20/01/2022
If anyone needs help this is where you’ll find it 🐾🐺
“SIT”
It’s one of the first things we teach our puppies. We ask (tell) our dogs to sit often, for a number of reasons.
A new client this week had been advised by someone to “make their dog sit when they were behaving unacceptably”. To *demand or enforce the sit if necessary*. They tried. They trained using food, sometimes physical force.
Things looked better briefly. Then worse.
A lot worse.
🪑 If your dog is struggling
🪑 If your dog is anxious
🪑 If your dog is reactive
🪑 If your dog is aggressive
🪑 If your dog is afraid
🪑 If your dog is overwhelmed
🪑 If your dog is overstimulated or excited
…do they need help with their external reactions, their “behaviour”? Of course.
What about what’s happening inside?
Is insisting they “sit/stay” when they are approaching terror or rage or excitement going to change those feelings?
[Spoiler alert - maybe - though often in the opposite way you hoped]
The people who come to us care as much (if not more) about their dog’s state of happiness and well-being as they do their visible behaviour.
Find someone willing to support you and your dog’s individual needs. Who understands how science and a planned intervention with solid method works. Change how they feel for the better. Not just how they behave.
Compassion over Compliance.
Supported by data.
Grounded in science.
