TV dog trainer Victoria Stilwell is registering an official complaint: "Dogs aren't allowed to be dogs anymore," she says. "It's great they're living in our homes, but they have less freedom."



Stilwell, best known from the Animal Planet show "It's Me or the Dog," explains that all dogs were all bred to do something, but today most are unemployed with no outlet to express natural behaviors.



"Dogs share our bedrooms. We love them. But how often are we there for them? We're so busy now," she says.



All these factors combined explain why today's dogs are suffering from more behavior problems, according to Stilwell.



"And it gets worse because when the dog is peeing on the couch or is hyperactive, we blame the dog -- and we get really angry. (In the end), the pet may be given up."



Stilwell, author of "Train Your Dog Positively" (Ten Speed Press, New York, NY, 2013; $11.34), says she understands why we get mad; after all, we're merely human. But striving to understand why a dog is "acting out" is far more helpful.



"There's a great deal of misinformation out there, that if repeated often enough, people believe as fact," she says. "One example of a myth becoming a fact is that you have to be a pack leader, and need to dominate your dog into submission in order to get your dog to behave. That's utter nonsense. Dogs know we're not a part of their dog pack; they realize we're human and not (dogs)."



Stilwell, based in Atlanta, Ga., believes dogs do look to people for leadership and structure with consistent rules. For example, if Mom and Dad prohibit the dog from jumping on the sofa, but daughter Susie not only allows it, but encourages the dog to snuggle with her on the sofa when her parents aren't around, this is confusing to the pet.



Stilwell is adamant that dogs never break rules to rule us, or to be dominant.



"It just doesn't happen. We know how dogs think. Dogs just never behave badly on purpose to 'get back at us' or to 'show us who's boss,'" she notes.



Another fallacy is that to train dogs with behavior issues requires forceful or aversive methods. The truth is, punishment is unlikely to communicate what the dog did wrong, and it never communicates what you WANT the pet to do. Aversive training methods can also create anxiety and/or diminish the human/animal bond.



"I don't care what you've heard, seen or read, there's absolutely no upside to aversive training methods," Stilwell says.



Information about dogs is widely available on the Internet -- and it seems everyone is an expert and everyone has an opinion on dog behavior. That's one reason Stilwell recently revamped her http://www.positively.com website.



"The goal is to be a one-stop shop for information. We have about 1,000 pages of supreme content, everything you want to know about dogs, but based on fact from the creme de la creme -- the real experts. I agree, it's a bit confusing out there. Who do you read? Who do you listen to? I say, follow the science and you can't go wrong."



Aside from hundreds of print stories and blogs on dog training, behavior, health and nutrition, the site has videos demonstrating everything from teaching dogs to walk on leash to training a pup to come when called. Stilwell hits the road in several videos, including a fascinating segment on how arson dogs are trained.



"Aside from good and credible information, if you love dogs, the hope is there's a little something here for everyone," she says.



(Steve Dale welcomes questions/comments from readers. Although he can't answer all of them individually, he'll answer those of general interest in his column Send e-mail to PETWORLD(at)STEVE DALE.TV. Include your name, city and state. Steve's website is http://www.stevedalepetworld.com; he also hosts the nationally syndicated "Steve Dale's Pet World" and "The Pet Minute." He's also a contributing editor to USA Weekend.)



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