While being a dog owner has many benefits, one of the biggest difficulties new dog owners face is dealing with a disobedient and energetic dog. Not only can it be a personal problem that causes stress but it can quickly lead to affecting the lives of your family, friends, and in some cases even your furniture and property. Some problems, such as barking, can even lead to restless nights and uncomfortable confrontations with your neighbors.

While everybody knows about the issues of an untrained dog, it seems that only people able to fix it are high priced trainers. The truth is that almost anyone can learn how to train a dog because it all comes back to one core concept, instinct. Learning how to train a dog isn’t about using any fancy toys, covert hand signals, or silent whistles. It’s all about knowing how your dog thinks of itself and of it’s owners.

Humans tend to forget that dogs are animals, and like most animals they are born with certain characteristics, behaviors, and instincts that all link back to survival. Remember that in the wild dogs are pack animals, which is probably why they blend in so well with a family. But because they are pack animals they function in two different modes, the first mode is as if it was the pack leader. More often than not dogs with behavior problems function at this level, they have a sense that because they are in charge they depend on others to look out for them and that they can do what they want, when they want, and how they want.

The second mode of function, is as a fellow member of the pack. This is the level where obedient and trained dogs function at, and when they think of themselves as a member instead of a leader they shift their position in the pack. They no longer put themselves first, they put the rest of the pack (the family) first and begin obeying the leader (you). But since you are now the leader of the pack, your dog will be much more dependent on you which means you will have a much larger role in it’s daily life.