Professional Dog Trainers often get questions like:
My dog keeps digging holes in the yard, can you fix it?
My dog barks at other dogs, can you fix it?
My dog chases squirrels, and kills them when she catches them, can you fix it?
My dog *fill in the unwanted behaviour*, can you fix it?
I totally understand their frustration… but the ethical answer?
Well, sort of.
The thing is …
There isn’t actually anything wrong with your dog.
Your dog’s not broken.
They aren’t something that needs to be fixed.
Your dog is showing behaviours that you, as a human, dislike, but that doesn’t mean that they are broken.
It means you have a dog.
We need to try to remember that dogs are animals, and although humans are also technically animals, we are have rules and structure in our domesticated lives that we have been taught to follow from the moment we’ve been born. Dogs are domesticated too, at least in our region of the world, but they follow their animal instincts first and foremost, meaning that they need to be taught how to live in the human world.
Hang on because I’m about to say something you might not like:
Dogs are captive animals.
I know, it sounds so strange to think of it that way, but it’s true. Having a home, with full bellies, being shown warmth and love from their humans is definitely better than being a wild dog who lives on the streets, possibly getting injured by vehicles or other, larger animals, scrounging for food and shelter… at least, here in Canada. That’s how we view it if a dog does not have love, food, and shelter, right?
But it’s still not “natural” and we are still technically keeping them as our captive companions.
What if I told you that in the majority of the world, dogs are not captive?
In fact, 80% of dogs throughout the world, “free roaming” dogs are more common, and they have an amazing system and life that they live. Many do have humans that they can rely on, places they can go to to always have food, to always have shelter. They have relationships with humans, some are considered “owned”, but they are not captive. They come and go as they please, and have relationships with other “feral” dogs.
Would you be surprised to learn that street dogs have an amazing communication system with each other? That, over time, with experiences, and over past generations of genetics, they have learned how to navigate the streets to avoid being hit by cars? They’ve learned how to avoid unsafe places? That, most amazingly of all, they have learned to communicate exceptionally well with other dogs? It’s true. Dogfights rarely happen in places where street dogs are most common because dogs are constantly being taught by other dogs, from the start.
Here, in most of Canada, it’s an entirely different environment. If dogs are not owned, it’s a travesty… but they’re still dogs. Dogs that also need to be taught, except, instead of being taught through experiences and with other street dogs, they need to be taught mostly by us humans.
They are still dogs that like to dig, bark, chase, and more, here in our human focused world. Here in our homes and in our systems of relationships, in our rules upon rules of things that they are and are not allowed to do, they are still behaving in ways that dogs naturally behave, and that doesn’t always jive with us in our human centric world and homes.
So we will have a dog that we have chosen to love, care for, protect, and share our lives with, but they dig, and bark, and chase, and pull when you try to walk them on a leash. Why? Because digging, barking, and chasing come naturally… and walking on a leash does not.
Is it fair to ask them not to do their innate, natural dog behaviours?
No, I don’t think so.
I think it’s more fair to make sure they have space in their lives to practice those behaviours.
So we teach them.
We teach them that it’s not okay to dig in your flower bed, but they can dig in a specific area of the yard, or the beach, or better yet: a sandbox built just for them!
We teach them that they cannot chase and shred a squirrel, but they can chase a flirt pole and shred a stuffed animal.
We teach them that, although they can’t jump on people, they can jump over that log, or the agility pole, or the bench.
Walking nicely on a leash is not a natural ability so teach them how to walk close enough to not pull on us, while also allowing them a reasonable amount of time to explore, and sniff, and do all of the other natural, innate things they need and want to do.
We can teach them how to express their natural, innate behaviours that we humans find really frustrating, is a less frustrating way.
When people ask me if I can fix a problem, I never promise that I can.
(A trainer that makes any promise is a red flag 🚩.)
Why?
– Because, first of all, dogs are sentient beings, they have their own free will, their own unique genetics, and personalities. What works for one dog, might not work for the next.
– Second of all, because although I can teach you how to deal with the unwanted behaviours, how quickly and easily your dog can learn them will vary. Much of that variability will depend on the consistency and frequency of the training conducted by the guardian (for more about this, please read my Expectations of Dog Training article), as well as the timing of the markers and reinforcements.
Can we teach our dogs how to live in a human world, in a way that benefits both the human and the dog?
YES! But that’s not fixing anything.
We have to stop with the thought that a behaviour that we don’t like is a broken behaviour, and that hiring a trainer is a promise that a dog can be fixed. We, as humans, are not perfect, so we cannot expect our dogs (or trainers) to be perfect either.
We can’t fix your dog because your dog is not broken, but we can give you the tools you need, so that, with your time, commitment, consistency, and patience, we can teach this entirely different species how to live in our human world and we can all be happy together.