Are you looking for the ‘fix’?

I believe living with dogs is be a true blessing, but when we encounter problems we look for a solution.  We want to fix it quickly and with as little effort as possible.  We are all like this – it’s human nature.  The culture we live in today I think also contributes to wanting things now, to not put in much time (as no one has any spare time) and a quick internet search will tell us what we need to know.  Money is also tight so spending money on getting help is often the last resort. 

I think we cannot help but look for the fix or solution to stopping the problem.  Whether it’s your dog jumping on your guests or barking at other dogs or toileting in the house, there are many issues that we want to fix.  We label our dogs as ‘bad’ or ‘naughty’ or ‘disobedient’.  Our focus in on stopping, not understanding. 

I want to encourage you today to think about the behaviour as an opportunity to get to know your dog better, a chance to learn more about dog behaviour and the truth that their behaviour is them trying to communicate with us.  They are not misbehaving, they are talking! 

The quick fix for problems quite often involves punishment, which although might stop the behaviour at that moment, it doesn’t address the ‘why’ of the behaviour.  Why was the dog doing it in the first place?  As most of you know, I don’t use punishment in my training methods, there is no need; science has proven that you can use reward-based methods just as successfully, and why would you want to inflict fear and punishment on your dog.

So back to they Why.  Fear?  Anxiety? Over excitement? Frustration? Confidence?  There are so many reasons for your dog to display unwanted behaviour.  I use the word ‘unwanted’, because living in the human world, dogs have to live with some rules, but that shouldn’t mean that we don’t have some understanding that a lot of these rules don’t make sense to our dogs. 

If they are happy to see you, why can they not jump up and lick you?  If they are scared, why can they not growl to say, “stay back”? If they want to get to the field quickly, why can they not pull on their lead and drag you down the road?  If they haven’t been shown that toileting in the garden is right place, then why would they not toilet on your nice soft carpet?

I’ve seen a poster that says, "Dogs do speak, but only to those who know how to listen". I want to encourage you today to listen, to stop and think, what is your dog trying to say to you today?   

​Jo x