Dogs who cock their legs in other peoples houses (like my house grrr!) Dogs who "walk" their owners, pulling as if they're pulling a cart. Dogs who chew shoes, howl, bark and go crazy at anything. Dogs that jump up at you - or worse strangers and worse still stranger's kids. Or the worst of all - dogs that bite or try to bite you, other dogs, or worse other people...which can mean a death sentence for the dog.

Just about every dog owner truly wants to train their dog well. But a nearly equal number will underestimate the time, skill and elbow grease it takes to do it as it needs to be done - Especially if they are a new dog owner and have bought a high energy breed when they should have gone for a lower energy submissive type. The result is often a common catalog of errors that can be, with more or less effort, headed off before they begin.

Lets get one thing carved in stone right away - Dogs are not hairy fluffy kids. We can wish it were so but it's not and never will be! Though the average grown dog has a mental development someplace approximately on the level of a human two year old, there are more deviations than there are similarities. Dogs can be astounding at understanding verbal communication. But they don't reason out or get context the way humans do. They don't associate cause and effect in the same way.

As a result, it can be frustrating to repeat the same command over and over, only to have the dog apparently ignore you. Most times, they are not ignoring the command as much as failing to understand it. It seems it should be obvious - they've done the action with success many times before - but today they are just 'being obstinate'.

Some dogs likely are what would, in humans, be called obstinate. But they can be easily distracted, or fail to associate today's case of 'come' with yesterday's action and subsequent reward. There are other explanations for their behavior.

Patience is the number one required quality, therefore. You have to be geared up to repeat the same order, day in and day out, and occasionally not get the same outcome. Many dogs take two years to learn anything beyond the easiest basics to the point that it consistently sticks.

Part of that patience means keeping your temper when you would like to lash out physically. It's easy to use physical punishment as the first route of correcting a dog's behavior. But that's reserved in the wild for only the most severe circumstances. So, the dog hasn't evolved to understand why you're getting at them. It instills fear, not trust. Just don't EVER do it. It's totally counter-productive and won't help anyway.

Dogs, like humans, much more readily follow those they trust than those they fear. The latter they do only when they have no choice. But dogs make choices very differently from people. They will usually just endure the punishment without learning anything. Physical punishment IS NOT an effective training method.

So, here's how NOT to train your dog:

- Forget that your dog has a nature unlike yours. Talk to them like they were a human child. Call them and act to them like "my baby" ahh my little soldier etc. Would mummy's little man like a sweetie? STOP - It's a dog - Do wild dogs treat each other like that? No they don't. So stop acting against nature and learn to treat your dog like wild dog pack leader treats pack.

- Believe that the dog can associate consequences across time and conditions, then draw the same conclusion you would. Except that is - ironically - bad lessons. Dogs learn to associate bad things very well which is a fast route to creating a fearful and dangerous dog.

- Get impatient and frustrated when they don't behave as you want them to. Punish them for not behaving the way you want. As with above, impatience and punishment create fear . Fear creates aggression and/or neurotic behavior.

Follow those futile techniques and you'll harvest the pay back of a neurotic dog and you will be an unhappy owner. But if these are not the results you desire, be prepared to change YOUR behavior, before you try to alter the dog's.