Beware of complacency

When we miss the valuable moments to hold our dogs accountable for their best behaviour, we send our dogs the message that their worst behaviour is A-ok.

Dogs are pretty straightforward most of the time and they rely on us, the humans, to hold them to the standards and the expectations CONSISTENTLY for acceptable behaviour.

For example, if the dog gets excited and pushes through the boundary at the crate door and we don’t correct it and send him back to do it again politely, then we are condoning overexcitement (mental arousal), pushiness and tuning out from the human… this sends him the message that rude and pushy overexcitement is A-ok! And this missed moment compounds with the next meaningful moment having a snowball effect on everything that is to come making it oh too easy to also get over excited and pushy at the house door leading right back into reactivity on the walk.

To a dog, the absence of a meaningful No means Yes.

So, we have to be very clear and CONSISTENT about what behaviour and mindset is acceptable and what is not. This isn’t a one and done kind of thing, this is a do it right, do it polite every single time kind of thing.