07/15/2024
Wait, what?! Dogs aren't robots?
I never expect more of my dogs than I would expect from myself and I absolutely do not expect myself to respond immediately to every request given to me. I cannot expect my dogs to be better than I would ever be so I do not expect them to listen every time, immediately, no matter what to everything I say.
There are many possible reasons a dog doesn't respond and some could be my fault. Did I mumble, was it too quiet for them to hear, were they worried about something and couldn't listen to me in that moment, etc. I also know that dogs can have off days, maybe they don't feel well or are sore and that's why they can't reliably respond (I think this is a bigger thing than most expect).
It's important to have fair expectations of reliability and pick and choose when it's important they listen and when it really doesn't matter. There are absolutely times where i need my dogs to be reliable and listen quickly (generally safety things), but there are times when what I want is a request and if they say 'no thank,' or 'not right now,' or 'how about this instead,' or 'let me finish this first' it's fine. Generally I try to not officially cue behaviors when it's not important (I know how much i hated useless busywork). Instead i'll use other ways to communicate my request when it's optional or more casual cues (this is where i love default behaviors).
Even with reasonable expectations, you can improve your pup's reliability. The more you practice, the better you generalize that behavior, and the bigger you build their bank account with rewards, the more likely it is that your dog is going to respond when you need them to (but even robots sometimes don't respond reliably and have glitches and that's okay!).