Many dog problems are a result of the owner intentionally, or accidentally, practicing and rewarding bad habits over a very long time. Then, when they decide they don’t like the bad habit anymore, they crack down on the dog, often in some harsh manner they found on the internet or from friends.
How unfair.
And unrealistic.
We train dogs to do amazing skills by practicing and rewarding them repeatedly over a long period of time. We also train dogs to do amazingly annoying, and sometimes dangerous, skills by letting them practice and obtain rewards, repeatedly over a long period of time.
What is first learned is last forgotten.
I don’t have many students have these problems with their dogs if they started with me early on and did the things I recommended… diligently. Sometimes people forget the small details I mentioned, and a typical problem crops up instead. I don’t do an “I told you so” thing to them. That isn’t kind. But I remind them of things I recommended, even from the very first lesson.
Simple example: dogs that jump up on people during greetings. For a young pup, everyone is super happy that the pup loves them. The pup is rewarded repeatedly for jumping up. That strengthens, or reinforces, the jumping. It hardens it as the jumping is rewarded intermittently as the dog gets older. Now the dog can randomly jump up, get a reward, even self-rewarding by initiating the jumping, and now like the gambler, the habit is even harder to extinguish.
It would have been easier to not reward jumping from the very first day. No punishment required, just don’t reward it.
Now the dog is big, a year or more older, and the jumping isn’t enjoyed any more, or it has become dangerous because granny can be knocked down. People start cracking down on this learned action, but find the punishments aren’t working. That’s because they are losing their cool, the old rewards are still paying the dog’s expectations, jumping still happens and gets self-rewarded, and so the jumping keeps going on. Then, the owners start surfing the web for solutions… all harsh. Imagine how confused a dog becomes when the greetings become harsh and painful. What does that do to the relationship between the dog and owner? Guess what it does to the obedience training, especially the Come command. These internet gurus have no skin in the game. It doesn’t matter to the keyboard warriors what happens to their dog. It isn’t their dog.
So, first: PREVENTION. There are great ways to teach a more mannerly greeting from the very start that don’t require any punishment.
Second, you will need to overlay new training, with many repetitions, using better methods that work. Quick fixes don’t work… all skills require many correct repetitions of the right way. And your concept of what works won’t work.
Why are you listening to people with no skin in the game?
What skill did you ever learn to do quickly?
Plan accordingly.