When most people seek help with their dog, they understandably want a behaviour to change. They want their dog to stop barking, stop pulling on the lead, stop reacting to other dogs, stop jumping on visitors or stop becoming anxious when left alone. For much of my early career, I looked at dog training in much the same way. Identify the behaviour we don’t want, teach the behaviour we do want and help the dog learn a more appropriate response.
After more than 35 years working with thousands of dogs and their owners, however, I’ve come to see behaviour somewhat differently. I’ve learned that stopping a behaviour and changing the state of mind behind that behaviour are not necessarily the same thing. We can sometimes change what a dog is doing without fundamentally changing what the dog is experiencing, and I believe that distinction is enormously important if we want to create genuine, lasting change.
A Dog Can Behave Differently Without Changing Its State of Mind
Imagine a reactive dog walking towards another dog. The owner asks their dog to sit and the dog complies. From a traditional training perspective, we might consider that a success. The dog is no longer pulling or lunging, it has responded correctly to a command and outwardly appears to be under control.
But look more closely and we may see something very different. The dog’s eyes remain intensely fixed on the other dog, its body is tense, its ears are forward and its breathing has changed. It may technically be sitting, but mentally and emotionally it is still completely engaged with what it perceives to be the problem in front of it. We have changed what the dog is doing, but have we really changed what the dog is experiencing?
This is why I believe we need to look beyond behaviour alone. A dog can perform the behaviour we’re asking for while remaining in essentially the same internal state that produced the unwanted behaviour in the first place. The appearance of compliance doesn’t necessarily mean the dog has become calm, nor does it necessarily mean the underlying reason for the behaviour has changed.
Behaviour Is Often the Dog’s Solution
When most people seek help with their dog, they understandably want something their dog is doing to change. They want their dog to stop barking, stop pulling on the lead, stop reacting to other dogs, stop jumping on visitors or stop becoming anxious when left alone. For much of my early career, I looked at dog training in much the same way. Identify what the dog is doing that we don’t want, teach them what we’d prefer them to do instead, and help them learn a more appropriate response.
After more than 35 years working with thousands of dogs and their owners, however, I’ve come to see things somewhat differently. I’ve learned that changing what a dog is doing and changing the state of mind behind what they are doing are not necessarily the same thing. We can sometimes change what we see on the outside without fundamentally changing what the dog is experiencing on the inside, and I believe that distinction is enormously important if we want to create genuine, lasting change.
Changing What a Dog Does Isn’t Always Enough
Imagine a reactive dog approaching another dog. The owner asks their dog to sit and the dog complies. From a traditional training perspective, we might consider that a success. The dog is no longer pulling or lunging, it has responded correctly to a command and outwardly appears to be under control.
But look more closely and we may see something very different. The dog’s eyes remain intensely fixed on the other dog, its body is tense, its ears are forward and its attention remains completely consumed by what is happening in front of it. The dog may technically be sitting, but internally very little has changed.
We have changed what the dog is doing, but have we changed how the dog is experiencing the situation?
I believe that distinction matters enormously. A dog can do exactly what we’re asking while remaining in essentially the same state of mind that produced the original response. Sitting doesn’t necessarily mean the dog has become calm. Staying still doesn’t necessarily mean the dog has let go. And compliance with a command doesn’t necessarily mean the dog is genuinely cooperating with us.
If we only look at what the dog is doing, we can easily miss what is happening within the dog.
What We See Is Only Part of the Picture
One of the most important lessons dogs have taught me is that what we see them doing often makes sense when we understand what they are experiencing.
The barking dog may believe there is something it needs to deal with. The reactive dog may feel the need to create distance or control an encounter. The anxious dog may not yet have developed the capacity to feel safe without its owner. The dog constantly watching the front window may have assumed responsibility for monitoring everything happening outside.
From our perspective, these responses may be frustrating, inappropriate or difficult to live with. But from the dog’s perspective, they may represent the best available response to the situation as they currently understand it.
This is why one of the questions I increasingly ask is not simply:
How do I stop my dog from doing this?
But:
Why does doing this currently make sense to my dog?
That small change in the question can completely change the way we approach the problem. Instead of immediately trying to stop what we see, we become curious about what is happening underneath it. What is the dog experiencing? What do they believe is happening? What do they feel responsible for? What state of mind are they in, and why does their current response make sense from within that state?
Once we begin asking those questions, we start understanding the whole dog rather than simply focusing on what we can see.
Changing the State Behind What the Dog Is Doing
When I’m working with a dog, I’m therefore looking for much more than whether they’ve stopped doing something I don’t want.
I’m watching the whole dog—the eyes, ears, tail, breathing, posture, muscle tension, movement and attention. I’m looking for signs that something has genuinely changed within them, rather than simply looking for a change in what they’re doing.
There is often a recognisable moment when that happens. The fixation begins to soften. The body relaxes. The dog disengages from whatever had captured its attention. Its awareness of the surrounding environment begins to broaden again and the dog becomes receptive to communication and guidance in a way that simply wasn’t possible while it was completely consumed by the situation in front of it.
I often describe this simply as the dog letting go.
What’s particularly interesting is that the situation around the dog may not have changed at all. The other dog may still be there. The visitor may still be standing at the door. The sound or movement that originally triggered the response may still be present.
What has changed is how the dog perceives the situation and what they believe that situation requires of them.
When that perception changes, their state of mind can change too. And when their state changes, different responses become possible.
This is why my goal isn’t simply to get the dog to stop doing something. I want to help the dog move from a state in which they feel compelled to react, control, protect, escape or solve a problem towards a state in which they can let go, become receptive to guidance and discover that another response is available.
Creating the Conditions for a Different State of Mind
This understanding has gradually changed the way I think about dog training.
Rather than simply asking:
How do I change what this dog is doing?
I increasingly find myself asking:
What conditions are contributing to the way this dog is experiencing the situation, and what needs to change for a different response to become possible?
Does the dog feel safe? Do they trust the person guiding them? Is communication clear? Have they assumed responsibility for situations they don’t actually need to control? Is the person at the other end of the lead calm and certain enough to provide meaningful direction? Does the dog understand that another option is available? And are we creating an environment and relationship in which letting go and accepting that guidance makes sense to the dog?
These questions take us beneath what we can see.
They encourage us to become less preoccupied with simply changing what the dog is doing and more interested in understanding the conditions shaping the dog’s experience of the world.
For me, that is where much of lasting change begins.
Lasting Change Begins Beneath What We Can See
After more than three decades working with dogs, I’ve come to believe that we need to understand more than the actions happening in front of us. What a dog is doing is part of a much bigger picture involving their perception of the situation, their state of mind, their previous experiences, their environment and the relationship they have with the people guiding them.
When we begin changing those underlying conditions, something important becomes possible. We are no longer simply asking the dog to behave differently while experiencing the situation in exactly the same way. We are helping create an experience in which a different response begins to make sense.
Because ultimately, my goal isn’t simply to create a dog that acts calmly.
It’s to help create the conditions in which calm, trust and cooperation can naturally emerge.
And when those conditions begin to change, what the dog does often begins to change with them.
A Different Way of Understanding Dogs
This perspective is part of a broader philosophy that has developed through more than 35 years of working with dogs and their owners. Over time, my focus has gradually moved beyond simply teaching dogs what to do and towards understanding the whole dog—their state of mind, their perception of the world around them and the relationship they share with the people in their lives.
You can explore more of that philosophy in Beyond Traditional Dog Training.