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Dogs Do What Works for Them

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Posted August 27th, 2007 by Aidan

All behavior is easily explained with this LAW of behavior, somewhat
paraphrased but accurate nonetheless:

Dogs Do What Works For Them

Implied in this (quite correctly) is that dogs have no regard for the
written word, implications, morals, or even pack leadership if it is not
enforced with conditioning. They will simply do what works.

The part about this that most people seem to struggle with is the
logical inversion of this rule -

If your dog is doing something, it is working for him.

You will solve every behavior "problem" by figuring out why whatever
your dog is doing is working and removing, preventing, modifying or
avoiding it, then making what works for your dog the same thing that
works for you.

Some compromise might be necessary. You may need to resolve a health
issue as part of this. There may be a genetic component that requires
more compromise than you are willing to make. But the rule still applies.

If anything you are advised to do does not fit neatly into those 7 brief
paragraphs, then ignore it.

Following the first 7 paragraphs of this blog will ALWAYS solve your
dog behavior problem, there may be compromises, but there are never
exceptions.

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