Discipline (dogs behaviour)

DISCIPLINE
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Discipline is not punishment; it is a set of rules, boundaries, and limitations in order to correct a behavior. Dogs experience discipline in early age from their mother, and this is a natural part of a dog’s life. Boundaries and rules are very important in that they assure owner’s leadership and help to keep the dog away from dangerous situations. Owners think that discipline is cruel and threatening to the dog. Discipline is all about carefully guiding dogs to what is right in order to help them learn gradually. Dogs should follow on what they are being guided. These help them to control their behavior. Just like human beings, dogs need to be shown love and a close relationship of bonding with their owners. Discipline does not require physical punishment instead; it requires careful handling in order to build good behavior. Dogs are of different breeds and an owner needs to know what works best for his dogs. BF.Skinner used the example of a dog in explaining classical learning (Overall, 2013). This brings out a strong relationship between dogs and human beings. Therefore, dogs should be treated like children. Punishment is a cruel way to administer discipline. There is a need for dialogue in order to bring out the best behavior. Aggressive behavior always comes from severe punishment. Therefore, the punishment should not be the best way of administering discipline.
With these, we see that discipline does not entail punishment; it entails guidelines to good behavior.

It comes from the great understanding between the administrator of discipline and the receiver of discipline. A dog reciprocates well when it is shown love. An owner should always guide his dog in a friendly manner to create good behavior at present and in future.
The reward should not be a substitute for good behavior and discipline should always be the best way because dogs are not of the same breed. A dog may change behavior at the sight of a reward, and afterwards, it may go back to the previous behavior in the absence of the reward. Therefore, the reward is not the best method of administering good behavior. Consistent use of reward leads to familiarization and therefore not effective. An example is a parent who brings regular snacks to his child; it reaches a point that a child takes it as a necessity and starts demanding them. However, rewards are very important when training a dog through positive feedback we can make dogs do what we want them to do. However, when disciplining a dogrewards are simply not enough. In order to discourage unwanted behavior, we need to use corrections. In some cases when the dog does not obey his owner, positive punishment might be necessary to assure the dominance and leadership. This is often seen as aversive by most of the trainers and dog owners, however, accepted by behaviorists, and seen as a part disciplining the dog. Of course, punishments and discipline should only be used if there is a need to correct a behavior, other than that, positive rewards should be preferred.
Discipline is very essential. This is seen when a mother dog growls and throws a sharp glimpse on the pups and immediately the pups change behavior. Owners should use this example and consider discipline. Discipline should be a part of growing up for children and pups and should continue to be administered even for fully-grown dogs. Bitches administer discipline to pups as a part of development in the weaning period. Discipline ensures that dogs become submissive to learning. Good behavior is learned through compromise, pups compromise good behavior for their mothers bite.
When discipline is not administered in the early stages of a dog’s life, it leads to fear and aggressive behavior in the dog. The dog learns to interact well with others during playing, and it translates to boldness in the dog during adulthood. The dog stands for itself in a pack of dogs and is able to fight well. This shows that the dog is courageous and has no fear. It learns to offer protection to the owner without fear and knows its place in the society. These create a good place for it to live in the society.
Owners struggle in administering behavior in the dogs. The owners are torn between disciplining and not disciplining the dog. They see that when administering discipline they are being cruel to the dog of which is not the case. Discipline as seen earlier compromise good behavior. On the other hand, administering discipline creates good relationship between its counterparts when it becomes an adult. They also confuse between discipline and punishment. They think that the best way to administer behavior is through positive reinforcement. This comes with its disadvantages. Owners should know that discipline is the key thing to good behavior and that owners should learn the best guidelines. Aversive training, however, is not good since it leads to pain and owners should research on appropriate means of administering discipline. The training may result in negative behavior as opposed to good behavior. The dog knows clearly that pain originates from the owner and not from the bad behavior. It may associated discipline with playing and may reciprocate it to the owner either by biting. The dog may result in running when a person comes near them because seeing the face of a person means that the person is coming to instill pain. This makes the dog afraid of people and may run away or growl on the sight of a coming person. Instead of offering its primary obligation; protection and being a pet, it becomes afraid of people and runs away. These make most owners afraid of administering disciplines to their dogs. To prevent misinterpretation of the dog’s impression of discipline, the discipline should be administered immediately the dog performs the negative behavior. These make the dog know why it is being punished which helps to avoid putting the dog under stressful circumstances. Just like human beings, dogs are able to relate a series of events and owners should consider this.
Discipline is an integral part of the society. Some owners differ with these since they think that discipline is cruel. They think that discipline is against the animal rights. The big question comes in when the mother dog administers discipline to the pups. Therefore, owners are obliged to administer discipline, as this is an integral part of the society. Dogs misbehave in various ways; one way is through their toileting. It is so disgusting for the dogs to pee in the house. Another form of indiscipline is dogs eating what they are not supposed to eat. Therefore, these clearly show that there is a need for administering discipline to dogs. Discipline forms part of training for the dogs. For proper training, owners should administer discipline. However, the proper means of correct discipline should be advocated. The owner should form the leader of the pack and set the rules. The dogs through the leader will learn what is expected of them. They will gradually learn of the do’s and don’ts and these constitute good behavior in the dogs.
In conclusion, discipline is an essential part of a dog’s life, and an owner should learn the best means of administering it. Discipline is different from punishment. Discipline should be administered to create good qualities, essential characteristics, and good behaviors in dogs. Obedience training does not make your dog disciplined; it is just a set of commands that relies on rewards. If there happens to be, something more rewarding than your treat then your dog will not obey you. However, disciplined dogs obey out of respect, which ensures that in new, unexpected situations they still see you as a leader who will decide what is allowed to do. Owners should learn that discipline constitutes an integral part of the society and dogs should be with good disciplines just like human being
Reference
Overall, K. (2013). Manual of clinical behavioral medicine for dogs and cats. St. Louis, MO: Elsevier.