The Doggie Dungeon

Your Dog Doesn't Have To Live In A Dungeon

Your dog spends all day making choices
that he hopes will result in your attention
or some other form of reward.

Do you spend all day ignoring all the good behaviors,
waiting for the dog to do something bad
so that you can “correct” him?

Are you systematically teaching your dog
to choose bad behaviors?

It is no wonder that so many people
live with unruly dogs.

Will this potentially wonderful puppy
grow up to be a Doggie Outlaw?

Will she be banished to the dungeon?

How does a sweet, innocent angelic puppy
turn into the monstrous bane of your existence?

It’s simple.

Just don’t do anything to raise her right,
and you’ll teach her to be an outlaw.

You’ll have a carpet-wetting,
couch eating, child chasing,
food stealing, hand biting,
garbage raiding, yard digging,
barking, wandering outlaw.

You may actually develop
an adversarial relationship
with your dog,
until you say to yourself,
something’s got to give!

You are living with a creature
that seems to have it in for you
and is doing something “bad”
every minute of her waking day.

One of the dictionary definitions
for the word “outlaw”
is an uncontrollable animal.

But the word suggests someone
who is living outside the law.

How can your dog
break the “laws” in your family
if you’ve never shown him or her
what kind of behavior
was expected in the first place?

You have to set up the laws by which
you want your puppy to live within your family.

There are millions of dog owners out there
adopting cute, innocent puppies,
and then dumping them in shelters
six months later because
they are out of control.

Who was in charge of controlling the dog?

Many people erroneously expect
the dog to control himself.

It happens every day.

Humans adopt a canine into their family
and are shocked when the puppy insists
on behaving like a canine.

Humans somehow get the idea
that all you add is love,
and the little cutie will grow into
a charming, subdued, noble
and judicious guardian of the family.

What is equally unacceptable
is that the ones that aren’t dumping
their canine outlaws on someone else,
are living with them.

These people are accepting a life of
daily combat with their dogs,
because they don’t want to
dump them in a shelter.

They just think that dogs are supposed to be
rude, wild, fiendish idiots.

People see well-behaved dogs in public
and they are astonished.
It’s as though they are looking at
an anomaly of nature.

What is shocking is the description of their own dogs.

“My dog would never be that calm in public,” they say.

“He’d be jumping all over the place and probably biting people.”

These people have made for themselves a life of hell,
and they have made their dog a prisoner
by not teaching him the simple things
that all dogs can & should know.

To them, well behaved dogs look like
extraordinary departures from reality.

They look flawless.

Flawless dogs are made, not born.

And it doesn’t take a genius to create one.

Every dog can become a well-behaved, model citizen.

Every single dog in the world can be a wonderful pet.

Some people think it is beyond their capability
to transform an unruly puppy
into a perfectly behaved adult dog,
but it is so easy.

The fact that people just continue
to not do anything
to shape their dog’s behavior,
and are content to live with
an atrociously out-of-control beast
is really very sad.

So many people have lost hope that
“their dog” will ever be
socially acceptable,
so they do what they think
is one step better
than sending him to the shelter.

Millions of dogs get locked in the garage,
crated in the basement,
or chained in the back yard
like a prisoner...a criminal.

Their existance is lonely, cold, damp, dark & bleek.

You can see it in their eyes.

There is seldom human contact.

In short, they are sent to the dungeon.

This is so distressing,
because these dogs could be
mannerly family members.

Everyone has the capability of shaping a life.

It’s a very simple matter of rewarding acceptable behaviors
and ignoring or punishing unacceptable behaviors.

If people can’t work this out
with creatures as easy to mold as dogs,
then what on earth are they doing,
trying to raise children?

All of the principles
for raising dogs and children
are the same.

You don’t need to buy
a special collar for the dog
and go to an obedience class and learn
to apply various punishments,
as if you were taming a wild beast.

Dog training is like child training.

It is a 24-7 operation.

You do it all day long, every day, with very little effort.

Every single decision your dog makes
requires a choice.

You simply have to teach him to choose wisely.

To do this you apply consequences
to each thing your dog does.

Traditional training relied on waiting
until the dog did something wrong
so that you could punish him.

Well, guess what?
From the dog’s point of view,
he’s making choices
based on what rewards he gets.

Oops!

We’re working against each other here.

The dog tries lying quietly at your feet.

Well, rats!

That didn’t do him any good...

The dog thinks,
“Let’s try another behavior to get some attention.”

“I think I’ll sit here and not cause any trouble.

I’ll not bark and I’ll not jump up.
I’ll just stare adoringly at my master.”

Oops.

“That’s not working, either,
I can’t seem to get any attention from my owner.
Not a glance, not a stroke, not a word...

I wonder what on earth I can do
to get someone to notice me around here.

I think I’ll run at the glass door and bark at the squirrels.”

What a tragedy!

While you were waiting for the dog
to do something which needed a correction,
your dog was making lots of choices,
(many of them GOOD ones),
but you weren’t rewarding them.

You didn’t see the dog as DOING anything.
But in fact, he was doing plenty.
He was NOT barking, NOT jumping,
NOT destroying something
and NOT getting into trouble.

But what did you do?

You ignored all of those good behaviors.

Instead, you were waiting for the dog
to make a mistake,
so that you could “punish” him.

When you yell at him
for throwing himself against the glass door
(the first excitement he’s had all day),
he says, “Well, FINALLY!"

"Something got a rise out of my dead beat owner."

"From the attention I’m getting,
I guess this is a pretty worthwhile behavior."

"I’ll choose to do it more often!”

So... Let’s review this....

Your dog spends all day making choices
that he hopes will result in your attention
or some other form of reward for him.

You spend all day ignoring all the good behaviors,
waiting for the dog to do something bad
so that you can “correct” him.

You are systematically teaching your dog
to choose bad behaviors.

When you see your dog doing something good,
give him a reward.

Interpret “something good” as the ABSENCE of something bad.

If you don’t reward these instances
of what you might call “non behaviors,”
they will go away and be replaced
with a behavior
that you probably won’t like.

We’re used to a society that
leaves you alone when you are remarkable or good,
but climbs all over you when you make a mistake.
For this reason, “punishment training” makes sense to us.
But, do you like to be treated this way
by your employer or your spouse?

Would you want your child's’ first-grade teacher
to treat your child in this way?

Positive reinforcement...
[rewarding good behaviors with pleasant consequences]...
works so much better than punishment.

With your guidance ~
No special training and no expensive training equipment needed,
your dog will seek to perform the behaviors
that earn him attention and rewards.
And by controlling the consequences,
you can be sure that he will want to choose
the behaviors that keep him in the “reward zone.”
You don’t even have to worry too much about punishment.
The behaviors that aren’t rewarded will go away on their own.
From the dog’s point of view,
why repeat something that’s not working out for you?

If you think that by not punishing something
that you are rewarding it,
you are wrong.

Ignoring a dog is like a punishment for him.

This is the dog’s formula for making choices:

Is it working?

Do I get favorable consequences for doing this?

What’s in it for me?

Will I get attention?

Will I receive a cookie
(or a click that means I will get a cookie)?

Is it not working?

Do I get no response from my owner?

No cookie, no praise, no dirty looks,
not even yelling or chasing.

Do I really want to pursue this behavior
when it gets me NO attention?

Basically, the dog’s mind says,
if it’s working, I’ll keep it in my repertoire.
I’ll do it more often.
It may even become my favorite behavior.
If it’s not working, it will go by the wayside.

It’s not a behavior worth repeating.

With this formula, it is ridiculously easy
to have total control
of your dog’s choices.

He makes the correct choice
because you manipulate the consequences,
providing positive consequences
for good behaviors
or the absence of bad behaviors.

Remember, your dog has no idea which is which.
Your dog hasn’t a clue
that sitting calmly in the corner
during dinner is good
and begging at the table is bad.
So don’t wait for him to form choices
based on your notions of what is good or bad.

The thing that is so wrong
about traditional training methods
is the waiting.
While you’re waiting for a behavior you can punish,
to teach the dog a lesson,
you’re ignoring the hundreds of lessons
that could be taught on a day-to-day basis
if you were to reward all of those instances
of “non-bad” behaviors.

And, when you finally give the attention-starved animal
the tongue-lashing he deserves for some misdeed,
he’s thinking this is the “good stuff.”

He doesn’t perceive it as punishment at all,
because whatever you do to him,
it’s better than the constant ignoring of all behaviors
that you have been doing.

The dog decides if something
is a reward or a punishment,
and a dog that only receives attention when he’s wrong,
will think that this is a pretty good way
to get noticed by the owner.
By waiting for a bad behavior, that’s exactly what you’ll get.
The dog will exhaust all of
the possible GOOD behaviors
and get nothing,
so he will invariably start trying bad behaviors,
and “bingo,” he hits the jackpot.

This is why so many dogs end up in the dungeon

With positive training, that sweet, angelic puppy
will remain sweet and become well behaved his whole life long.
He will offer only the behaviors
that have resulted in positive consequences.

He doesn’t entertain any thoughts
of naughty or unseemly behavior,
because you have made sure to reward
only the nice and appropriate behaviors.

With hardly any effort at all,
you will have the companion dog you deserve.

He is not an outlaw.

Please don't make him pay for your mistakes.

He doesn't deserve to live in a dungeon.

He deserves an owner
who will take the time
to teach him the rules of the household
in a positive way.

Then you can take him with you,
and he’ll be on his best behavior.

You will hear people say, “Look at that lovely dog!"

"My dog would never be that calm and obedient in public...”

And you will pat his magnificent head
and smile proudly.

Please break the chains of loneliness.

Your dog deserves better.

*The puppy shown on this page does not
nor will she ever live in a dungeon.

Her name is Brenna
and she is owned by
Cuddlespice Cockapoos.

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