Training means teaching dogs skills to help them live their everyday lives with us humans.  Typically, this is walking with you on lead, coming back when called, greeting people and other dogs calmly, and a whole range of other traditional exercises such as sit, lie down and stay.

Training also includes preventing and/or addressing behaviour issues which are more likely to be emotion based, for example separation anxiety, resource guarding, barking and lunging on lead.  Changing behaviour in this context is usually more complex and time consuming as we need to understand why these happen to address them.

I split training into two categories:

• Skills Training - teaching behaviours such as walking on lead, stay etc
• Behaviour Change - for the more complex, usually emotion-based issues

There is of course overlap, and this is an extremely oversimplified explanation of training, but I think it’s helpful to make the distinction between Skills Training and Behaviour Change.

Because there is no regulation in the Dog Training Industry, it can be confusing when trainers use varying terms to describe what they do.  The term “Behaviourist” is a common one that’s used by trainers who work with Behaviour Change, but this can be an ambiguous term because there is no official definition.  The term implies a higher level of skill than someone who refers to themselves as a Trainer, but this isn’t necessarily (or often) the case.

Training matters of course; but what matters more is understanding your dog.  Watch and listen to what they’re telling you; respond to what they are saying, let them know they are seen and heard; help them to feel safe by being predictable and reliable.

Because when our dogs feel safe and heard, they need less training, and behaviour change is less likely to be needed.

Stay tuned for more in the coming weeks ..................