Does Your Dog Make Great Choices?

Introduction:

How much responsibility do we give our dogs to make good choices?

Some dogs just instinctively know how to live in our world and always seem to make great choices. These are the happy-go-lucky dogs that dont seem to have a care inthe world. Or so it seems!

There are those dogs however, that need a little help and guidance to make more appropriate decisions in different areas of life.

Each and every day our dogs are making decisions, and each time a decision is made a neural pathway is formed, and if this decision is repeated this neural pathway becomes stronger.

This is what we call 'rehearsal' of behaviours. A good exapmple would be barking at the post man. This behaviour has been repeated until it's now become 'default'.

Nothing happens 'by accident' with your dog - they are making all of these choices all of the time!

1. Step In To Help

Our job as dog owners is to help guide our dogs and show them what we DO want instead of what we don't. This means stepping in and preventing a bad choice from happening, or even not putting them in a situation where a bad descion is available. This is what we call 'management' and is a really powerful training tool.

Some dogs require a LOT of management to begin with, and reactive dog owners might start thair journey managing their dog 100% of the time by deciding where to walk, the time of day based on how busy the walk might be and helping their dog navigate situations that arise in the environment.

As time progresses though, you'll find yourself managing them less and less as they begin to make great choices!

2. Growing Skills

Reactivity is a mismatch of skills your dog has (or doesn't have) and the requirements of the situation they find themselves in. How we help a reactive dog is to build their skills BEFORE they need them so they are better equipped to handle and navigate their world.

Building these skills absolutely helps our dog make better choices, and when these choices get reinforced your dog is more likely to repeat that decision! Thats dog training!

3. Prevent Rehersal Of Bad Choices

When a behaviour is repeated a neural pathway is formed, and with each repetition the pathway becomes stronger and stronger. This is for both good behaviour and bad behaviour.

So when we are growing stills and reinforcing great choices, we also need to prevent rehearsal of bad choices too. This is management.

If you know your dog struggles with children on bikes, perhaps for a short while take them where you'll not see a child on a bike just while you grow skills to help them make better choices.

How much choice does your dog have?

It's every dog owners dream to have a dog that reliably makes good choices and comes when called or doesnt chase things, and these things don't happen by fluke. These things are grown and developed over time.

If you need help to show your dog how to make great choices, we can help!