Dog trainer shares 'three biggest mistakes' he sees owners make 'every day'
A dog trainer shared the “three biggest mistakes” he sees new owners making with their pets “every day”.
Dogs aren’t known as “man’s best friend” for nothing - most are trustworthy, loyal, sweet and adorable, who quickly establish themselves as integral members of the family.
Sometimes though, despite being cute, they can cause issues with rambunctious behaviour, excessive barking, chewing and more.
In a bid to help owners get to the bottom of their pets’ pesky habits, canine behaviourist Will Atherton shares his years of expertise on social media, with one recent Instagram video garnering much attention on the hit social media platform.
The video has already amassed more than 20,000 views and hundreds of likes. The dog guru captioned the footage: “Leadership is love my friends, always has been, always will be. After you have that down everything else is way easier.”
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Speaking directly to the camera, Will said: “These are the three biggest mistakes that I see new dog owners make every single day. Now, as a canine behaviourist, I’ve worked with thousands of people on problem behaviours so I see the mistakes that people make over and over again that get them there.
“The first one, when it relates to problem behaviours in the home; they’re not crate training their dogs. Crate training is a mandatory part of my system for this reason. It prevents and removes the vast majority of problem behaviours that owners have inside the house.
“Likewise, when we go outside the house, the second mistake is people not training their dog to walk on a loose lead so that they start pulling and could become reactive and aggressive towards all manner of things.
“You need to make sure that you are loose lead walking and, like crate training, that’s another mandatory part of my system.”
Finally, he added: “The third biggest mistake that I see is people not leading their dogs. Dogs need to be led so, if we love our dogs, we must lead them because leadership is love.”
In the comments section, people shared their thoughts. One person said: “Leadership is love" so true."
Another shared: “I’m pro balanced training, I don’t think I could resolve my lab x’s recall issues any other way. But why are there so many positive only advocates out there? I know a super reactive dog and the owner's solution is just to shove treats in his face whenever he starts reacting to another dog. How is that going to help!?”
A third said: “Have followed your system with our most recent puppy and the results are speaking for themselves," while another added: “Don't agree with you on the spaniel thing but I 100 % agree on all of this. Leadership is love!”
