Going Home is Hard to Do
When Board and Train ends, the work for a dog and her family begins! And the next step for them is.... taking it one small step at a time to master the tools and the techniques to set themselves up for a lifetime of happiness and success together!
Sometimes familiar people or familiar surroundings can trigger the old habits...
Often times when dog and family are reunited after the board&train, just being near their family can trigger some of the dogs ‘ old habits that landed them in training in the first place. This is super normal and it’s a rare dog who doesn’t try to push the old boundaries when they see their folks again for the first time after a few weeks... after all, wasn’t that how things used to be?
A dog may perform well in their Go Home sessions, rocking her training, but that doesn’t mean she’s ready to do it all in her own without any help.... No Way! What it means is that the newly trained dog understands what our new expectations, rules and boundaries are for her behaviour but she will still need her family to give her information/instructions (do this, do that) and hold her accountable for her choices (don’t do this, don’t do that) if she is going to continue rocking her new behaviour and skills and that is exactly why we empower owners with the knowledge, the skills and the tools so that they are better able to communicate with their dog, set and uphold the new boundaries and help their dogs to make good choices.
We often see the scenario during a Go Home Session where a dog recalls to place, rolls on her side and paws her owner’s legs. Now this may seem cute, but this kind of pushiness also led the dog to jumping on her family, mouthing their hands, and nipping at their heels which was definitely not so cute. At that moment I will tell the owner to say ‘No’ and tap the remote collar. This simple yet low level tap is the perfect conversation with the dog to show her that she’d crossed a boundary and that the rules she learned during her board&train are also going to apply with her family. And when we hold our dogs accountable for polite behaviour in all the small moments then it tends to be much easier for them to give us good behaviour in the bigger moments.
All dogs that go through training still need an operator at the helm because the majority of dogs just aren’t well suited for leadership roles. But when you empower people with knowledge, the right tools and techniques then it becomes a lot easier for them to do the leading and maintain the training with their well behaved pup.