11/10/2019
Too often we equate a “good” dog with a dog who is doing nothing. We come to believe that the absence of behavior is the goal and conflate it with training.
I couldn’t count how many times I’ve heard people complement dogs for “good” behavior because they were being still, literally.
Most recently I heard someone describe how a high energy dog spent an entire length of an outdoor kids’ soccer game in a sit. Aside from it being completely unnatural and just plain weird, I knew immediately how it was trained and I was right.
It’s not hard to spot an animal who's learned that behavior is risky. Stay put and nothing bad will happen. Punishment and coercion tend to have that effect.
Behavior, though, is how every living organism works to meet their needs. It’s not “good” or “bad”, it just is. All behavior is functional and suppression of behavior shouldn’t be the goal.
The goal should be to give our dogs a multitude of tools to meet their needs in a way that also works for us and our human world. This is what thoughtful and humane training looks like.
Training should encourage more behavior, not less.
Training should build curiosity and confidence.
Training should empower dogs to be brave and to try new things.
Training should create thinking dogs who make choices i.e offer behaviors that have been cultivated through a robust history of reinforcement.
Training should be a motivation to work for great things not to avoid icky ones.
Training should be empowering.
Training should be for joy.
Training, and by effect behavior, should always be an opportunity not a risk.
