20 Ways Your Behavior May Be Confusing Your Dog – And What You Should Be Doing Differently

As any animal-lover will tell you, having a dog around the house can be a lot of fun. But did you know that certain human behaviors throughout the day have the potential to bewilder your canine friend? You might not even be aware that you’re doing it! So to help you keep your pooch unperturbed, we’ve taken a closer look at 20 of these confusing actions.

20. Leaving them alone

You’d be hard-pressed to name a more social animal than a dog: they just love having company! But there will be times when their owners need to step away for a period. Maybe they’ve gone to work or headed out for some shopping. Shouldn’t be a problem right? Well, tell that to their pooches.

You see, when certain dogs are left by themselves, they don’t know if their owner will be coming back or not. The canines should get out of that mindset as time goes on, but it doesn’t always happen. So yes, that might explain why your dog happily greets you after a few hours of separation. You haven’t abandoned them!

19. Playtime nibbles

Puppies are always learning from their daily interactions with humans, so we have a responsibility to steer them down the right path. Then again, that’s not as easy as it sounds. For instance, during playtime we might encourage the young dogs to lightly chew our hands if they get excited.

In truth that’s a big no-no and animal expert and vet doctor Antje Joslin explained why on the Insider website. She said, “If gently nipping your hand in play is okay, the puppy won’t know that it’s not okay to bite a child or other person that’s trying to pet them.” Yikes. To prevent that from happening, just call playtime off when they attempt to gnaw you again. The message should be clear.