Always ask ‘WHY?’ is the behaviour occurring. This will help you address the cause and avoid masking the symptom. Let’s take an example of a dog barking. The cause could be a number of things, they want your attention, they heard a noise that startled them, they are scared of another dog. The solution to each of these would be very different.
If a dog is barking at another dog because they are scared, telling them to be quiet, isn’t going to help their confidence around other dogs, right?
It could also inhibit the dog barking next time because they have a history of being told off for it. So rather than bark, they might go straight to bite.
So this is why it’s important to ask WHY?
Why is the dog pulling?
Why is the dog jumping?
Why is the dog biting?
This way, we can develop the best training strategy to tackle the cause and not mask the symptom.
If you are currently struggling with any issue, try to figure out the WHY?. If you would like help figuring that out together and developing a plan for your dog, please get in touch or check out our Online Courses x