Does Your Dog Make Mistakes?

Even though we are dog trainers and our clients think our dogs are "perfect," they do make mistakes . And in the spirit of full disclosure, so do we. We've yet to meet a dog or person that was 100% perfect all the time.

When our dog makes a mistake it's usually no big deal. Actually, most of the time it was our fault for not teaching them what we expect or what is acceptable in a certain situation.

When they do make a mistake, we try to make a mental note to try to recreate the situation so we can teach them what we do want them to do.

If we don't, they're likely to repeat the same mistake again. If that happens it's definitely our fault. Educating our dog is one of our responsibilities both as a dog owner, and as their leader. It's our responsibility to keep them safe and teach them how to not just survive but to thrive with us.

We haven't thought of every situation that might come up, so upon occasion we encounter a situation we haven't dealt with before. One thing that often happens is we will catch our dog looking at us. It's their way of asking us what they should do. If we show them what we want in that situation, they'll usually follow our lead and get a lot of "Good Boys."

Why does our dog "ask?" It's because they trusts us. They know, from experience, that we are not going to let anything bad happen to them. This trust took time and effort on both our parts. It took patience and not putting them in situations they aren't prepared to handle.

People often ask us how long it will take to break a dog of bad habits. Things take as long as they take. There are a lot of variables. How clearly we communicate with each other and understand each other, our previous experiences, our relationship with each other and our intelligence all come into play.

Another factor is how often we work on something.

Our dog lets us know when they get a new concept because they show us consistently over and over that they know what to do. They'll get it when they get it. Sometimes it happens very quickly and other times it takes longer. No matter how long it takes, working on something new is an opportunity.

It's an opportunity to enhance our bond and trust and have fun spending time working together. The more our dog learns, the more their allowed to do and the more experiences we'll have together. These shared experiences are what make the memories that we both cherish. Although our dog never vocalises them we know they have them. How can we tell?

When we go to the lake, they immediately want to go to the dock to see if there are ducks to chase. They might not go there for months but when we get there that's what they do.

We might not go the park for a long time, but when we get there, they knows which trail we'll likely take. Dogs tend to have very good memories.

So, we all make mistakes. That's life. What we do with those mistakes is what's important. We can berate ourselves or our dog or we can turn them into learning experiences and use them to grow.

The choice is ours. Your dog isn't dwelling on them unless we do. They file it away for the next time the situation occurs. We file them as well, but then try to both teach and learn from them.

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