How to Untrain your Dog
As a practical expediency, many dogs are trained to relieve themselves in the house because of weather conditions or schedules, or apartment living. When it becomes desirable to relocate that habit to the outdoors, frustration enters. A dog can and does hold out for hours of walking to return to the confines of the house to perform.
Instead of walking the dog the interminable hours necessary, there is the successful albeit indelicate trick of inserting two wooden matches rectally when you reach the area selected for the dog to defecate. Of course, this should be at the time you expect the dog normally to defecate in the house. If in a few minutes, you get no response, insert two more. When the desired results are achieved give the dog a treat immediately, pet it, and let your approval of the event be obvious. A word of warning: if the neighbors see you they may send two men in white coats.
Let’s consider the physical examinations that dogs should have: the exam you should do at home, the one your veterinarian does, and the one a specialist does. The quality of the examination is not proportionate to the knowledge of the examiner – it’s the application of the knowledge that is all important.
Ways how to untrain your Dog
- One very effective way to eradicate a certain undesired habit of a dog is by taking up the method of extinction. To reduce the tendency of a dog to perform a certain act you may simply just ignore the performance of the act. No reception of any response from the owner it loves would discourage the dog to repeat the certain behavior.
- You may try out habituating the dog with another set of activities that can replace the undesired one. For instance, if your dog knows only one way to greet guests by jumping on them you may teach your dog a behavior that can be a safe substitute for the previous one. You may place a toy in its mouth while greeting a guest or train it to go below the bed and sit on the mat on the ringing of a doorbell. You may also ask your little pet to bow to a guest on the indication.
- You may also use the method of cue to remove the undesired behavior of the animal. Try to train your pet to perform the act that you want to get rid of on a certain cue. Try to induce the habit of executing the act only when the animal is given a cue to do that. Eventually, stop giving out the cue to the animal and the pet would also stop performing the act again.
- Try to introduce a new act in place of the undesired behavior. Try to involve your pet in some other activities so that it gets more interested to carry out the new behavior instead of the other.
If you can determine the motivation behind the dogs to perform a certain action that is undesired by you, you may get rid of the behavior by reducing the scope of motivation in the dog.
See more: Ask the Dog Doctor Veterinarian