I have always thought that the whole concept of teaching a dog how to be obedient was misleading.
The way most training curriculums are taught, dog owners are almost passive participants when it comes to having a well-behaved dog. All the dog has to do is participate in a class, perform a series of exercises and voila, it has magically been transformed into wonder dog.
Truth be told, having a well-behaved dog has very little to do with its ability to lie down or sit on command. It does, however, have everything to do with how the dog owner applies these commands to everyday life situations so the dog learns boundaries and understands its owner's expectations. This is also known as applying leadership.
I wish obedience classes were officially known as leadership classes. The training that should be taking place involves teaching dog owners how to be good leaders by using commands effectively in real life, instead of teaching the dog to follow a series of positions - that are really nothing more than tricks - in a classroom. Yes, that may ruffle the hair on the neck of a few collars, but to a dog, lying down is no different than shaking a paw.
As humans, we place great importance on obedience commands such as down, sit, heel, come, and so on. But dogs do not place any degree of importance on the command itself. Their brains do not work that way. They don't hear the word "down" and say to themselves "that's a serious command, I have to obey that one." But they do place importance on how, when and why a command is being used and what the end result is. Meaning when an owner tells a dog to "down" on its bed and stay there, the dog learns to maintain a down position in order to respect the expectation and boundaries its owner has attached to the command.
Formal obedience training - as we know it today - became fashionable during the world wars when dogs were used for military purposes. Back then, dogs were taught a series of exercises that gave dog handlers control of otherwise unruly animals. The methods used where harsh and based on principles that dogs were simply robotic creatures incapable of emotions and conscious thought.
The training, although considered abusive by today's standards, did provide the dogs with the leadership (albeit fearbased) they required to follow orders and, in some cases, put themselves in the path of sure death. For example, the trick we call a "crawl" was a command used to teach a dog to crawl under fences or through trenches undetected. Crawl was an obedience command back in the war, while it is a trick for us today.
Many years of research later we now know that dogs are indeed sentient creatures who are highly emotional and form strong bonds quickly with those who provide the guidance and security they seek.
Current training methods reflect that new knowledge. Yet the formalness of obedience itself is still rooted in the repetition of a series of classroom exercises to prove a dog's level of obedient behaviour. There is very little in these classes - other than a verbal suggestion - to teach dog owners how to apply commands to their daily routine. As a result, the average first-time dog owner still seems to assume that all they have to do is take an obedience class to achieve a well-mannered dog.
I'm here to tell you that it takes more than simply showing up to your class with a bag of treats. You need to take what you learned in your class and apply it to your everyday life. Practice should not mean setting 15 minutes aside each day to perform what you learned in class. Rather, you should practise what you learned by applying it to your everyday life so the behaviours become habit, which in turn becomes learned expected behaviour.
That is what gets you a well-behaved dog.
Joan has been working with dogs for more than 15 years in obedience, tracking and behavioural rehabilitation. Contact her through her website k9kinship.com.
