Foundational Dog Obedience verse Functional Dog Obedience
The Importance of Obedience for Dogs
What is dog obedience?
The adherence to a set of standards upon request to the animal. We, as owners and trainers, typically present the wrong message to dogs in particular when addressing this very topic. There are a large number of people in the dog industry who will state that your dog will and should obey at all times. I find that not to be the case in most instances. There are a certain set of parameters that the dog should follow and in eight out of ten circumstances the dog should follow those rules and pay attention. Every once in a while the dog is going to test boundaries, not listen, and in general, be an animal. They have personalities and emotions like we do. Good days and bad days. Does that mean that they are absolved of bad behavior and should be left to live in a self-rewarding mindset? No.
Why is dog obedience so important?
It allows us as trainers and owners to set a boundary for acceptable behavior. In many cases, new pet owners will find that the vast majority of trainers will use a set standard of commands, let’s call them the principal seven, usually taught within Basic Obedience Training.
Sit
Down
Come
Heel
Stay
Place
Leave it
These are great as fundamental training platforms that can spring you and your dog forward but that’s all these are. Foundational practices that are then used to further your training in home-life situations.
An easy example of this for new pet owners
We have all seen or heard this from a pet owner. “I can't stop them from running to people at the door and jumping on them!” Many pet owners express displeasure with this behavior by yelling or over-correcting the animal. The dog can be struck or screamed at until they comply with the behavior which solves nothing since the root problem wasn’t addressed from the start. The root problem in this example is impulse control.
Their dog is so happy to see and be seen or wants to investigate. They can't help but run up and jump all over the guests. “But John! Foundational obedience covers sit and stay!” I hear you. The issue comes into play mainly when communication between owners to dogs isn't clear. Yelling and running after your pet after they have committed to becoming a missile of love puts you behind the curve to deal with the behavior. Does this mean that my dog needs to always be on leash even in the house? Well in essence, yes. It is an easy way to set your dog up for success anytime someone new or old comes to the property and an introduction needs to be made.
Let’s go through this step by step
If, your dog already has a foundation of commands.
You hear the knock at the door and the dog launches toward the noise, barking and causing chaos.
You calmly get up off the couch and walk to the door where the leash should be, if not retrieve this first.
Walk up to your dog, who is anxiously awaiting this new event in their life, and leash them up.
Crack the door open slightly and let the person know you’re working on the dog's behavior and please do not interact with them.
Begin to back away from the door and bring your dog with you.
If the dog is over the threshold there is a solid chance that they will not comply with your sit command, still do not let them engage with the person. Have the guests walk in and do what they need to do and enter the home.
Interact with the dog, redirect and see if you can break their attention for a moment.
If the dog redirects back to you, big reward like they won the lottery. Praise them up and tell them they did a great job.
Then separate the dog from the guest, if crate trained, put them up for a bit, if not a separate space is fine.
What did we accomplish?
Your dog has now begun the general process of understanding that guests do not equal attention. With a strong foundation should the dog break a sit command? No, however, most owners train behavior as a trick instead of being functional. Tricks are cute performances the dog puts on for any number of reasons.
Functional obedience means when we say sit you remain there until we call you because the dog wants to remain until called. Without introducing the behavior in new environments and pressure testing the levels of obedience you will never see what your dog is capable of accomplishing.
Without a strong foundation of principles, your dog doesn’t know where to begin. It is important to remember that behavior and temperance come with patience.
In the aforementioned example that is one repetition of many before the dog will understand what behavior you are looking for. You can practice this artificially with your partner or children a few repetitions a day to get the dog used to ignoring new people in the house and not running towards the door.
It takes some time and effort to achieve results but when they come the smile you have and how proud you are of what has been accomplished and cannot be replaced by much of anything else.
Still struggling with foundational dog obedience? Let's address the root of the issue in a personalized training session. In this 45-60-minute session, we'll focus on your dog's specific challenges and work on fine-tuning their training. Click here to schedule a consultation.
