The thing about discipline is that people misunderstand the word discipline. People think discipline in the dog world is punishment. Discipline is how you achieve what you want to achieve in life. You have to be very focused, very disciplined, very consistent, very diligent. All of those things.

Give your dog something to do before you share food, water, toys or affection. This way the dog earns his treat. For example, have him or her perform the "sit" or "down" command.

There are a lot of things that people are doing unconsciously wrong.

Anything that can create balance in dogs is great. If veterinarians can give you the solution and give you why this is causing the behavior, of course. Anything that is good for an animal, let's do it.

The reality is, if you have a high-level-energy dog, it's not going to be happy with a one-hour walk. Those types of dogs are going to require more than one hour of physical challenge in the outside world.

Many dogs grow up without rules or boundaries. They need exercise, discipline and affection in that order.

Dogs and other animals we bring into our homes serve as one of our most important links to Mother Nature. We may not think about it consciously, but they are our lifelines to a part of ourselves that we are at the brink of losing altogether.