Do you know what you are teaching your dog when you are asking them for a paw shake? Do you really understand what your “good boy!” followed by a dispensed piece of food mean to your dog?
It is really hard to answer these questions unless you see a bigger picture and have a chance to test the behaviour you are encouraging. That is, a paw shake might be a cute little trick to learn, and your oh-so-smart dog picked up on it very well. However, what are you going to do when a gentle paw shake will become an invasive, forceful, demanding paw poke once your dog realizes that this is the way to get treats from you?
This post was inspired by a conversation with a fellow dog trainer. I bragged about Orca’s results from Obedience trial a few months back and said that “She gave me everything I taught her,” to which my friend responded, “They always do.”
Even though there are a few traits that might be genetic, the majority of your dog’s behavioural quirks and disposition patterns are learned, that is, encouraged willingly or unwillingly by you.
Your dog barks and pulls when it sees other dogs? It has probably learned that this is an acceptable and effective way to “get rid” of what it perceives as danger, or it has never learned to control the hyper-arousal and over-excitement.
Your dog abandons you every time it sees a running squirrel in an attempt to chase and kill it? It has learned that your commands are optional because you have never taught them fully and in a way that your dog understands.
Your dog humps everything and pees erratically on every vertical surface when you come to a new place? It is not “reading messages” or “being territorial”—your dog has learned to channel their excitement this way. Moreover, the very act of peeing on everything energizes them even further, and you never taught your dog that this is rude, unacceptable, or wrong.
Remember, your dog will always, always give you what you taught them. If you are not happy with what you are seeing once you encounter new and stronger distractions, it means that your training did not cover a situation like that.
Whether it is lack of focus around people, barking around dogs, or general pulling on a leash, your dog is not being “naughty,” it is just being a dog. Train it, show it how you would like it to behave, and it will happily return your time investment by giving you their heart and soul. Because they always do.