Get your own Free Home Page"Dogs are animals.
Accepting that simple fact will help you learn to communicate with your dog on his level, in a manner that he can understand. Unfortunately, most Humans don't speak 'K9' and dogs do not instinctively speak or understand Human languages. The conflict is inevitable unless both learn to communicate with one another.
Suzanne Clothier, in her article, The Fine Art of Observation states:
Dogs live and act in a world of exquisitely subtle signals in their interactions with each other. Our observations and communications in our interactions with them must seem unbelievably coarse at times to these sophisticates of nonverbal communication. Turned around the other way, we would perceive such inattentiveness to our subtle signals as rude, uncaring or perhaps simply stupid. Fortunately for us, dogs bring to the human-dog relationship their wonderful powers of observation, allowing them to be highly aware of our posture, breathing, muscular tensions, and facial expressions, often reacting to changes of which we are not aware. Training or behavior problems often result from the dog's response to signals we unknowingly have sent. Unfortunately, the dog is often blamed, rather than the handler.
The following articles on communication is geared toward the puppy in its formulative stage (3-16 weeks old). By providing leadership for the puppy to follow from the moment he comes into our lives, we can usually prevent any dominance/aggression issues from developing. Further, clear communication will enhance your relationship with your puppy, and the clear communication you will be able to give him will make his training easy.
Next: Canine Body Language - 101
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