Training Talk: What is bad pet behavior?

One of the things that still amazes me is how people dismiss the bad behavior of pets as being acceptable.

Recently one of my neighbors began carrying a stick and was forced to order pepper spray because he was attacked by dogs (different ones) twice within a few blocks of his home.

As he described the locations of his encounters I assumed the problem stemmed from the contractor’s dogs on a construction site (another example of bad human behavior and failure to adhere to and failure to enforce leash laws)–but soon found that it was the property owner’s animals.

The owner took no action to prevent or curtail the attack!

That is bad pet (and owner) behavior but it is often more subtle than that.

So, what is bad behavior?

Unruly activities–but also behavior that creates discomfort or poses danger to humans (guests, neighbors) or other animals.

Usually bad behavior is really a pet owner problem because pets, like children, must be schooled on manners and taught what is acceptable and what isn’t.

Pets are living in a human-centric world and so must be taught how to integrate into it.

Poor pet parenting annoys me just as much as poor child parenting where people who fail to curtail the bad behavior of their children in public places–letting them run around unsupervised and allowing them to scream or make noise when they should be taught how to behave in a public arena.

Pets that jump on visitors, who are a menace in public, or that bark incessantly are exhibiting the same problems!

Teaching animals how to properly interact with others (humans and animals) means that they will be allowed more places and that they will receive more quality attention.

If more pets received early socialization and were taught how to properly obtain attention from humans, most issues faced in the normal households would plummet.

I’ll get into more examples of this in the future but chances are if you have pet peeves about dogs that jump, paw, nudge, or drool on you when you visit a friend–you’ve experienced bad pet behavior.

If you have–let me know what bugs you the most by commenting below.

Interested in just what those things might be? Be sure to sign up for early bird notification for the Pet Parenting School!