· By Minou Tpain
Author: Denise Partlow
Instagram: @modernk9 Carolinas
If you say something to your dog…mean it, do it, follow through.
Imagine this scenario-I am in the middle
of prepping a meal and here comes my dog, annoyingly begging for food-a habit my family has undoubtedly & unintentionally reinforced- but that’s a story for another day-I digress…
I am prepping a meal and my dog is in my way. Every way I turn, he is there-I mumble something to him like: “dog you’re so annoying, get out of here.” But nothing changes. I walk over to the stove and bump into him and yell, “gosh dog, go away!” Still nothing changes. And finally I trip over my dog as I head to the sink. That’s it. I’ve had it. And so I yell at my dog and tell him to go to place; but guess what? He just looks at me instead and so I carry on with my cooking, mumbling under my breath how annoying my dog is.
The first mistake was not realizing that this is on me because we have created this habit of begging while we meal prep because we have a hard time resisting his cute face and we give him food when he comes up to us. The second mistake was not using words my dog knows. I never taught “go away” or “you’re so annoying” so it is not surprising my dog didn’t remove himself from the area; he had no idea what I was saying (although I probably looked and sounded less like a stable leader in that moment of frustration).
And the last mistake was I did not make sure my dog followed through when I finally used a word he knew; “place”.
This is where I notice many pet owners struggle-the follow through. You must find a way to make your dog follow through; a way that is fair, of course. In this scenario, I could have walked him over to his cot and waited until he got on or I could have put a leash on him and guided him on the cot.
And if my dog still can’t follow through, then I know I have more intentional training to do, to help my dog understand what to do in this exact scenario.
So no matter what you ask your dog as long as you know that it’s safe and fair you must help your dog to follow through all the way otherwise your dog will start to learn that what you say, you do not mean, and that’s when you get a dog who decides when to listen.
