Over the past several decades, dog training, like most everything, has seen some major advances. These advances not only make the activity more fun, more efficient, and more fair, but they also make it more effective. That said, as popular culture and tradition have a way of slowing the spread of knowledge, certain unfortunate beliefs persist about dog training. With a little bit of luck, this post will help put some of those thoughts to rest.
Belief 1: Your dog is a domesticated wolf, so you must dominate your dog and show him that you’re the boss. You must be the alpha.
New approach: While the human’s role is certainly one of leadership, it has been repeatedly proven in studies and shown in dog sport results that owners and handlers who have collaborative working relationships – ones built on mutual respect – not only have happier lives with less stress and conflict, but they have amazing results from their training. It’s not only okay to “let your dog win,” it is essential to having a well-trained dog that trusts you and wants to be with you and do as you ask. In the relationship between man and wolf, man never dominated wolf. We simply learned to live and work together, and that hasn’t changed.
Belief 2: Your dog should naturally want to work for you and when he doesn’t, he should be corrected for it.
New approach: Consider working without getting a paycheck. Would you do it? Well, neither will your dog. Whether it is through food rewards or toy rewards, the most motivated dogs are ones whose owners who have harnessed the “secret” of positive reinforcement and the power of rewards over punishment when teaching their dogs new behaviors. While the threat of punishment can push animals to work, the opportunity for earning much-desired rewards inspires them to work. It is evident when watching a dog that works to avoid punishment vs. a dog that works to earn a reward simply by looking at their body language. The dog avoiding punishment doesn’t want to be there while the dog seeking a reward does.
Belief 3: Your dog needs to meet as many people and other dogs as it can to be well-socialized.
New approach: Your dog needs to make as many positive associations with the world he lives in to be well-socialized. Your dog must learn to confidently approach and walk away from new situations, including different sights, sounds, textures, objects, people, and other animals. A truly well-socialized dog isn’t the one that wants to play with everyone and everything. Instead, this dog can confidently ignore them. Taking your dog to the dog park for socialization only to have him get roughed up by a bigger dog is only going to teach him that other dogs aren’t so much fun, the dog park is a scary place, and worse yet, he’s likely going to lose trust in your judgment and might be less-inclined to enjoy going places with you. In other words, the primary rule of socialization is quality over quantity and the primary goal must always be positive outcomes, especially with impressionable puppies. So skip the dog park and instead, go hang out at the outdoor mall, outdoor amateur sports games (e.g. Little League), or any other place you can think of that will allow you to successfully expose your dog to many new things (again, it’s about more than other dogs and people). You can read more about socialization here.
Enjoy!