Is he fixed?

When a dog who has received behaviour rehabilitation through training and has made incredible improvement in his behaviour and mindset ‘appears’ to be doing great and no longer displaying his former issues, many folks get slack and complacent thinking ‘He’s fixed now so I don’t have to keep upholding rules, boundaries, structure, and accountability!’

WRONG!!!

The dog was only doing great BECAUSE of the consistent rules, boundaries, structure and accountability = leadership maintained after training. When we relax the rules, give unearned affection and permissive privileges and do not correct and structure our formerly troubled dogs properly and consistently then we will see a return of all the unwanted behaviour and pushy over excited mindsets and poor choices and rude mindsets that we initially worked so hard to address. The dog wasn’t ‘fixed’… this is a terrible and impossible human ideal! The dog made progress and improvements that now need to be maintained lifelong if you want to continue enjoying a well behaved dog. The absence of meaningful and consistent leadership sends the message that all that rude and unwanted stuff is A-Ok again and so of course the dog is only to happy to slip back into his old naughty ways . Don’t slack off when things are going well, this is a time to definitely pat yourself on the back and acknowledge the benefits of your hard work AND it’s also the time to dig in harder and keep going with all the rules, boundaries, structure and accountability that got you here!