Who’s in Charge Here – and Why It Should Be Your Dog
Dogs have few choices in life. They don’t choose where they live, or who they live with, or when to go for a walk. But lack of control makes all kinds of animals more anxious. How can a good caretaker give her dog the control that builds confidence?
Jolanta Benal, CPDT-KA, CBCC-KA
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Who’s in Charge Here – and Why It Should Be Your Dog
Pretty much everything we read about dog training and life with dogs assumes that the human should be in charge. The paradigms vary. Some are just plain ugly, urging coercive and painful methods to get dogs to “obey.” Others, like the idea of “leadership,” aren’t necessary or scientific but can be benign and even useful. But pretty much everybody who writes or speaks about training, me included, emphasizes that it’s the human in the relationship who sets the rules.
Today, I’ll talk about why you might want to turn that idea upside down, and put your dog in charge instead.
Let’s start with two questions. One, how much control do our dogs have over their lives? And, two, does it matter?
The answer to the first question is, if we’re honest with ourselves, “Not much.” Our dogs don’t choose who adopts or buys them – they have no voice in whether anyone keeps them at all. They don’t choose where they live, or who their human or animal roommates are. They don’t choose what we give them to eat. (And never mind your “finicky dog” who insists on some special delectable food or other. He wouldn’t have access to that food if you didn’t deliver it, right?) It’s up to you whether he has fresh water to drink. He has no say in whether you teach him anything. If you do teach him, he has no say in the method. He gets toilet breaks only when you feel like giving them.
Of course, most of us take our dogs’ needs and likes into account. We might choose an apartment that’s close to a large park, or we might adopt a second dog if we think our dog-loving Zippy would enjoy the company. Most of us also try to do right by our dogs – we buy the best food we can afford. We keep the water bowl full and clean. We provide regular vet checkups and a comfortable place to sleep.
Also, some choices shouldn’t left to dogs. Dogalini might prefer to be off leash all the time, but in many places that wouldn’t be safe for her. A dog door would give her the option to go out to pee whenever, but if she doesn’t learn to hold her urine and feces for a few hours, then travel, hospitalization, and even sleeping through the night turn problematic.
All the same, it’s worth asking whether there’s a downside to living mostly under someone else’s control, even if that someone loves you to pieces. It turns out there might just be.
A famous experiment done 40 years ago involved two groups of rats. One group got food, water, and light by pressing levers. The second group got food, water, and light too – when, and only when, the rats in the first group pressed those levers. Neither group was deprived of anything, but only the first group had control. What do you know: At two months old, the ones who had control explored a new environment more and showed less “emotionality” in the new place than the ones who didn’t have control. When this particular team of scientists said “emotionality,” they meant “pooping.” The rats who had control over their environment pooped less, presumably because they were less afraid.
Okay, rats might be very different from dogs. Only … there’s been similar research on baby rhesus macaques. And, once again, the animals who controlled their food, water, and treats acted less afraid when they encountered something new – a toy robot, this time. They also explored more when they were put in a “standard primate playroom.” I don’t know what that is, but it sounds good. Anyway, lack of control is associated with anxiety all over the animal and human world. And that’s control not only over negative events, but over positive events too.
So, we have a paradox, right? To keep our dogs safe and healthy, and ourselves sane, we have to control many aspects of their lives. How can we do that, and at the same time give our dogs the control that builds confidence and reduces anxiety?
Tip #1: Be Consistent
One thing about all those confident lever-pressing experimental animals: The levers worked predictably. When the rat or the rhesus pressed the lever for water, water was what appeared. Pressing the lever didn’t sometimes produce water and sometimes a horn blast in their ear.
What this means for you is this. If you make a rule for your dog, don’t mess around with his head by applying it arbitrarily. Don’t laugh when Zippy nabs some cheese off the counter on Monday, then yell at him when he nabs some roast beef on Tuesday. If you’re teaching Dogalini to walk politely on leash, don’t sometimes let her pull you over to a hydrant, sometimes reward her for sitting to get permission to sniff the hydrant, and sometimes yank her back when she pulls toward the hydrant.
Tip #2: Teach Your Dog How to Get What She Wants
Whenever anyone, dog or human, does something in order to get a particular result, they’re a little like the baby rhesus macaque pressing a lever to get a treat. Dog and human and rhesus macaque – we’re all acting on the world to get what we want. When your dog sits patiently while you put on her leash, her sit is a way of pressing the lever marked “Go for a Walk.”
See also “Teach Your Dog to Wait at the Door”
Every time you teach your dog how to get something she wants by doing something you want, you’re also teaching her how the world’s levers work – and teaching her that she can use them. It’s not that you have to take her for a walk every time she sits by the door. The baby macaques can’t have gotten a treat for every lever press, or they would have been too fat to explore that “standard primate playroom,” after all. But if a walk is on the list of available options at a given time, then Dogalini can predict that sitting will work for her.
And, yes, here comes another plug for food-dispensing puzzle toys. They aren’t just busywork. They put your dog in charge of getting her food. Use them!
Tip #3: Give Your Dog Choices When You Can
One of my New Year’s Resolutions for dogs was “Be less of an annoying human,” and the example I gave was to let dogs sniff, already! Many of us reflexively deny our dogs harmless pleasures, even on walks whose goal is supposed to be enriching their lives.
Here’s an experiment I tried the other day. I brought my dog Juniper to Brooklyn’s Prospect Park for our usual morning walk. This huge, gorgeous park is a sensory feast for dogs, what with the wildlife to hear, see, and smell; the people and the other dogs; and the cornucopia of horse poop. I allotted our usual hour-plus to the walk, pointed us in a general direction, and then let Juni lead the way. Would he sniff by the lakeside reeds, or was marking on the downed tree a higher priority? Would he choose to walk on grass or on the paved sidewalk? What got him interested enough to pick up his pace? Juniper had a great time making all these little choices for himself, and I had a great time being the follower for a change.
I’m The Dog Trainer on Facebook, and you can also write to me at dogtrainer@quickanddirtytips.comcreate new email. I usually can’t reply personally, but check out past articles – I might already have answered your question. Thanks for reading!
Woman with Dog and Dog on a Leash images from Shutterstock
About the Author
Jolanta holds professional certifications in both training and behavior counseling and belongs to the Association of Professional Dog Trainers and the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants. She also volunteered with Pet Help Partners, a program of the Humane Society of the United States that works to prevent pet relinquishment. Her approach is generally behaviorist (Pavlovian, Skinnerian and post-Skinnerian learning theory) with a big helping of ethology (animal behavior as observed in non-experimental settings).