Now, I am all in favor of loving relationships between dog and owner. But dogs need rules just like we do.

The most important rule in dog training is…Dogs always look to a pack leader, and if you are not the pack leader the dog may begin to think they are. This is a problem, trust me. If your dog does not respect a human being as the pack leader the dog will think of the home as a place they can rule and reign.

Dogs are very programmable. You probably have heard of Pavlov’s dog study. When a bell rang, the dog’s mouth watered because he anticipated a meal. This was the case because of classical conditioning- repetition meant to teach the dog that when the bell rang they would get a big, juicy steak.

Pavlov’s study is not just an experiment. It is translatable to our world, but in the dog world see it as the everyday life of a dog. Dogs learn through repetition. If something happens several times they know its going to happen again. If a dog is allowed to break rules more than once then most likely they will soon learn that as a rule.