We often hear people use the phrase “Bad Dog!” when their pet is doing something they don’t want him to do. We think the phrase should be dropped, and not just because the words are often uttered with anger, which does nothing to help a dog calm down so he can learn a new way to behave.
It’s also that dogs are very good at being dogs. They’re not bad at it at all. If you leave garbage accessible and they go rummaging through it, they’re very correctly acting on their canine instinct to sniff interesting odors and root through the “objects” to see if there’s anything worth eating or rolling around in. If you let your dog off leash and he goes running up to someone and perhaps jumps on the person, he’s applying his instinct to be friendly or inquisitive or simply to respond to stimuli.
In other words, if your dog does things you don’t want him to do, you haven’t yet gotten as good as you’d like at training him to redirect his behavior. It has nothing to do with his own badness or goodness.
Your article on “bad dog” ends shortly after it begins. I was expecting you to continue by pointing out that telling your dog he’s doing the wrong thing fails to tell him what he should be doing instead, and that leaves your dog feeling helpless – and there are myriad side effect behaviors that result causing him to behave “worse”. You dont want to be the impetous behind more unwanted behavior. Solution: ignore mistakes, set him up for success by limiting his opportunities to goof and focus on rewarding his “correct” behavior. Identify the behavior you want him to exhibit first – it might be anything but the bad” behavior – preferably you choose something you have already trained him to do, like sit. And then when he does it reward him. This is very empowering for the dog. If he doesnt sit, dont get mad! It helps if the dog already understands a “command” Use an easy behavior he knows as a default behavior you can ask for as an alternative whatever he’s doing that you dont want. Now he’s got something he can do to earn the rewards in life he – like all creatures – want in order to have some conttrol over his life. It’s a win-win to make things positive between you.
I agree we should all pick up after our pets. My question is: I pick it up and bag it……where and how should the bag be disposed if the chemicals are harmful to the earth. If I put it in regular garage isn’t it going to emit these chemicals in the land fill, still creating a problem?