Creative Dog Training

Love, trust, and respect

Love, trust, and respect

These are the building blocks for a great relationship with your dog. What happens when one or two of these are missing from your relationship with your dog?

Imagine that you and your dog love each other with a good bond between you. You have mutual respect for each other. But trust is missing from the mix. Maybe you can’t trust him to be loose in the house. Maybe you don’t trust him around the neighbor’s 2-year-old child. Maybe he is great with people but you can’t trust him with other dogs. Maybe he does not trust you to defend the territory so he does it for you. Maybe he does not trust enough to allow you to trim his toenails. You have a problem in the relationship. Work on building trust between you and your dog.

Imagine that you love your dog and he loves you with a good tight bond. You trust him and he trusts you. But respect is missing from the relationship. He will cling to you demanding every second of your attention. Or he will bully you into doing things his way. He probably follows commands only when there is something in it for him. Maybe you ask him to be a child instead of dog. Respect is a two way street. Respect your dog as the wonderful dog he is. He is not human, nor is he a thing. Demand respect from him as well. Respect means that he treats you as his leader instead of a littermate.

Imagine that you love your dog and he loves you with a good tight bond. But there is no trust or respect in the relationship. This is a train wreck waiting to happen. You will be dealing with either separation anxiety or aggression with this dog. You need to start working on your relationship with your dog yesterday!

Imagine that you don’t particularly love your dog and he could care less about you. Is there likely to be any trust or respect in this relationship. This relationship usually describes the pen dog or the dog tied to the tree in the backyard. Do this dog a favor and find him a new home!

Imagine you don’t really love your dog. It is highly unlikely that trust and respect are present but lets pretend it is there. This relationship could describe the true working dog. I could imagine that a true guard dog, a bomb dog, or a drug dog might fit in to this category. There would still need to be a good tight bond to control this dog.

Imagine that you love your dog and he loves you with a good tight bond between you. You trust him and he trust you. You respect him as a dog and he respects you as his leader. This is the dog that everyone wants and few people have! Work on your relationship with your dog. It is worth the effort to have this type of relationship with your dog.

Listen to our podcast called ‘Starting training with your new puppy (or dog)’. You will learn to start building a great relationship with your dog founded on love, trust, and respect.

Did You Like This Post? Click Here to Share It!!