Dog Behavior Training New Haven CT

Benji the Beagle was friendly. Too friendly — he'd straddle your leg to show it. The behavior wasn't a problem for Benji, but it embarrassed Benji's owners, who called in Nicholas Dodman, DVM, author of Dogs Behaving Badly (Bantam, 1999). He dismantled Benji's behavior, a classic case of dominance aggression, by thinking like a dog.

"Somewhere deep down inside the dog gazing lovingly in your eyes, there are elements of the wolf — there's a wolf in your living room," Dodman said from his office in Massachusetts. "That doesn't mean you can't share warmth and fun that makes dogs such endearing pets, but you need to understand the beast."

Dodman, director of the Behavior Clinic at Tufts University School of Medicine and professor of behavioral pharmacology, put Benji and his owners on a strict regimen of dominance control. "A 'tough love' approach lets a would-be dominant dog know who is in charge," Dodman wrote in Dogs Behaving Badly. "This relatively simple program reduces dominance aggression within a two-month period in about 90 percent of cases."

His book provides a step-by-step guide to treating dominance aggression, sexual behavior and other problems. It's an A-to-Z compendium of dog behaviorwhat it means and how you can change it.

When Dodman began his veterinary career in England 20 years ago, "Behaviorism was in the dark ages," he said. "Medications to help problems were anticonvulsants to sedate [a dog], depress it to a vegetable-like state. Behavior wasn...

Copyright 2009 BowTie Inc.

Click here to read the rest of this article from Dog Channel