Being an effective dog owner

20+ years ago, Stephen Covey wrote his classic self-help book entitled “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”. In reviewing some of the underlying themes of the book, let’s see if some of Covey’s significant ideas can be used to enable us to become more effective dog owners.

• Proactivity versus reactivity: often the first thing people do when faced with a situation they don’t like is to react to it, often in a negative way. For example, your dog has chewed your shoes. Your reaction may involve berating your dog either verbally or physically. If there has been a long-time gap between the dog chewing your shoes and you discovering it, the dog may be totally confused as to why he is being told off. Worse still, he may start to believe he is being berated for the last thing he did, which might be as innocent as napping on the floor. Your actions don’t involve teaching your dog what he was supposed to be doing instead and what he should do next time. Being proactive by anticipating potential problems and giving your dog healthy alternatives (for example, a rubber bone to chew or toy to play with), will likely have a more positive outcome.
• Decide on your end goal: instead of having a goal to stop your dog doing something (for example, jumping up at people), set a goal for what you want him to do (for example, sit quietly around people). When your only goal is to stop your dog doing something, you will end up potentially with a long series of wrong behaviours, with increasing frustration for yourself and your dog. Set a positive teaching goal of what action you want to see.
• Prioritize your goals: Before setting teaching goals for your dog, prioritize the goals, ensuring that safety is at the top of the list. If dealing with a young puppy, be cognizant of the short window you have to properly socialize your puppy, prioritizing accordingly.  Also, any behaviours that meet your immediate needs, whatever they may be, should take a higher priority. Furthermore, if there is more than one person living with the dog, make sure the priorities are consistent between all of you.
• Mutual success and benefit: ideally, you want to develop a healthy, respectful relationship with your dog, with respect going both ways. As such, you should build your relationship with your pup like you would any other family member, on mutual respect and love for each other. By approaching the relationship with a win-win frame of mind, will give you the best chance of long-term success.
• Looking at life through your dog’s eyes: to be an effective dog owner, you will need to invest time in learning to see the world through your dog’s eyes and thinking like a dog. This doesn’t mean you start sniffing another person’s crotch or peeing on the Christmas tree! But it does mean understanding your dog’s body language to better understand why he is not doing what you have asked him to do or why he is not grasping the concept you are trying to teach him. For example, is your dog showing signs of stress with his tail between his legs or panting heavily, which is distracting him from being able to focus on what you want him to do.
• Continuous training: training is an on-going, lifelong experience. If not practised regularly, habits can become sloppy and you might find all the hard work you put in when you first got your dog starts to unravel. Try to think of each brief interaction as a teaching moment. 

Don’t forget: positive habits in a pet parent translate to positive habits in your dog as well.