Have you ever heard positive reinforcement training means you are a push over? That it’s just allowing dogs to do whatever they want?

This is most definitely not the case, and teaching boundaries is a big part of that. Boundaries in dog training help us to establish clear rules, foundations and structure. We aren’t necessarily talking about a physical boundary (although that does come into it), but also social and emotional boundaries.

For example, how your dog interacts with people or other dogs, and with you.

Why do we need to establish boundaries in our dog training protocols?

An animal has no idea what behaviours are acceptable or not if we don’t set boundaries. Too much freedom too soon can lead to an over aroused and frustrated dog who may be constantly getting into trouble, which can lead to a stressed or confused dog who doesn’t know what is expected of him/her.

Dogs who know what is expected of them and how to behave are much happier!

How do we teach boundaries?

We use clear communication and consistency in teaching desirable behaviours following positive reinforcement strategies and incorporating environmental management.

We don’t need to be ‘mean’ when teaching boundaries. However, we do use something called ‘negative punishment’. In animal training learning theory, ‘negative’ means to take something away, and ‘punishment’ means the aim is to reduce the frequency of the behaviour.

For example, removing access to attention (turning away) if a dog jumps up, with the aim to reduce jumping up.

Remember, we want to teach our dogs what we do want them to do when they greet people, which may be to sit or lay down.

Additionally, we can use management such as a baby gate or having a dog on a lead so they can’t jump on people at the front door.

It’s OK to say ‘no’ to particular behaviours and not allow mistakes to continually happen by using prevention, management and gentle guidance.
 
Choice

While choice is powerful in dog behaviour, with every great power comes great responsibility. We may allow choice in certain aspects of our dog’s life for example, choosing the direction on walks or when to have a break from a husbandry procedure.

However, we don’t want to reward dogs if they continually push boundaries (or let them do whatever they like), for example it’s easy to accidentally reward attention barking or pushy behaviour for pats/attention, even just by making eye contact!
 
It’s OK to 'let dogs be dogs' and do what works for you and your household, but remember all dogs need boundaries to some degree in their training plan.

Repeat after us – “You are not a push over”!

Happy training!