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tem to begin with starts to rear its ugly head.
For puppy owners they are often stuck between
advice from trainers all over the web telling them
they must be sure to socialize the puppy as much
as possible and expose the dog to everything possible
vs veterinarians and breeders, especially in urban
areas, strongly recommending that the puppy
not get out in public spaces until all of its shots are
done and have a few weeks to take effect.
However the dog gets to the point of clearly
having a signifi cant problem with reactivity the
owners get to enjoy being blamed by almost
everyone for not having raised the dog right and
then as they start to seek help, online or in person,
they get the joy of getting caught up in the civil, or
often uncivil, war in the dog training community
over how to deal with dogs with problem behaviors.
One group is telling them they must punish
everything, the other group telling them they must
punish nothing and so it goes. Both groups of
trainers tend to end up largely focusing on how to
control the dog one way or another without really
knowing how to change the dog.
The really good news is that these dogs are
often not as beyond help as many believe or as the
experience of many owners would demonstrate.
And even better, they can be helped in ways that
don’t require intense obedience training and which
bring out the best in the dog, not suppress it.
Methods which emphasize good safety
protocols to keep the dog from getting in more
trouble, teach the dog how to earn rewards for
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