Kind discipline methods
Written by Sweeney
This post is about how I have used simple discipline methods with my now 6 month old Jack Russell Terrier bitch called Bella so I'm only talking about my experience from a 9 week old to 6 month old pup.
Many people say different things about how to be the "pack leader" and in control of a Jack Russell Terrier, but let's face it, they all are different and sometimes Jack Russell Terriers do things that you just don't expect. The last 6 months have been a real learning curve for me, sometimes driving me to the limit, but the good times always out weigh the frustrating ones.
Thats enough about me, I'm going to talk about discipline and the 4 methods I have discovered and these are the key methods that have worked for me so I'm not saying they will work for all but here goes...
1. From the first moment that my pup came home I realised that the tone of my voice worked very well, a light soft "good girl" (could be "good boy"), made that tail wag like mad, a harsh deep "Ah Ah" or "NO" made the pup's tail go down and ears bend back.
At 6 months now my pup really knows the difference between "right" and "wrong", just by enforcing and constantly using these two very different reactions
2. By "ignoring", or "praising" the dog depending on things I wanted the pup to do or didn't have worked very well. Anything wrong gets ignored first with a bad girl voice then nothing (totally no eye contact nothing...no sounds - nowt!) anything good gets praised with strokes, a soft voice and sometimes a treat
3. The really bad one which I've used just 6 times in the past 4 months is the use of a plastic bottle half-filled with stones rattled around to make a loud noise
I have found this to be a quick short sharp method that has never failed. I've only used it in extreme cases where nothing else worked and my pup was becoming uncontrollable, it dosn't hurt but has done it's job.
4. This one is the most important, it was and still is a lesson for the owner, when things look like they will never end and something is really going terrible... Relax, no matter what, a confused pent up dog handler/ owner is far worst than a noisey/ messy/ run-around dog
