Are you saying "Yes" to naughty behaviours?

Heeling calmly along at my side practicing his polite leash manners as we pass all the distractions that used to trigger his reactivity, pulling, lunging and nipping - all because I say no to naughty behaviors!

Every single time we go for a walk, the handler’s job is to lead the dog and to hold him accountable for his polite leash manners and calm behaviour. Let me say that again to be perfectly clear here, it’s the HANDLER’S job to hold their dog accountable for his training… if we handler’s aren’t doing our job, then the dog isn’t going to do his job and will likely just go back to being naughty!

If the handler doesn’t correct pulling, then she’s telling the dog that pulling is a-ok! If the handler doesn’t correct reactivity, then she’s telling the dog that reactivity is great! And if the handler doesn’t correct jumping, lunging, and nipping then she’s telling the dog that those things are just peachy! Dogs are pretty straightforward, they do the things we handler’s allow (the things we don’t correct) and they stop doing the things that we correct (the things that we don’t allow).

So when we handlers provide clear rules, firm boundaries, supportive structure, impulse control (discipline), and accountability for good choices… aka give the dog LEADERSHIP… then we can set our dogs up for great behaviour and the ability to be include in so many more aspects our lives.