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What if there was something that you were missing in your training? Something that would help you immensely with your dog, but also something that is almost always overlooked by many owners? This one thing is a concept that I speak about to almost every dog owner that I train. It’s something that, through no fault of their own, owners often don’t think about. What is it? Accountability. Let me explain.
Think about this. Have you ever been on a walk with your dog, and perhaps seen someone and stopped for a conversation? You try to put your dog into a sit or down. Maybe they lie down, or their butt touches the floor, or maybe your dog just straight up ignores you and refuses to do what you ask. You proceed to talk for a bit with your friend or neighbor. By the time you return your attention to your dog, you notice that your dog is off sniffing the bush three feet away. This is a perfect example of accountability. In that situation, you failed to hold your dog accountable to what you asked them to do. You asked them to sit/down, and they either outright refused and you gave up, or maybe they did it, but they probably only did it for about one second. They either decided that they didn’t want to listen to what you asked them to do, or they decided that smelling the bush was more important than what you asked them to do, they got up and left, and you let them get away with it. In this case, holding your dog accountable would have been to make sure your dog actually sat, and then making sure they stayed sitting, especially when they tried to get out of their sit.
Now, this might not seem like a big deal. Why does it matter if my dog listens in scenarios like that? Well, let’s think about it. First of all, if you can’t even get your dog to hold a sit while you’re standing still and having a conversation, why would they listen to you when you ask them to do anything else? Why would they ever recall at the park? Why would they stop barking, heel when you ask them to, or stay somewhere when you ask them to? If you can’t even get your dog to hold their sit, you can’t complain about the fact that they don’t recall or listen to you in other scenarios. If your basic foundation isn’t there, there is no way your dog is going to succeed in more difficult and distracting situations. This lack of accountability also makes things unclear for the dog. What is the criteria for a specific obedience command? Does sit end when their butt touches the floor? Does come end when they’re within 20 feet of you? Does stay mean to just sit still for five seconds? A consistent lack of accountability reduces clarity in your relationship, stops your dog from taking you seriously, and means that they stop looking at you for leadership, direction, and guidance. Unfortunately, so many of the everyday problems that dog owners run into with their dogs stems from the lack of this very thing.
As owners, we want to be the most important thing in our dog’s lives. We want to be the ones that provide all of the fun things in life to them, and we want them to do things on our terms because we know what is best for them and the best way to keep them safe. Failing to hold your dog accountable, even for something as simple as a sit, gives them a sense that what you say isn’t very important. They stop looking to you to provide them with the things that they like and start making those decisions on their own. Maybe they’ll do what you ask if they feel like it, but if they don’t, you don’t care, so they don’t care. It gives the dog an unclear picture of what you want, degrades your relationship and teaches a dog that they don’t really have to take you seriously at all. They can either just refuse what you’re asking of them and you’ll let it go, or they’ll kind of, sort of, maybe, half-ass do it for a second and that’s good enough for you. It’s like if you asked your young child to go clean their room, and they looked over at you, scoffed in your face, and flipped you off. You wouldn’t just let them get away with that. If you did, what type of message would that send to them? How could you expect them to respect or listen to anything else you say in the future?
All of this leads to my next point. Let’s say you’ve held your dog accountable. They stay sitting, staying, downing, or doing whatever you ask them to, when you ask them to. Great. But your dog isn’t going to stay sitting forever. How do you communicate with them that they’re done with what you’re asking? This brings us to the second half of the equation. The break command. This is also something that is also often overlooked in dog training. The break tells your dog when they’re done with what you’re asking of them. Now, they’re free to go do what they like (within reason obviously). Accountability paired with the break will add structure and clarity to your relationship. It makes clear to the dog what exactly you want from them when you ask them for something, and it tells them exactly when they’re free to go be a dog. It helps your dog fully understand your expectations, and will teach them to look to you for guidance before they decide to go do something.
Keep in mind as well that you can’t hold your dog accountable for something that they don’t understand. Make sure that you teach your dog and that your dog fully understands what you’re asking of them before you start to bring accountability into the equation. Also, remember that building accountability under duration, distance, and distraction is also something you must train. Don’t expect to be able to hold your young puppy accountable in the dog park when they can barely sit still in your living room. As with anything else in dog training, start small. Make sure your dog can sit for five seconds before you try to make them sit for thirty minutes, or else they will never succeed. Build your dog up slowly so they have the best chance for success.
So next time you’re running through a training session or having a conversation on the street, keep accountability in the back of your head. Make sure you’re consistently holding your dog accountable and being clear with your expectations. It seems like a small thing, especially when we talk about it in the context of a sit, but if you persistently apply accountability throughout your dog’s life, you’ll very quickly start to see the positive change that it makes for the both of you.
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