Petting
Ideally a dog should never demand your attention or demand to be petted. These things should be earned rewards not something that is your dog's due. You can easily correct demanding behavior by requiring your dog to sit, down or stay before and during the petting. If he breaks from this position, the petting stops until he resumes the position. A good leader should expect the dog to be calm and obedient while he receives attention.
Attention
Most owners ignore their dog when they are being good. This is understandable because it is much easier to ignore your dog sitting quietly by your side or your dog lying on his mat in a corner. It is much more difficult to ignore your dog who is jumping on you or running madly through the house with a dish towel in his mouth. Because of this, most dogs figure that doing bad behavior is what gets them attention. For a social animal like a dog, negative attention is better than no attention at all. A good example of this is when dogs jump up on people.The dog quickly learns that neither standing nor sitting quietly will get him attention he is seeking. So your dog, being very child-like and self centered tries the next best thing that comes to mind to get attention, jumping.. This works every time! :).
Owners must train themselves to be "on the lookout" for their dog's good behavior. Remind yourself and your family members to give the dog extra praise, attention and treats when he's being good. Then he will be less motivated to engage in bad behaviors to get attention.
The next step is to prove to your dog that every time he approaches you or any person and sits, he will get attention. If he suddenly pops out of excitement, simple turn away until he resumes sitting. If this new for your dog, he may need to be guided into the desired sitting behavior and/or prevented from jumping by stepping on the leash.
Jumping is used as the example here for discussing attention but it is easy to use these techniques for any other undesirable behavior your dog engages in to get attention.
Next up:The meat & potatoes of this whole discussion: The specific duties of the Leader.... stay tuned!
Article Written by J. Foley
http://jackthedogtrainer.com
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