So much of how a dog thinks and what he sometimes demands has to do with your early boundary training (or lack thereof).    If your puppy or dog is allowed to bark at you for attention (and then gets it), or walk around the table and begs for food (and sometimes gets it), barks at you to get you up in the morning (because he is at your bedside and has been pacing around for about an hour), why wouldn't your dog think that everything else in the environment should be his?  For example:   other dogs, squirrels, people walking by, and the list goes on.  If you don't teach your puppy or dog some kind of confinement training really well, your dog could grow up with a behavior problem or two or at least be a dog that is really demanding and difficult to handle.  

Unfortunately by that time, it will take longer and be more difficult to train those boundaries but it can still be done!  This is why I talk about being pro-active rather than re-active.  I RARELY use crates as punishment, because I don’t need to.  I pro-actively use my crates to teach dogs when those times are that it is just not about them.

I think the only way I can truly teach people this is to give examples and share stories of how this has worked for me.  Here is onel, a real life story about “leave-it”, "stay" and "recall".  This is about my two young girls, Grin (aussie), Kala, aka: Bird (Doberman).  These two four year old girls are very well trained.  I used my own crating schedule and they still sleep in their crates at night!  They love their crates.  When crate time comes, it's time for them to not worry about anything.  Nothing is their "job" right now.  So they have a lot of comfort there and they are quite happy.  

We also do a lot agility around New England and so crating is a big part of that lifestyle.  The actual agility runs take less than a minute each,  but if you have 3 or 4 or 5 runs a day, you are there all day long.

They also get to stay in hotels with me because they are good.  They don't bark, they don't react   to many things, but, if they do, they listen when I say "quiet".

But here is the real story about how nice it is to have dogs that listen.  

The other day, I was hiking with my dogs up in my woods behind my home.  The two young girls were just ahead of me off-leash.  I suddenly heard an owl who was super close to me.  This is unusual because when I've seen owls in trees up in the woods, they quickly fly away before we are even close.  I looked up and saw a giant owl was perched in the tree above me.  He or she was making quite a fuss and I was in awe of how close it was.  Suddenly I heard yet another owl and and looked up and there he or she was in another tree right above me.    

Wow...I was amazed.  Then, just up ahead about 10 feet I heard Kala growling a low growl and Grin was just standing there next to her and they were both looking forward at something.  Kala's hair was up on her back.  I quickly thought perhaps "porcupine!" and I told the girls to “leave it!” and called the girls back to me and they came immediately.  I then told them to "stay" as I walked forward to see what they saw.  They stayed as asked.  Well, just ahead was a baby owl on the ground.  It was standing still and just looking at me as it was I’m sure looking at the dogs.

No wonder why those two owls were there!  The baby must have fallen out of the nest or was just learning to fly.

I steadily but quickly said "let's go girls" and we took off in the other direction so that the owls could work out whatever they needed to do.

When we came back through the area, 45 minutes later the owls family was gone.

So, the moral of the story, if you will, is that those two girls could have chosen to go after that baby, but they knew, from 4 years of upbringing and teaching boundaries that I was in charge of the pack.  They knew and sensed that the situation with the baby owl just in front of them  was not right or normal.   Instead of making an incorrect choice of going after that owl, they told me it was there.

Keep in mind, these same two dogs are allowed to chase chipmunks in the woods.  The run and try to catch them when they hear the squeals, but they knew this was different.   And, I believe that is because they have been well boundary trained.   They have learned that not everything is about them.

I was very proud of my girls that day.  And it's not the first time that we've come across something like that.   But this was special.  It would have been a disaster if they killed that baby owl.  Not even sure what the adults would have done but I would have been so upset.

And, I’m humble enough to know that they are animals and maybe they won’t do what I hope next time, but at least I know I’ve trained for it.

Good, good girls!  That was an excellent Leave-it, Stay, and Recall!  And yes, they did get a bonus for that!