Dog Manners and Dog Upbringing

Dogs have never, ever, walked alone. They have, history tells us, always lived in social groups called packs. Each pack member has his own position or rank in the pack. So is it with your puppy.

Once he is able to walk and interact, he will immediately try to determine his position in the litter. A puppy soon learns that if he is submissive, the other puppies will push him away from the food. If he is larger and stronger than the other puppies he will most likely be the one doing the pushing.

After you pick him up, he has to re-establish his position. If he was the bully of the litter, he may try to bully his new pack members. If he was submissive with his littermates, he will probably start out being submissive. As he grows older and larger he will try to determine where he fits into this new human pack. His ultimate rank will depend on how his human pack members, your family and you, respond to his actions in various situations.

When first introduced to his new family, a puppy will usually act somewhat submissive.

When greeted, your new puppy may roll over on his back and urinate or he may squat and urinate. This is his way of asking you to treat him well. If he submits in this manner, do not scold him or you will make the problem worse. As a puppy grows older he will take his cues on how he should respond to his new owners by the way they react to his actions.

Sometimes children may create a problem. They are not able to interpret a puppy’s body language and they do not back off when warned. After a couple of times, the puppy feels he has had enough and bites the child. Other members of the family may not know about the earlier incidents so when the child finally gets bitten, the mom or dad will often say the puppy bit the child for no reason or with no previous warning. Naturally, they may want to get rid of the puppy.

If a puppy gets away with threatening a younger member of the family whenever he wants his way, he will usually try the same thing with the other family members. If the family member corrects him and lets him know he should never growl at humans, the puppy has just learned that his position in the new family is lower than the family member who corrected him but still higher than the person he threatened.

Growing up in a social atmosphere
Once he determines his family ranking and he submits to higher-ranking family members, there may not be any more problems until he reaches his social maturity. The best way to describe social maturity is when the puppy becomes a teenager. Social maturity usually occurs between 12-36 months of age, with 18-24 months of age being the norm. He is now older, stronger, and more confident and his attitude toward family members may change. This mildmannered, young, adult dog may now begin to challenge higher-ranking members of his human pack that he had previously submitted to.

The best to way assure your puppy knows his proper position in his human pack is to begin making him earn everything he receives, as soon as he joins your family. Prior to receiving anything such as food, petting, or play, you must make him sit to earn these.

Nothing in life is free. He must work to get what he wants.