K9 Trickstas - Dog Training and Behaviour Modification

If nothing changes, nothing changes.

If you keep allowing your dog to pull on the lead, they won’t suddenly stop pulling on their own. If you keep letting your dog bark and lunge at other dogs, they’re unlikely to magically learn to ignore them. In fact, every time these behaviours are repeated and rehearsed, they become more ingrained and more likely to occur again.

That doesn’t mean we should try to stop unwanted behaviours forcefully. Instead, we can use management to reduce opportunities for those behaviours to be practised, while teaching and reinforcing alternative behaviours that we’d rather see. Over time, those preferred behaviours can become the dog’s new habit.

This may look nothing special for some people, but it was a big deal for Jasmine…and me. She used to start barking or whining as soon as I left her. But, when I tried this for the first time in a long time, she looked calm and comfortable.