Happy Paws Dog Training Services

  Over the years I've gotten tons of calls from clients insisting that their dog is "spiteful", and that the poor behavior choices they made were to get back at their owner for being gone, not paying attention to them, reprimanding them, etc.

  Because of this, I thought it might be best to address this line of thinking and put all fears and concerns like this, to bed.

  Truth be told, it's not in your dog's genetic make up to offer behaviors simply out of spite.  As humans, we all too often assume our dog understands exactly what he's doing, as if he's a 10 year old child drawing with crayons on a wall after being told not to.  We "humanize" our dogs to the point where we truly believe Fido knew full well that it was not allowed to go to the bathroom in the house or chew on your designer chair, but because we left for work instead of staying home to play tug, he must have been mad and done it to get back at us. 

  I can assure you that this is not the case, afterall, your dog is not a human and does not have the cognitive skills to procure such a conclusion. Even a dog with separation anxiety isn't destroying things or eliminating while you're gone because he's mad you left, he does those things because he does not understand you will be returning, and that while you're gone that he is safe. But that's another topic entirely.

  Let's put it in perspective.  Your dog only has the ability to remember something for 5-7 seconds, total.  That is his entire memory retention threshold, and this includes the genius dogs out there.  He isn't able to plan and plot against you, because he couldn't remember what he may have been upset about long enough to do so.  That's why during training classes we focus on making things routine and consistent.  Habits will then be solidified and we as our dog's primary caretakers will have set boundaries and practiced cues to guide our dogs successfully.

  Unlike children, if you put your dog in time out he's not contemplating his bad behavior so that at a later point he won't repeat the same mistakes, he's just sitting in time out doing his doggie thing, wagging his tail, sniffing around, looking over the baby gate (if you have one).

But hey, this is good news! If your dog is incapable of remembering for an extended period of time, then he is more than capable of learning alternative behaviors, because he's not holding a grudge.

Your dog is willing and ready to please you, to learn from you, and to be your loving companion. 

What more could you ask for?

-Mallery Chabot, ABCDT.