Are you teaching behaviors? Or skills?

Let’s look at some of the most common behaviors people are likely to teach their dogs: sit, down, stay, heel, and recall. Someone can teach these behaviors to their dog and get through the day pretty easily. The dog will sit when they say sit, stay when they say stay, and heel when they say heel. There are plenty of people who are very happy with this. The dog will do what they ask and is not being a problem. They have taught their dog behaviors to get through the day.

But what happens if you have only focused on teaching behaviors and the dog is not in a specific behavior? If you have just focused on teaching “do as I say”….your dog is likely not going to do very well when they are left to their own devices. This is because these dogs have not been taught skills. They are doing what they are told but are not learning how to be successful outside of cued behaviors. 

Teaching obedience with “skills” in mind instead of “behaviors” can teach so many different things to your dog. 

By teaching a heel you can teach attention and focus

By teaching a stay you can teach self control and emotional regulation

By teaching a recall you can teach engagement and delayed gratification

By allowing your dog to make mistakes and figure out how to be successful you can teach them how to problem solve.

The list goes on and on.

The skills you teach through obedience are things your dog is able to use on their own without direction. A dog that has good self control and knows how to emotionally regulate themselves makes good choices when left to their own devices. A dog that has attention and focus will look to you for guidance when they are unsure. A dog that knows how to problem solve doesn’t need to be micromanaged. 

That isn’t to say that obedience will become completely unnecessary; it is good to have a dog that can do what they need to do when asked. But these skills will help your dog to be successful without needing to rely on obedience nearly as much. 

That is the beauty of using behaviors to teach skills. 

If you do it right you end up not needing the behaviors very much at all.