01/01/2024
~What does it mean to advocate for your dog?
~As our dogs leaders, it is not only our responsibility to set clear expectations and boundaries with them, we also need them to know that we have their back and will protect them from dangerous or unfair situations.
~This is very important for our relationship, particularly the for the trust we want our dogs to have for us. Since we are having the dogs perform obedience behaviors for us, this means that especially when they are working, we cannot let other dogs, kids, people, other animals, etc. protrude in our dogs space. This would be a violation of trust that we will advocate for them.
~We need our dog to trust that they are safe in the behavior we tell them to do, and that is the only thing they need to worry about is performing that behavior correctly. Nothing else. They should not need to be on alert for other dogs getting in their space, and we should never let them have a reason to be worried about that happening.
~It is our responsibility as the leader to get between our dogs and other interfering beings, because if we fail, the dog may start to not trust us to defend them and take matters into their own hands (or paws 🙂) and start reacting, lunging, and breaking rules of the obedience behavior in order to look out for themselves.
~For example, if you dog is in a heel and you see another dog off-leash running towards you guys, please do whatever you need to do to keep that dog out of yours dogs space. I’ve personally had experiences like this, and it’s actually shown my dogs that I really will have their back, even when a dog is running toward us as long as they maintain heel they won’t have to worry.
You want you dog to trust that you have their back no matter what. 🤎
