Dogs and Puppies

George asked:


I am buying a dog soon, but know that in the summer I will not be home, so the dog is going to be sent to a dog hotel. This hotel has a lot of space and every dog will be walked and trained for obedience individually every single day. Also it will be socialized with other people and dogs.

My question is Is the dog going to be loyal to me when I come back, will it remember me?

Dogjudge asked:


There is a constant flood on this site from people who talk about hitting their dog as a training method. Alpha rolls, shaking the dog by the scruff, hanging a dog with a choke collar, etc.

You have to be leader of the pack! You have to let the dog know who’s boss. You’ve seen how other dogs discipline other dogs.

I want the people who train dogs to chime in and give people some of the consequences of that type of training!
As an aside, I’ve taught obedience for 30+ years and I’m judge for the AKC and ASCA.

I was given the opportunity to do graduate work with L. David Mech who wrote the original book about wolf behavior.

Dogs are domesticated animals. Wolves are not. Wolves live in packs. Our pets do not view our households as packs, there are TOTALLY different dynamics going on in households versus packs.

The ONLY time I’ve used physical means with a dog is to stop a dog fight situation, or in a situation where a dog went after a human.

Some breeds have extremely high pain tolerances. To use physical pain means to try to train these dogs is beyond crazy.