I often wonder: how do people imagine the feasibility of training just one behaviour?
“I do not care about all them commands. I just want him to stop stealing food from the counters.”
Or: “He is a great dog, but a little bit too happy and pulls too hard. I do not need him to heel; just walk without pulling.”
I usually respond to these claims by asking people whether they can do a front flip. If they can, would they be able to teach me just that one skill? Because I do not care about all them push-ups or core exercises. If not, how do they imagine learning a front flip can happen?
It does not really matter whether the person I am talking to can or cannot do a front flip. Everyone agrees, without question, that to learn and perform this skill one must have a decent foundation in flexibility and strength. In fact, when I ask the flip question, people usually react as if I have a loose screw: how is that related to dog training, and why would I even ask something so obvious?
The relation is actually very direct. Just like a flip, the ability to stop and tame impulses that prompt a dog to counter-surf or pull on the leash requires a solid foundation. A foundation built through experiences that teach your dog that listening to you is not optional. A foundation which, if it existed, would likely have prevented those unruly behaviours in the first place.
These experiences that form the foundation are gathered by your dog every second of every day. They observe how you behave and what you allow. They respond to what their environment restricts or facilitates. They absorb this information and learn the habits that you now want to fix—without addressing the missing foundation.
See the contradiction yet?
You build the foundation for your dog’s behaviour, and it is also you who allowed leash pulling and counter surfing to happen. How do you imagine isolating and fixing these problems without changing the foundation that produced them?
For that reason, regardless of the specific problem a client brings to me, I always start by addressing the relationship between the dog and the owner and by establishing basic obedience. Once that foundation is in place, the behaviours that seemed like problems before often disappear on their own.
So no, I cannot just quickly zap your dog and teach it to stop stealing food or barking at every falling leaf. There is no quick fix to a faulty foundation, and anyone who claims otherwise is lying.