In business there is something people do to help them understand their business so they can know how to promote it and to help them measure their success. This is “the why” of their business. This “why” question is massively important, because without knowing why we do things, we will have a much harder time telling if we have accomplished our goals. The why of my business is to build relationships. I started my business, I do what I do, because I want to help people build trust-based relationships with each other and with their pets and I can use this why to help me know when I have accomplished my goals. In animal training “the why” is also extremely important for success with training behaviors. How so? Let me explain.
Why Did I Train That?
Before we train behavior, knowing "why" we train behaviors is extremely important to understand, and there are many reasons for this. However, there are two reasons in particular that stand out. First, we need to know why because there are literally hundreds of behaviors that we can teach our dogs. Knowing why we want/need to train the behaviors helps keep us from getting overwhelmed. The second reason, and one that is connected to the first, is to help us choose the right behaviors to train. Think of it this way, if your dog is pulling on the leash and leaping towards everyone it sees because it is just too excited to contain itself, is "heel" the answer? Is a perfect "heel" like they use in the show ring what you actually need? Could a simple "touch" behavior, "sit" behavior, "come" behavior, or eye contact behavior take care of the issue? Even if the answer is still "heel", “why” is something every owner and trainer should think about before training a behavior. When training a behavior, ask yourself, "Why am I training this behavior? Is there a simpler, more effective behavior to train?"
Real Life Application
To expand on this point a little bit, when we train a behavior, we need to make sure that we can actually use that behavior. Unless it is just for fun to help enrich the dog’s life (which is a great thing to do!), we should train behaviors that we will use and apply to real life situations. If your hands are full and your dog sees a squirrel, what would be the easiest cue for you to give your dog and what would be the easiest behavior for your dog to do? Would it be easier for you and your dog to use “sit” rather than “heel”? Would it be easier for you and your dog to use “touch” rather than “come”? Every time we train behaviors, we need to have an answer to “the why” question. This will not only help us know what to train, but it will help many people and dogs lower their stress levels because many times, simpler is better!
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