To raise a reliable companion, you must first understand how a dog’s mind processes human communication, pack rank, and emotional needs.

1. Proper Use of Names: Make sure you use his/her name correctly. Remember that I define anything not done in a wolfpack as abstract, so yes, names are abstract. We want to be extra careful on how to teach and utilize abstract concepts with our dogs. In the wild, canine communication is built on body language, energy, and scent. So, use the puppy’s name only as a name and not a command.

2. Claim the High Ground: Most pet owners have a very informal relationship with their pets. Dogs now spend their lives indoors, sleep in our beds, have toys in all directions, lay on the couch with the family, and often have “free feeding” of food. All of these are good things in some capacity, as we’ve come a long way from the yesteryear America which kept dogs outside.

   However, by including our pets into all aspects of our homes and providing unlimited access to resources and eliminating formerly upheld boundaries, we’ve lost the signs that previously helped define ourselves as the pack leaders.

   Mother nature does not govern the dog pack the way that we often attempt inside our homes. The existence of rank inherently means the existence of inequality. Thus, top-dogs will have different things which lower dogs do not; resources and boundaries. Meaning, when you extend an equal playing field of resources and boundaries to your new pack member you lose rank—so much so, that it can often become perceived as lower rank, as this is the only explanation for such behavior (in your dog’s mind).

3. Quality Time: Now that you’ve got your puppy, you need to schedule some activities for you and your dog. While a fishtank is simple enough, in that you only need to provide food, maybe some rock features inside the tank to swim around and regular cleanings, dogs require one extra ingredient—you! If you agree that dogs are social animals, then by extension, you must recognize that dogs have emotional needs. These emotional needs are satiated through a combination of physical and social activities.

   When pet parents think one dimensionally about the dog’s needs, they lose the bigger picture. Consider this, when a parent teaches their children how to change the oil or cook a potroast, they don’t just think “it’s good my kid has that skill now”. Rather, they understood that the teaching/learning experience was an opportunity for bonding, which is something that is good for families. And it is a type of bonding that rarely happens outside of the family. So when a pet parent thinks “my backyard is better for bathroom breaks than me leashing him up for a walk”, this person is thinking one dimensionally about potty breaks.