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What to do When Your Dog Won’t Listen

Okay, you’ve tried everything. You’ve read all the books, you’ve studied the techniques of professional trainers, you’ve firmly employed positive and negative reinforcement to the point that the local grocer is completely out of doggie treats and newspaper, you’ve even resorted to calling the Oprah of the canine world in a desperate attempt to find out why you’re not reaching your pet on the proper psychological level. Nothing has worked. Your dog still refuses to listen.

What now? You don’t want to have to turn your beloved pet out into the night or (gulp) put it to sleep, but if he or she doesn’t stop jumping on the mailman or terrorizing the neighbor’s cat you may find yourself in the position of having to do just that. Fortunately, there is a solution.

There are a number of establishments which have made dealing with difficult pets their business. The trainers they employ are skilled in working with animals and well educated in the matter of canine psychology, and they know every trick in the book for getting your dog to do the very thing that they don’t want to do-listen to you. Chances are if you take the time to go online and search you will find one of these programs in your vicinity.

When you enter your dog into an obedience training program you have a couple of options; each one is different, and it is going to be up to you to determine which one is best for you and your pet. The first option you will have made available is a type of doggie day care. These programs operate in the same fashion as a preschool; your pet will have the opportunity to work with a professional trainer for a couple of hours each day, as well as having plenty of play time, grooming time, nap time and feeding time. Most of these programs will work with a veterinarian and a nutritionist to determine your dog’s needs and will follow them to the letter. At the end of the day you will take your pet home and enjoy an evening of companionship, returning the next morning for more of the same.

If your pet is particularly difficult to deal with and you feel uncomfortable returning them to your home at the end of the day it may be best to look into a training program that is willing to board your dog. These “doggie boot camps” will “enlist” your dog for an established period of time. During that time they will go through extensive training with professional trainers to help correct the bad habits they have developed over time. These programs are much more rigid than their more casual counterparts and are intended for dogs with sever discipline problems (or owners who simply live too far away to drive their pets back and forth each day).

Whichever you choose, it is particularly important that you find a program that will be willing to work with you as well as your dog. While it is a wonderful thing that your pet learns to listen to their trainer, this is not going to do you much good if you return home only to discover that you cannot emulate the results. Any program worth its salt will set aside time to work with pets and owners together to help ensure that the two have a happy future together.

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