I need my dog not to...

If I told you the amount of things my dogs don't do, or that I manage so they can't do...you might be surprised.

I must admit lately with all the social media putting pressure on dog trainers to fix everything for their clients, it's getting incredibly tiring. I know many great people to leave the profession; and I get it and have been close myself.

When people say "I've seen videos of dogs doing this" or "I've seen this exact behaviour be fixed", I admit to giving up a little more each time. They've seen a 60 second reel of the same breed as their dog do this thing and they want their dog to also do that. Or they've watched a before and after video of a problem being 'fixed' and have absolutely no idea just how messed up the training was to get to that stage. Or even if it WAS decent training, people don't get the amount of time, effort, management, training strategies, setbacks and patience that it took to get there.

Of course many things should and can have a plan of action to work towards a goal to make life better for everyone. But there are so many things that our dogs do just because, they're a DOG.

Really ask yourself, is the thing you need your dog to do going to benefit both you and your dog, or just you? I'll give you an exmple to help. So Jacob (dog in the photo), likes to jump onto the chairs at the dining table and jump onto the table. I can just imagine your faces, OMG A DOG TRAINERS DOG DOES THAT. Yeah, he's a confident, go get em, optimistic little shit and I love that about him, it's been great for training. So have I ever trained him not to jump on the chair? No, I just put them under the table so he can't. If I genuinely wanted to change that behaviour it would be exhausting having to constantly supervise and reinforce alternative behaviour yada yada, I just don't have the energy. So I make sure the chairs are under the table.

If getting mad at dog for doing something is a constant theme in your life you need to evaluate a few things:

1. Is what they're doing normal to their species and to their breed? If you're saying no it's likely you don't know what normal species behaviour is. The answer is mostly always yes.

2. Are you being proactive and setting up the environment so that your dog can't practice the behaviour repeatedly, or are you just being responsive when it happens and carrying on the pattern of trying to stop them in the moment? Be honest.

3. How much time and energy do you really have? This isn't a criticism, not everyone has the same time or mental energy, or even skills. It's about being realistic and this will impact your goals and your training plan. You might need to make things really simple training wise, you might need to put more effort into management, and you might just need to accept certain things will never be fixed.

I'm very aware this isn't an uplifting blog. And sometimes I do feel super positive about the dog world, but sometimes I don't and I think a good reality check isn't the worst thing.