It’s funny how
things inter-link. I took a day out the other day to attend a wee workshop. It
had nothing to do with dog behaviour. However, a common factor sparked in my
mind: the need for change.
One of my
favourite quotes is “Changing Nothing, Changes Nothing”.
To explain - One
aspect of resolving dog behaviour issues requires consideration regarding how
to change the dog’s access to particular triggers. Sometimes this needs a great
deal of thought. Sometimes changes are easy. For instance, consider a dog
running in the garden, barking aggressively at people passing by. Our ultimate
goal is to teach the dog to be nice and calm or simply lie down or play with a
ball. We may choose to persevere with shouting at the dog each day. Nothing
changes. Indeed, the barking frequently ends up generalising to other areas
too, such as on walks. Consequently, it occurred to me (at 3am one morning, as
these things do!) that “Changing Nothing” isn’t entirely accurate. Perhaps a
more accurate phrase would be: changing nothing… well, makes things worse!
Instead, we
will progress much more quickly if the problematic fence running is prevented
for now, by keeping the dog inside more. This change helps to break the present
habit and provides time for the new training to settle in.
Generally,
troubled dogs do many things that we’d rather they didn’t. Considering how to
manage them differently is frequently one of the main starting points to the
overall behaviour process. And funnily enough, it’s not the dog that has
difficulty with the change; it’s us humans! Our own doggy habits have become
entrenched and are truly difficult to alter. It’s us that needs to stop leaving
the door open or letting the dog out off the lead or to stop shouting at them
as they bark. It’s us that needs to stop leaving food on the table to be
opportunistically stolen. It’s us that need to pop a lead on when visitors
arrive to stop Molly jumping on them.
So here’s a top
tip for just about any dog behaviour issue. Sit down with the family and
determine some beneficial new house rules that will stop exposing Molly to the
troublesome situations. Review and discuss these changes every day and make
sure that we’re not creating new problems or additional stressful situations.
Of course, we can’t
stick right there. It’s only a starting point. We need to move on to some
training and other exercises to help Molly learn how to improve her behaviour.
For help with figuring
out the best behaviour changes and developing complete behaviour programmes,
please do get in touch. Pawsability.co.uk. Or look at ICAN
More on changes:
It's always interesting to have a wee look to add some links to other articles on the same topic. So, I had a wee google. It seems that most of the articles published using the word "change" and about changes in dog behaviour (rather than "chang-ing"). Of course, that's not surprising. They look at why behaviour changes in dogs and many particularly consider behaviour changes in older dogs. These articles then are also about change, but from some different viewpoints.
Further Reading:
To share this article, please use this permalink on how to change things for success with dog behaviour issues
The next article on "change" will be more about the dog behaviour business and why that needs to change.
The basis of this article was 1st published in the Northern Times, Oct 2018.
Author - Anna Patfield , www.PawsAbility.co.uk