Halo our 10 week old German Shepherd puppy has been home for three days now. He has taken to Luca or Belgian Malinois quite nicely. Luca is very patient with the puppy and the puppy is relentless when it comes to pestering Luca.
Yesterday Luca was lying on the floor when the puppy decided to climb on him and annoy him. Luca allowed it. Normally I would step in and handle situations like this so the dogs know they don’t have to but I knew Luca would eventually teach the puppy boundaries.
At one point Halo started humping Luca. Luca took it for a few seconds and then erupted. It was loud, it was fast, and it was ferocious. At least ferocious sounding. The puppy screamed and ran to where my wife and kids were sitting. I did not correct Luca because he did exactly what needed to be done. Within 30 seconds Halo was back to playing like a puppy except now he was not pestering Luca.
Even though this sounded and looked bad it was not. I had to explain this to my kids. Luca did not put a scratch on the puppy. Did not hurt him at all. What he did do is apply a perfectly timed correction with the right amount of intensity to stop the behavior and prevent it from ever happening again.
Dogs practice perfect dog training. Luca did not turn his back or offer the puppy a treat for presenting a different behavior. Dogs know what to do but yet there are still trainers out there that think they know more than Mother Nature.
In dog training there must be consequences for doing right and there must be consequences for doing wrong. Unfortunately purely positive trainers think corrections or consequences are abusive and unnecessary. This is wrong and causes hundreds of thousands of dogs to be put down every year.
First thing Halo did to Luca this morning was run to him and lick his mouth. Imagine that, no negative side effects for being corrected by his big brother.
Great post! I have been telling people this for YEARS! I have watched SO many people correct the older dog for correcting a pup’s rude behavior. Some took my advice and those pups grew up respecting the older dogs in the household & naturally learning boundaries needed for dog-dog interactions. Others did not & many times at the pup’s expense. We also have to BE that older dog showing our pups what is not acceptable in a meaningful but noninjurious way. Even Bob Bailey said, & I paraphrase here, that IF you need to use a correction it should be immediate, intense, & if done correctly only need to be implemented once or twice. If it takes more than that then you are not doing it right.
Thank you Kelly