What are your intentions ?
Sometimes used as a question to aircraft or a ship that has drifted into territorial waters or sometimes a question asked of a young man when courting a lady. So what does it have to do with dog training ?
Well…..
When training a dog, there are a number of phases the dog goes through.
In short, the four phases are: Teaching, Training, Proofing and Communication.
Essentially, as the dog (and you) progress through the phases, the dog understands more and more about what is expected of it.
It understands what the commands mean and what good behavior requires. Therefore you move from a situation of “I don’t really understand what you mean ?” to a “sure I’ll do that” to sometimes a ” I understand what you mean, but for whatever reason I’m not going to do it”
So you have to be always looking at the dogs intention.
Did it not understand ? Was it testing/checking a parameter ? was it straight out defiance ?
Depending on the answer you can determine the course of action.
Obviously if you think the dog does not understand, a bit of patience and practice with the particular exercise is required. If it was straight out defiance, then that absolutely has to be addressed, along with an examination of the relationship. Why did the dog NOT see me as a leader in this situation ?
If there is a prolonged streak of defiance or defiance with a particular behavior then look at what else may be going on.
When talking about intention and defiance you also have to determine if it was a ” go away I don’t really feel like it right now” or was it a full middle finger “P@ss off!”
The extent of the defiance and intention can also be very telling.
Another concept I often talk about is seeing the dog as a whole, and not just seeing things in isolation. As mentioned many times before obedience and good behaviour are very much interlinked. This is a large reason why quick fixes or techniques that only address one particular behaviour have a tendency to fade over time. There must be a foundation to build on.
This also circles back to the relationship and communication. Are you letting the dog know when it’s doing the right thing and the wrong thing ? Can the dog tell the difference ?
One mistake I commonly see is sending mixed messages where the dog has a hard time interpreting the signals given.
Therefore what sometimes seems to be defiance, can be pure and simple confusion. You must make it very clear to the dog when they have done the right thing. Be excited, be happy, exclaim !
Another aspect of intention and further enhancing the relationship, is learning to read your dog. Like humans they have their quirks and individual behavior patterns. Learning what they will likely do in a situation and the little cues they give out can also greatly help in determining the dogs intentions.
There are no hard and fast rules with reading a dog, while there is the standard body language displays -snarls for aggression for example, learning the individual dogs “tells” takes a bit of time and interaction. A lot of the time you have to rely on your own instinct and develop your own intuition. However developing the ability to read a dog (or any animal) really pays off in both relationship and interpreting intention.
So as you can see intentions is a vital, but often overlooked part of dog training and should be used to determine your interactions with the dog, along with enhancing your understanding of them.
These are some of the areas we provide dog training for in Sydney – if you are not listed, please still contact us ! The Hills – Annangrove, Baulkham Hills, Beaumont Hills, Bella Vista, Box Hill, Carlingford, Castle Hill, Cherrybrook, Dural, Glenhaven, Glenorie, Kellyville, Kenthurst, Maraylya, Maroota, Nelson, Northmead, North Rocks, Rouse Hill, West Pennant Hills Blacktown and surrounding areas – Acacia Gardens, Dean Park, Doonside, Glendenning, Glenwood, Kellyville Ridge, Kings Langley, Kings Park, Lalor Park, Marayong, Marsden Park, Oakhurst, Parklea, Quakers Hill, Schofields, Seven Hills, Stanhope Gardens, The Ponds, Toongabbie, Vineyard, Riverstone
