A dog that is trained with love, affection and attention will do anything in their power, and a little beyond, to please you.
The first way to damage a dogs self image is to ignore them, feeding a walking a dog is not enough.
They need attention and interaction with their family, you, to build their image of themselves.
Self-confidence building is as important to your dog as it is to you, spend time with them, help them learn to trust you.
Another way to damage your dogs self-esteem to tear them down, dogs are not stupid, they understand when you are talking about them in unflattering ways, and it affects them.
Yelling at a dog does no good, when training a dog, your voice should always be well modulated, not loud, and you should never have to yell at your dog to get them to obey a command.
A dog that is well trained will respond to a whisper, and eventually hand signals. Yelling at them tends to make them nervous, and fearful of you, neither of these things is effective when trying to train your dog.
Training your dog should be pleasurable for you and your dog, not a nightmare! Dogs are sensitive and emotional, regardless of size, this needs to remain at the front of your mind any time you are trying to train them.
Dogs only learn by their mistakes, just like humans do, how many things in life did you learn because you did it wrong the first time? Dogs are the same way, they learn by doing something wrong the first time.
