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Why Ignoring Bad Behaviours Won’t Work
What I would like to talk about today is some bad advice that has been perpetually growing in dog training communities. What bad advice? This one: Ignore bad behaviour and it will go away. Try this technique — you may get lucky, but more than likely the bad behaviour you’re trying to ignore will remain. It may even get worse.
There’s been a lot of changes in the way we train dogs over the last several decades. Definitely a lot of changes are for the better. We’ve become kinder. We’ve learned to view things from the dog’s perspective and keep their well-being front of mind when teaching and training, but like with so many things, we go to extremes thinking that if a little is good, a lot must be better. It’s got to be better to never say no, right? Never tell a dog they are wrong must be the way to go to create a happier dog, right? Quite frankly, this well-meaning, but poor advice is truly a huge detriment to our dogs. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating for the return of harsh methods, AT ALL, but all creatures need feedback that is clear and fair. I’ve written before about The Need for Meaningful Consequences and Meaningful Rewards in Training. With that in mind, today I’d like to talk about the idea that ignoring an unwanted behaviour will extinguish said behaviour. Let me tell you why that will not likely happen.
