Why Train Your Dog?
Seems like a ridiculous question doesn’t it? Either people already know they want to train their dog, or they know that they don’t. In my experience there tends to be very little in-between. However, I think no matter what side you are on, it’s an important question to think about. I mean really, why train your dog?
Now since I am a positive reinforcement dog trainer, you probably know I believe all dogs would benefit from training. So before we get into that, let’s look at why not train your dog?
I’ve heard a lot of reasons:
“He already does what I tell him. He doesn’t need training.”
“He’s already a good dog.”
“I don’t want to force him to do anything.”
Or even, “He’s not smart enough to be trained.”
All good points, but what if instead of training we call it ‘educating’? Now we ask “why not educate your dog?” Those answers change a bit:
“He already does what I tell him. He doesn’t need education.”
“He’s already a good dog.”
“ I don’t want to force him to do anything.”
Or even, “He’s not smart enough to be educated.”
I say educated because that’s really what today’s dog training has become for dogs. When all dogs had jobs and were needed for herding, guarding or hunting, thats when training was used to get them to follow orders and get the job done because often the owners depended on the dog being successful. We trained dogs to do a task for no more reason than to have a dog who is able to work.
Today, it’s more rare that dogs are brought into homes for a specific job other than to love us. Training stops being as much about your dog following instructions. Now training is good for so much more than your dog doing what he’s told. Dog’s don’t have jobs anymore and that means your dog that has drive, energy, talents and problem solving skills (yes, all of them can problem solve) has absolutely nothing to do most of the day. With no purpose, nothing to think about, and no reason to think for themselves at all; we end up with dogs who don’t know how to use their own brain. They don’t know they can solve problems on their own or how to be independent in any way.
Despite the title I’m not actually going to tell you why you should train your dog, but I will tell you why I train mine. I train my dog because when I see her lying in her bed, wide awake I am reminded of how hard it must be, to be a pet. When you are a pet, you get very little choices in your life. You don’t get to choose how to alleviate boredom. My dog can’t pick up the phone and call a friend to chat, she can’t watch a movie, read a book or cook when she gets bored. She’s entirely dependent on me giving her the tools to alleviate her boredom. Whether that’s something to chew on, toys to play with, going for walks or training. Only one of those things requires her brain to problem solve.
I train my dog because it’s something fun we can do together. She gets to use her own brain, make her own choices and problem solve in her own way (sometimes in ways that never occurred to me!). I also know that every time I teach her something new with positive reinforcement, I am building her confidence in her own skills. Additionally, the more skills (good behaviors) she learns today and is rewarded for, the less undesirable behaviors I’ll see from her tomorrow.
Why I train my dog is something I think about everyday I’m with my dog. I find, the more training you do together, the more reasons you’ll come up with for why you should.
