Why Obedience Isn't "Fixing" Your Dog's Behavior

"If I just spend more time training my dog, it will fix all of our issues!"

Sound familiar? Don't worry, I've been there, too! When I first started out on my dog's behavior journey, back before I became a behavior consultant, I was so focused on training. How else were they going to "get over" their fears?

I wish I could take a time machine back and tell myself that focusing on training isn't the answer. So let's break it down!

From left to right: Moana, Ori, and Maui, adventuring off leash at a Sniffspot.

What is obedience?

Often, when we think of dog training, we think of obedience skills: sit, stay, down, come... the list goes on and on. When pet parents reach out to me, I frequently hear the same thing: "My dog knows how to do all of these behaviors, but they can't do it around people or other dogs." And this always gets me curious - what are they doing instead? And they often respond by listing behaviors such as barking, lunging, growling, pulling on the leash...

So, why can't the dog respond to obedience cues in these situations?

Often, it's because the dog is over threshold, which means their brain is experiencing such high stress that they can't think and process their surroundings. Instead, the alarm is sounding! Your dog isn't ignoring you. They are experiencing a high level of fear, stress, anxiety, or arousal and they have switched to survival brain. And I bet I can guess your next question: "What do we do about this?" And that's where behavior support comes into play.

What is Behavior Support?

Behavior support focuses on emotional regulation, which is the ability to recognize their emotions and access skills to aid in coping with fear, anxiety and stress. Our dogs who our struggling with big feelings need help and support learning how to reduce their stress and access their ability to cope. We can’t prevent all stress for our dogs, which is why building these skills is so much more important than obedience.

So, let's break down the four pillars of behavior support: Management, Enrichment, Skills, and Wellness.

Management

Our goal with management is to reduce the intensity and frequency that our dog is exposed to any stressors. This is crucial to stress recovery. It helps your dog feel safe and secure in their environment.

Maui, an Australian Shepherd, going on an easter egg hunt!

Enrichment

Enrichment focuses on meeting your dog's physical, mental, and emotional needs. It's more than just puzzle toys; it's understanding their unique needs as a dog, as their breed, and as an individual. We want to find ways for them to engage in instinctual behaviors, like exploring, digging, shredding, chasing, and more.

Behavior Skills

Ah yes, the training portion! Our goal is to teach our dog the skills to navigate their environment and build the ability to cope with stressors. It focuses on emotional regulation. It's not possible to avoid stress (wouldn't it be nice if we could!) which is why we want our dogs to have the skills to handle stressors, and look to us for support when they need it. My favorite skills to teach my clients (and my own dogs!) focus on movement, predictability, connection, and stress reduction.

Wellness

This is currently one of my favorite topics, and one that I think is currently super overlooked in behavior work. Things like lack of sleep, pain, and other health concerns can have a super negative impact on our dogs and their behavior. We know up to 80% of behavior cases have some type of pain component that is negatively impacting behavior, including orthopedic concerns, allergies, GI issues... really anything that could be causing discomfort. Dogs with health concerns, whether known or unknown, have a decrease in tolerance for stressors, are more likely to be easily irritated, and tend to be quick to go over threshold or have "bigger than expected" responses to a stressor. Health and behavior are intrinsically linked - one does not exist without the other. By supporting our pet’s wellness, we are supporting their behavior.

Behavior support takes all of these four pillars and breaks them down into easy, manageable steps to get you and your dog started on your behavior journey. If you've ever felt overwhelmed, frustrated, or embarrassed by your dog's behavior, then you're in the right place!