You all know I don’t put a whole lot of faith in obedience for behavioral issues, and I certainly don’t put a whole lot of faith in obedience for teaching our dogs to think. But I also go as far as teaching dogs to break obedience commands.
So let’s say that you have a dog like Jen. Jen was a very reactive, aggressive dog when I first adopted her, toward people, toward other dogs. If I had a dog like this, and let’s say that I told her to lay down. I told her to be in this down position. And I know that anytime that somebody would normally approach, she’d lunge and try to bite them. What we have a problem and the down isn’t necessarily solving that. The down isn’t necessarily helping the dog feel more confident. If I show the dog that I know you’re actually really uncomfortable with people and other dogs and when you are in a down, if somebody that you’re uncomfortable with approaches, I want you to know that you can move out of that down. Let’s go. We can move the dog and teach the dog that you can move away when something stressful comes in to the area that you’re at. If we’re always controlling the dog and forcing them to stay in one specific spot, we remove the option for flight from the dog. And when flight is removed, fight becomes the prominent choice. We can actually create more reactivity by removing flight from our dogs and forcing them to stay in obedience positions rather than teaching them, you can move away and create space for yourself if you need to. I’d much rather have a dog who knows how to create space then a dog who feels trapped and feels the need to address if people put too much pressure.