The Psychology of Dog Obedience Los Angeles Style

Usually, dog obedience is dog obedience no matter where you go, but dog obedience Los Angeles style has something different to offer.  Several dog obedience trainers in the Los Angeles area use psychological methods for obedience training.  They say that, with dog obedience Los Angeles style, they can train any dog in just a few sessions.

Dog obedience Los Angeles style, using psychological methods, relies on two basic principles of dog psychology.  The first is pack behavior, and the second is reinforcement training. 

Dogs live in packs in nature, and their psychology enables them to find their proper place in the pack.  You and your family are their pack, and bad behavior is usually because the dog can’t identify a pack leader, so he decides it must be him.  Dog obedience, Los Angeles trainers say, depends on the dog respecting and trusting you as the pack leader.  If you want a well-behaved dog, you must dominate and he must submit.

Having a trainer train your dog doesn’t establish you as the pack leader.  So, dog obedience Los Angeles style trains you to train your dog.  The trainers show you how to assume dominance.  They teach you to train your dog to lie down and sit almost immediately, because those are submissive positions.  If you command your dog to sit, and he sits and stays sitting, you have established dominance.

The second important principle of the psychology of dog obedience Los Angeles style is behavior modification.  Remember Pavlov’s dogs?  That was the original behavior modification experiment.  Behavior modification isn’t always successful with people, but it works very well with dogs.  That is, it works with dogs that trust and respect their dominant handlers.

Behavior modification means that you reward the behavior you want your dog to continue.  You reward him with praise and attention, not food.  For dogs, food goes to the dominant dog, and if you reward the dog with food, you are undermining your own dominance.  You are confusing the dog, and may even be teaching him to be aggressive.  Remember, you are using dog psychology to train your dog.  You are the head dog in your family, and you have to behave like it.  So you reward him like an alpha dog would: with love and acceptance and praise.

Psychological dog training makes sense, and it is said to be very effective.  Of course, you have to keep reinforcing what the dog learns.  And the trainers of dog obedience Los Angeles style will check with you frequently, to reinforce what you have learned.