I’ve titled this one “Look at me, dammit” because that’s what every owner who ever took a puppy or a dog to a training school said multiple times whilst waving a treat around in front of the dog’s face frustrated that the dog is doing everything but paying attention to them.

I am going to take a harsh tone in this one because this topic annoys me. If you’re wanting or expecting rainbows and unicorns, jog on. If you want to understand why the things we’ve been told to do to train our dogs are the opposite of what we should be doing, and don’t mind some good old fashioned mudslinging, read on.

A few thoughts from James French who founded the trust technique, and some follow on thoughts from me.

“We are so fixated on trying to fix the behaviour that often another [unwanted] behaviour comes out, because we haven’t addressed what drives the behaviour – feelings. Change the feeling to change the behaviour.”

James is saying that a behaviour is a result of an internal emotional reaction [to an external stimulus]. It therefore follows that the behaviour won’t change until the way the animal / person feels about whatever they are reacting to changes.