Often one of the first recommendations I make when beginning behavior training is to take away the dog’s freedom. This means the dog is not roaming in the house or the yard at all. This recommendation is often met with a bit of resistance from the family. I understand – seems like a pretty harsh punishment for a beloved family pet, right?
Wrong.
Roaming = Responsibility = Stress
Taking away a dog’s ability to roam is not a punishment. He’s not in trouble, nor is he a bad dog. We take away a dog’s freedom because taking away his ability to roam takes away the number of decisions he has to make. There’s a famous quote that says “with great power comes great responsibility” – this is all too applicable to a dog with behavior problems.
Making all of his own decisions is a lot of responsibility. In certain dogs, this responsibility correlates to a lot of stress. If your dog has behavior problems, your dog is in this category! So decreasing his roaming of the house decreases the number of decisions he’s burdened with, which in turn decreases his anxiety level. This makes him a calmer dog, which better prepares him to learn new behaviors during training.
Impulse Control Needs Work
When your dog is roaming your house, he’s free to respond to all of his impulses. Noise outside? Bark. Smell something in the other room? Go investigate. Now, it’s safe to say that many dogs can roam and respond to their impulses without any real issues. However, any dog with behavior problems is not in this category! Whether your dog is aggressive, jumps on people, or still pees in the house, these behaviors are all a response to an impulse. Therefore, a critical part of behavior training is learning to control those impulses, which of course involves practicing impulse control.
If we allow your dog to continue roaming the house, not only are we perpetuating his level of anxiety, but we’re also allowing him to practice responding to his impulses – the opposite of what we need him to learn! This is more than a set back; this could very well make your dog’s behavior worse.
Sometimes behavior training is emotionally taxing on us humans. It’s often difficult to put aside our emotional nature in order to provide the dog with the structure and consistency he needs. Keep in mind that if you work with a quality behavior trainer, they understand this hurdle.
Many dog trainers have a reputation for being “dog people” and not “people people” – not me! If you’re anywhere in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, contact me! I understand that the hardest dog to train is your own, and I am careful to guide you through behavior training with sensitivity and support!