Dogs don’t understand “sometimes.” Consistency is one of the most critical elements of successful training and the hardest element for owners to achieve. Everyone in the home needs to be on the same page with identical goals and rules for the dog. If the dog is not permitted on the furniture, that’s it, the dog is never permitted on the furniture. And they will quickly learn which person in the house allows which behavior and will certainly take advantaghe of the person who permits unwanted behaviors.
New clients are always amazed that a behavior they called me in to help with does not appear when I walk into the home. “But Muffin always jumps on people at the door.” That’s because the dog inherently understands that I will not accept unwanted behaviors just by my demeanor upon greeting. We often have to encourage the bad behavior so I can observe what the dog does and more importantly how the owner reacts to the behavior. Then very quickly I am able to teach the owners how to transform this unwanted behavior into a desired behavior.
This is why a “jumping” dog will not jump at the trainer for example. Because the trainer is always consistent with not permitting such behavior and consistent in recognizing the correct behavior – when all four feet are on the ground. Consistency means doing the same things and enforcing the same rules, for everyone, for all times. Work as a team with family members and agree what behaviors you want to encourage in your dog, and thoswe you want to weed out.
So while this sounds simple in theory, it is incredibnly difficult for some people to enforce. “It really doesn’t hurt if we permit our dog on the couch when we are watching TV, but of course we never want her on the couch when company is over or when she is alone at home.” This thinking makes training and good behavior impossible to achieve. The toughest part of consistency is enforcing a behavior when you are not there to see the unwanted behavior. Thus by being firm in your “can do” and “cannot do” behaviors there is less likeliness your dog will try to do forbidden acts when he is alone.
And we all understand that people get tired of repeating the correction over and over, sometimes 40, or 100 times! So maybe one time you will look away and pretend you did not see the dog on the couch or grab food off the counter. But trust me your dog saw you ignore the bad behavior ! He knows you saw him and chose to let it go. He now knows that “maybe I can jump tomorrow because today I wasn’t stopped” or “maybe I can jump on that one person because no one told me not to”!
This is why when we begin training, behaviors need to be reinforced in every room of the home, outside, everywhere your dog is … so he doesn’t think “ok I can’t jump on the sofa in the living room, but no one told me I can’t jump on the sofa in the den”! This is how one client had a very expensive leather sofa eaten in one day!
So give serious thought to which behaviors you want to encourage and those you want to disappear, stick to your guns, and you will have a well-mannered dog.
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