professional help for said child.
Do not send your dog to a public school; they will not train your dog for you. Instead, they will turn your dog over to the pound where it will be put down, if unclaimed, within 3-5 days.
People who raise perfectly acceptable children (in part because they are sent to school for 8-10 hours a day) may have dogs that are completely out of control because they alone are responsible for training their dogs.
Job One with a dog is to accept the dog AS A DOG.
Know how to read dog, and know how to speak dog -- it will save you a lot of time.
A dog has different mental, exercise, social, and communication needs than a human.
A dog has a limited brain and the smartest dog does not think much better than a brain-damaged 4 year old. Accept this. A dog is not a child.
Dogs see colors differently than humans, and get most of their communication from scent. A dog is not a child.
Dogs are 100% fluent speakers of DOG but they generally only know 5 or 6 words of your language.
Dogs are social pack predators and meat-loving carnivores. They consider it normal to roll in s**t and eat it too. They greet each other by sniffing butt, and they drink from the toilet if they have no other access to water because they do not have opposable thumbs to turn on a tap. Many dogs have strong prey drives and some will kill your neighbor's cat as quick as you can say "Bob's your uncle"
In short, a dog is not a child.
Do not deny the nature of a dog or its particular needs, any more than you would that of a woman, a man, a tiger, or a hummingbird.
A dog is a dog. That is more than enough and really quite wonderful. Do not debase the dog by comparing it to a child.
