Are Dogs Bad or Broken?

Often times in animal training, behaviors are described as problems. The dog or behavior is seen as bad, an issue to fix like a broken car needing a physical repair. But this is really not the case in training at all. Most behaviors people describe as “problems” are actually normal canine behaviors dogs not only will perform, but will do in order to satisfy their needs: barking, running, jumping including up on people to lick their face in normal canine greeting fashion; scavenging for food/snacks, sleeping on soft surfaces, walking/running faster than people, even while on leash and thus pulling to get to where they want to go, and many more. None of these behaviors have anything to do with dominance, or an attempt to make people’s lives miserable. Dogs don’t have that level of cognitive awareness, and certainly don’t have that level of desiring to cause harm or seek revenge. 

So dogs doing doggie things are not broken. They are not immoral or bad. They are simply dogs. Does this mean we inevitably have to let them run wild? Absolutely not. We can teach dogs when and where it is appropriate to perform their natural behaviors, and we can teach new behaviors, and end up with a well-cared for and well-trained dog. 

It is more apt to think of training as teaching. We don’t expect children to immediately know all manner of polite behaviors, or to be capable of solving complex tasks without first learning at lower levels and building up to complete, desirable behaviors. 

Children learn to ride a bike using a tricycle with the extra wheels for support until they get the hang of it and advance to two-wheeled regular bikes. Children learn basic math - addition and subtraction - before advancing to solving algebraic problems. And we praise and reward them for their successes - we don’t shock them or hit them - and we don’t set them up to fail by starting with algebra.

Similarly, dogs need to start at a level they can succeed at (more times than they fail), and then we gradually add to the difficulty level. We might start by teaching a dog to stay for 1 second, and many steps later build up to a 2-minute stay with higher level distractions like a wide open front door while people outside pass by. But we wouldn’t expect to get successful results at the more challenging level immediately - the dog would not understand or even be capable of responding at that level, and we don’t want or need to set a dog up to fail and then physically punish them. It’s unnecessary and inhumane.

And just like life with children is exciting and at times unpredictable, so it is with dogs as well. We can enjoy the process of teaching them, watching them grow and learn new behaviors as valuable members of our families and communities. We can stay focused on the end goal behavior, while simultaneously enjoying the journey.