“He’s really hard headed and unmotivated.” “I’ve taught her this before but she’s so stubborn that she will only do it when she feels like it.” “As soon as we bring him anywhere outside the house, he completely ignores anything we ask him to do.”
Do any of these statements resonate with you? We hear these kinds of comments from our clients all the time! Would you be surprised if we told you that your dog is not likely actually being “stubborn” or disobedient when they’re not responding to cues you’ve previously taught them? It likely means there’s just a gap in training, or a lack of understanding your dog’s perspective on the situation. Dogs are very dependent on context when it comes to learning new behaviors, and it’s likely that you’re struggling with progressing your training to more difficult scenarios because of one of these following reasons:
Reason 1: You Haven’t Proofed The Behavior Around Distractions
Sometimes we get discouraged when we think our dog knows a behavior well, and then when the time comes to actually use it, they act like they’ve never heard that cue before in their life! In a lot of cases, this may be happening because you haven’t spent the time “proofing” this new behavior with your dog around distractions that they would experience in real life settings.
Dogs aren’t able to generalize well, and tend to learn much more through context. This means that a “sit” in the backyard may not naturally mean the same thing to your dog as a “sit” in a busy park with children running around and bicyclists riding by. Once you’ve taught your dog a new behavior in a low-distraction setting, start helping them generalize the behavior by asking for it in increasing levels of distraction, starting with just a couple of distractions at a time before moving up to harder environments.
If at any time your dog isn’t able to do a behavior that you know they can do well in an easier setting, that’s just information to you that you need to go back a step and work your way back up again. And don’t forget to heavily reward your dog for performing behaviors you ask for when they’re around distractions to keep the behavior strong!
Once you’ve taught your dog a new behavior in a low-distraction setting, start helping them generalize the behavior by asking for it in increasing levels of distraction, starting with just a couple of distractions at a time before moving up to harder environments.
Reason 2: Your Dog Can’t Listen Because They Are Over Threshold
When you have a dog who is reactive, fearful, or easily overstimulated, you’ve likely found yourself in a scenario where they are barking, lunging, frantic, or shut down and you just don’t understand why they won’t listen to behavior you KNOW they know how to do. Why are they just completely blowing you off?!
This is because when the brain enters a state of “fight, flight, freeze, or fool around,” your dog may be mentally incapable of understanding what you’re telling them to do. When your dog is over threshold, the parts of their brain that allow them to process and respond to information like obedience cues or trained behaviors may not be functioning. It’s not because your dog is willfully ignoring you, it’s because they literally cannot think! This is one reason why we do not recommend using punishment or corrections to address the behaviors of an over-threshold dog. They aren’t making a conscious decision to ignore you, they just cannot process the information you’re trying to give them.
If you find yourself struggling to get your dog’s attention when they are over their threshold, it’s important to work with a certified trainer or behavior professional to help your dog overcome their fears and triggers. We will help you change your dog’s behaviors by working with their temperament/breed traits, their overall lifestyle, using management tactics, and training to change their associations to triggers. Once we have helped a dog change how they feel about a trigger, their response will change, and they will have a clearer head to respond to cues.
If you find yourself struggling to get your dog’s attention when they are over their threshold, it’s important to work with a certified trainer or behavior professional to help your dog overcome their fears and triggers.
Reason 3: Your Reinforcement History Isn’t Strong Enough Yet
“But he KNOWS how to do this!” Well, are you sure?
We as humans sometimes struggle with patience or “seeing the big picture” when it comes to training our dogs, especially if we’re working on changing a concerning, embarrassing, or problem behavior. It can be really disappointing to have a really good training session with your dog on teaching them how to drop items in their mouth on cue one day, but the next day struggle to retrieve a stolen sock from your dog who went through your laundry basket.
We tend to assume our dogs know a behavior well after we have a good training session with them and start to see some progress. However, if you want a behavior to truly be reliable even in “real life” or more difficult scenarios, you’re going to have to build on that temporary success and continue to practice with your dog. Your dog needs to know that performing the behavior you are cuing them to do has paid off well in the past, also known as a reinforcement history. The more a dog has been heavily rewarded for something in the past, the more likely they’re going to be able to do the behavior in the future in more difficult settings.
This is why we encourage our clients to have frequent, short training sessions with their dogs instead of working with them in “one big chunk.” This is also why we encourage our clients to be very generous with their dogs and reward them well when we ask them to do something, so that they will be more likely to perform the behavior when “real life” happens and we don’t have a treat on us available. Without that strong past of being rewarded well, the dog will likely not be able to perform the behavior when it really counts!
The more a dog has been heavily rewarded for something in the past, the more likely they’re going to be able to do the behavior in the future in more difficult settings.
Reason 4: Your Reinforcer Isn’t Motivating Enough
Sometimes we ask our dogs for “expensive” behaviors and only have reinforcers that they consider to be pocket change. Just like we shouldn’t ask a person to do educated, skilled work just for a pat on the back, we can’t ask our dogs to do difficult behaviors for motivators they don’t find reinforcing!
A lot of people will try to use verbal praise or petting as a reward for their dog, when in reality it’s not all that reinforcing for the dog and doesn’t motivate them enough to participate in training next time. This is why we commonly use food, toys, or desired activities to reward our dogs for a job well done over just telling them “good boy” or “good girl.”
If you’re struggling with motivating your dog to train with you, try experimenting with different reinforcers and find what your dog likes best. Some dogs with ball or tug drive would find throwing their tennis ball or a short 5-10 second game of tug the highest value reward, while other dogs would prefer to work for higher value foods like cheese, deli meat, or boiled chicken. Dogs are all individuals, so what might be highly rewarding to one dog may be kind of boring to another.
Where some dogs may recall across a field of deer for a handful of kibble, others may need a squeeze tube of cream cheese and sardines or a game of chase with a flirt pole to achieve the same result. If you’re not seeing the results you want with the reinforcers you’re currently using, that may be a sign to try something else that your dog finds more exciting or appetizing and see if you notice a difference in their ability to work with you!
Reason 5: You’re Asking Too Much Of The Dog In Front Of You
We all have dreams of a perfectly well behaved dog at all times. One we can take with us everywhere, one we don’t have to worry about around distractions, one that just knows what to do in every scenario. However, that may not be a realistic goal for every dog depending on the dog you have standing in front of you.
Behavior is a combination of genetic, health, and life experience factors, and no two dogs will have the same exact temperament or tolerance level to different levels of triggers, stress, and distractions. No matter where you got your dog from, whether they were a rescue or from a breeder, there is no guarantee of behavior no matter what. We have to consider our dog’s background, breed(s) traits, and current health/living situation when making goals for them in regards to training.
A severely under socialized and fearful rescue dog who goes over threshold just stepping out into the backyard may never be the kind of dog you can take to a busy restaurant patio, but instead may be able to learn how to enjoy and relax in safe, quiet outdoor spaces. A dog with a history of being reactive and/or aggressing at other dogs may not be a “dog park dog” at any point in his life, but instead may be able to learn how to have a neutral response to seeing other dogs when on neighborhood walks. A dog with high prey drive may never be able to be left unattended to play with the family cat, but instead may be able to learn how to have supervised, relaxed encounters with management tactics in place for safety.
Always set realistic goals for the dog in front of you when making a training plan. It’s always possible they may exceed your expectations, which is always a wonderful added bonus, but it’s better to be pleasantly surprised by their progress than to be frustrated and disappointed to not get the dog you wanted out of training if the goals are too unrealistic for the individual dog in front of you.
If you’re struggling with motivating your dog to train with you, try experimenting with different reinforcers and find what your dog likes best. Some dogs with ball or tug drive would find throwing their tennis ball or a short 5-10 second game of tug the highest value reward, while other dogs would prefer to work for higher value foods like cheese, deli meat, or boiled chicken.
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