Good relationships with our dogs is what all caring dog owners dreams of. We all want a companion who enjoys our company and affection, listens to us, feels secure, and has an overall happy life. Here’s the problem, though: What we think of as happiness and security is often times very different from what a dog thinks of as happiness and security.
Our rational, human minds tell us that a dog will be happy and secure if we simply give the dog a loving and caring family to live with. In many cases, however, this isn’t how things always are. While love and affection are indeed part of the equation, we often times leave out the other key part of the equation: leadership.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure most dogs would much rather live with a caring family than stuck in a shelter. But often times, dogs living with families have many of the same issues as dogs in shelters.
So what does it mean to give our dogs leadership? Simply put, it means giving dogs non-negotiable rules and expectations, while also advocating for our dogs when they feel uncomfortable about something. So many dogs live a life of constantly being on edge and anxious, and they feel that is THEIR responsibility to assess and determine what things in their environment are good or bad. In reality, though, WE should be the ones advocating for our dogs and determining which things are good or bad.
When we fail to do this, and allow our dogs to so, we often times end up with dogs that develop behavioral issues such as inappropriate barking, growling, and even aggressive and territorial tendencies. Again, this is because dogs tend to think it is THEIR obligation to do so, since nobody else has stepped up to the plate. Not to mention that most dogs are not mentally fit for this kind of obligation. Most dogs are not meant to be leaders. This is why dogs tend to become so stressed out and anxious when they do not have a reliable source of leadership in their lives.
Since it is our job to step up to the plate for our dogs, we must make sure we take every chance we get to help ensure our dogs that we have things under control. This is done by setting up a foundation of rules and obedience.
This includes making sure our dogs are calm and respectful before coming out of the crate, making sure they are calm and respectful before going through any door or threshold, giving our dogs structured walks with zero pulling on the leash, teaching commands, giving our dogs duration work (which I talk about in my previous post!), and correcting for unwanted behaviors.
By holding our dogs accountable in all of these areas, we are setting up a foundation for the dog to know that we are trustworthy leaders. Just by doing these things alone, much of the daily stress of a dog decreases dramatically. This is because, by doing these things, dogs begin to understand that they no longer have to worry and be anxious about advocating for themselves. Now they have somebody else taking care of that. Imagine how relieving that must be!