Canine Nation on Pet Life Radio (PetLifeRadio.com)

My dogs are silly sometimes. I’m quite proud of that. And I’m delighted that I get to be silly with them too. There is nothing quite like getting down on the floor and rolling around with my black dogs! With a little training and practice, we have created many fun and safe games that we play together. It’s a great way to teach them the rules and reward them with fun. And I never have to yell at them to 'knock it off!'

My dogs are silly sometimes. I’m quite proud of that. And I’m delighted that I get to be silly with them too. There is nothing quite like getting down on the floor and rolling around with my black dogs! With a little training and practice, we have created many fun and safe games that we play together. It’s a great way to teach them the rules and reward them with fun. And I never have to yell at them to 'knock it off!'

I hear the word dominant used a lot when people talk about dogs. Unfortunately it’s a mostly inaccurate term that is used incorrectly. And that often results in some pretty rough treatment for some dogs. Do you think you have a dominant dog? You might want to think again. In fact, you might want to take a step back and make sure of what you mean when you say dominant. It’s time we took a closer look and found a different way to talk about unwanted behavior.

Most dog owners are proud of their dogs when they are behaving themselves. But it never surprises me how often dog owners blame their dogs for their own failures as trainers. We find it all too easy to blame their dogs for when then see them misbehaving. Do we have a right to put responsibility for bad behavior on our dogs? I don’t know but I’m sure we have a responsibility to teach them so we never have to make that call. Is it the owner or is it the dog? I’m pretty sure I know who is at fault.

Sometimes all we need to do to help our dogs be better is to interrupt their bad behavior and show them something better. Working with our dogs doesn’t have to be a fight. A friendly reminder can go a long way!

Training our dogs is important. But maybe more important is how we manage them. Sometimes management is needed while we train and other management is a lifelong project. It could be managing their environment, their access to spaces or objects, it could even by the situations we put them in. How we manage our dogs can mean the difference between a "good dog" and a dog that we are constantly yelling at. Management can be simple but it takes planning and thought. In the end, it’s all to make our dogs and ourselves successful.

While debates rage on whether or not using positive training with your dog is a good idea or not, those of us who use it every day are enjoying what it brings to our lives. Many of our dogs have developed very clever and creative ways to get our attention or to earn their rewards. Some have even learned to outfox us and make us laugh. And there is nothing wrong with a little playfulness and joy. Dog training is not all about serious obedience and performance, after all

Could it be that there is a Tyranny of Small Dogs? Tyranny not because the dogs themselves are doing anything wrong. Quite the opposite; small dogs seem to have a tremendous capacity to lull us humans into thinking that we don’t have to work with them like we would a larger breed. Somehow we expect them to be great little dogs just because they are small and cute and we get to cuddle them. And that could be working against them if we are not giving them the training and structure they need.

Our culture is full of images of courageous, loyal, smart, and lovable dogs. Many of those dogs are just fictional ideals, the sort of perfect dog we all wish we could have. Perhaps our idealism goes even further than that if we also attribute the best in human qualities to our dogs. And that’s where we need to be careful. If we put to much expectation on our dogs, do we lose sight of their own qualities that make them so remarkable? Perhaps we should love our dogs for who and what they are and not risk being disappointed if they do not live up to our unrealistic expectations.

Our culture is full of images of courageous, loyal, smart, and lovable dogs. Many of those dogs are just fictional ideals, the sort of perfect dog we all wish we could have. Perhaps our idealism goes even further than that if we also attribute the best in human qualities to our dogs. And that’s where we need to be careful. If we put to much expectation on our dogs, do we lose sight of their own qualities that make them so remarkable? Perhaps we should love our dogs for who and what they are and not risk being disappointed if they do not live up to our unrealistic expectations.