A big part of my shift in training philosophy over a decade ago involved a simple scientific fact. The average dog brain is about the size of a lemon. That simple truth helped me understand that there are only so many things I will be able to teach my dog. There is a limitation on what they are capable of keeping in their head at any given time. Just like me, but with less to work with.
If I made a list of all the things I would like my dog to do versus the things I don’t want them to do, which list would be shorter? That’s easy. The list of “things I would like my dog to do” would be MUCH shorter than the “things I don’t want my dog to do” list. It just seems much more practical to focus on teaching the “do” list rather than punishing them for things on the “don’t do” list. Fortunately, many things on the “do” list will prevent or avoid a lot of things on the “don’t do” list!
It was a change in perspective for me but it turns out to be much easier. It takes a little thinking and planning but I know what I want from my dog and focus on teaching her those things. That leaves much less time for her to experiment and accidentally discover things on the “don’t do” list.
The remarkable thing we’ve discovered is that it takes much less time to teach things on the “do” list than dealing with the issues that come from the “don’t do” list! So that little bit of time we spend in planning and training and being proactive pays off 10 fold in saving us from cleaning up messes, dealing with problems, and generally being cross with our dogs.
What will you fill up your dog’s “lemon brain” with today? Be smart. Focus on teaching the good stuff and the bad stuff will mostly go away on it’s own.
Eric
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