Leadership - It’s not a dirty word!

Imagine this for a moment.

The aliens are invading, and we are going to battle. We need to appoint someone to lead us, someone we can all get behind and hopefully get through this with.

Are you putting your faith in:

1. The person who is running around frantically shouting at people on a weird line of thought you can’t quite figure out, but doesn’t seem to have any actual solid ideas you can use.

2. The person standing in the corner quietly making suggestions about what they’d like to see but not stepping forward to really take charge.

OR

3. The person who is calm, confident and steady, seems to have some good ideas & is bringing some order to the situation.

Probably the third one, right?

For many of our dogs, the aliens have landed every day. They don’t understand this weird human world, our funny customs or the fact that no mate - we’re not actually going to go eat Mrs Figs cat next door because that would be bad.

Unfortunately as we have shifted towards more modern dog training methods we have made leadership a bit of a dirty word in the name of being kind - throwing the baby out with the bath water entirely, when most dogs would still benefit from a little more actual leadership in their life!

What can leadership look like?

✅ Take a minute to clear your head before a walk, starting confident with an idea of what you’re asking of your dog. Set the standard before you begin.

✅ Set fair rules and enforce them consistently. That doesn’t require being an asshole, just being persistent.

✅ Take charge in situations, facing it right there with them. Dog not quite sure what to do with this stressful situation (eg random person intruding on their space)? You step forward and handle it rather than leaving them to figure it out!

✅ Recognise good stuff happening and motivate your learner in a way they understand and appreciate. Maybe that’s food, maybe that’s play, maybe that’s a good sniff, maybe it’s just a “good job mate” and getting on with it.

Leadership doesn’t have to be a dirty word - our dogs are counting on us to help them navigate this weird world.