firm boundaries for success

When you have a dog that wants nothing to do with strange dogs and, given the opportunity, used to become extremely reactive towards them, we need to be interrupting her reactive intentions towards other dogs. We need to teach the dog how to ask for space (rather than becoming reactive), how to look to me for direction when she feels uncomfortable (rather than taking action on her own) and how to ignore the dogs (rather than staring/fixating/loading on them). The real magic in all of this is the leadership influence that I’m providing- I have set firm boundaries and expectations for her behaviour, taught her how to make better choices, held her accountable for the choices she makes and I have always advocated for her. So we have developed a relationship rooted strongly in trust and accountability... she knows that I will always protect her and that I expect her best work in every situation. And so when you have been living with a dog without cultivating these strong leadership influences it takes time and consistent daily effort to overcome the past and to make that shift in your relationship so that moving forward the dog sees you as a strong leader and truly buys into what you say. And believe me, this stuff isn’t easy by any stretch, I’ve been through it myself with my own personal dogs. It takes a lot of consistency, daily effort and work for folks to establish themselves as the believable leaders that their dogs need and to make that all important relationship shift from soft/permissive to firm/directive and truly develop the leadership influence that dogs need to feel calm and responsible for offering their best polite manners.