I have been thinking a lot lately about dog training terminology and the words we use to describe our dogs.  Every day I work with several clients to help them fix their dog training problems and also speak with a handful of potential clients.  One thing I often hear is, “My dog is very disobedient,” or, “My dog is naughty,” or “My dog doesn’t listen to me.”

I often respond by saying, “Okay, no problem.  We’ll fix that.”  Lately, though, I’ve been thinking about these characterizations and whether or not they are accurate.  After a lot of thinking I have come to the conclusion that they aren’t.

Think about it, we live in a world of opposites.  We only know what happiness is because we have experienced sadness.  We only know pain because we also know wellness.  You can only know what cold is if you have experienced hot.  Each opposite is a reference point for the other feeling, sensation, state of being, etc.

What that means is that a dog can only willingly be disobedient if he knows what obedience is.  He can’t break a rule if he doesn’t understand a rule.  She can’t be naughty if she hasn’t been trained.

So many owners have a pretty clear picture in their mind of how they want their dog to behave.  Anything that falls outside of those parameters is considered disobedient.  It is my contention that this is erroneous most of the time.  Dogs aren’t spiteful, malicious, or vengeful.  If they really know something is wrong, they don’t do it.  Period.  If they really know something is appropriate, they do it.  End of story.

I get lots of arguments on this.  People will constantly tell me that their dog is disobedient because he knows that he did something wrong.  What I try to educate my clients about is that they need to rethink their lines of communication.  The owner is convinced that he has made it clear to the dog what is appropriate, yet the dog is still acting out.  Nine times out of ten the owner hasn’t made it clear, it’s a case of miscommunication.  The owner then misreads body signals such as a seemingly penitent and guilty looking dog and takes that to mean that the dog is being willfully rebellious.  Not so.  The dog is simply confused and wishes to understand why his owner is angry with him.

If you have a disobedient or naughty dog rethink things.  Chances are you haven’t communicated what it is you want.