Hey Dog Lover 🐾
Your dog sees something they’re worried about.
Their body gets tense.
Maybe they want to move away.
Maybe they start barking.
Maybe everything about their body is telling you:
I’m not comfortable here.
So you ask them to sit.
And they do.
Success... right?
Maybe.
Because your dog may be sitting quietly beside you, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything has changed about how they’re actually feeling.
Sometimes we get so focused on changing what our dogs are doing that we forget to ask what’s happening to the dog underneath the behaviour.
Sit.
Stay.
Heel.
Place.
Look at me.
Stop barking.
Stop moving.
And when our dog complies, it can look like we’ve solved the problem.
But have we?
Or have we simply changed what the problem looks like?
In this episode, we’re talking about what can happen when we become so focused on getting the behaviour we want that we stop reading the dog standing right in front of us.
We’ll talk about:
🐾 Why sitting doesn’t necessarily mean your dog is calm
🐾 How stillness, silence, and compliance can sometimes hide what’s happening underneath the behaviour
🐾 What can happen when your dog’s body is telling them to move and you’re asking them to stay still
🐾 Why changing your dog’s body position isn’t necessarily the same as changing how they feel
🐾 The important difference between managing your dog and influencing your dog
🐾 Why management and physical control are sometimes absolutely necessary
🐾 What it looks like when your information starts to matter to your dog
🐾 How focusing only on obedience can cause us to miss what our dogs are communicating
🐾 Why listening to your dog doesn’t mean they always get what they want
🐾 The question I want you to ask instead of blindly following a training protocol
This isn’t an episode about never asking an uncomfortable dog to sit.
It isn’t about throwing away your training.
And it definitely isn’t about letting your dog make every decision.
It’s about reading the room.
What is happening with THIS dog in THIS moment?
What are they communicating?
What are you actually trying to accomplish?
Because there’s a difference between:
My dog didn’t bark.
and
My dog felt safe enough that they didn’t need to bark.
There’s a difference between:
My dog sat while another dog passed.
and
My dog was able to experience another dog passing and actually feel okay.
And there’s a difference between physically controlling what your dog does and becoming someone who can influence the decisions they make.
So the next time you reach for a sit, stay, heel, look at me, leave it, or whatever behaviour you’ve been taught to use, I want you to ask yourself:
What am I actually trying to change here?
Because sometimes the behaviour that looks best to us isn’t telling us the whole story about the dog underneath it.
Hope you enjoy this one!
Tracy xoxox
RESOURCES
🐾 Join me for the FREE CALM DOWN, DOG! Bootcamp!
BeyondObedience.ca/bootcamp
🐾 Take the Quiz!
Beyond Obedience Dogonality Quiz
🐾 Read the Blog!
Beyond Obedience Blog
CONNECT WITH ME!
Contact → info@beyondobedience.ca
Podcast → Beyond Obedience Podcast
Connect → Living Beyond Obedience Facebook Community
Resources → Dogonality Quiz
Merch → Beyond Obedience Store
🐾 NEXT STEPS 👣
Step 1: Join the free Living Beyond Obedience community and connect with other dog owners who are learning to lead through trust, relevance, and understanding.
Join Living Beyond Obedience
Step 2: Take the Dogonality Quiz to discover how your dog's unique personality shapes the way they learn, communicate, and respond to leadership.
👉 Take the Dogonality Quiz
Step 3: Ready to stop second-guessing yourself when your dog is struggling? Join me for the completely free CALM DOWN, DOG! Bootcamp, October 20th, 21st and 22nd.
👉 Save Your Spot for CALM DOWN, DOG!
Music Credit 🎶: Shawn Trotter
Shawn Trotter
