It’s not my dogs job to correct your dog. That’s your job.

“Can they say hi?”

“I’d rather they didn’t, she doesn’t like young dogs being pushy in her space.”

“Oh, it’s okay if she tells him off!”

🤦🏻‍♀️

There’s a common misconception that when we have young, frustrated greeters that we need to introduce them to a whole heap of other dogs and let the other dog “put them in their place”.

I get where this comes from. This might help your dog get over that initial embarrassing reaction in that moment. I’ve been there with that barky lungey dog and it sucks!

But here are the problems with that approach.

1️⃣ Your dog is learning that when they kick up a fuss, they get to run over and interact with every dog they see. They are not learning what the appropriate reaction is in this situation, and they are being reinforced for shitty behaviour by getting to drag you over to say hi.

2️⃣ If my dog tells your dog off in this context, that’s a sign that my dog is uncomfortable with this interaction. For a really happy, stable dog this is unfair at best. For a dog like Needle who leans to the reactive side, putting them into this sort of situation where they are forced to react to create space is likely to set her training back that we’ve spent so long working on, and make her less tolerant in future. As the owner asking my dog to trust that I have their back, it is up to me to step in and advocate for her space if needed rather than spontaneously putting her in a likely uncomfortable position.

3️⃣ When relying on a strangers dog to correct your dogs obnoxious behaviour, you don’t know that dog. You don’t know how strongly they will correct your dog. Or what appropriate/inappropriate behaviours they will and won’t tolerate. It’s a very risky approach that could have serious and expensive consequences.

🌟 If our dog is struggling with frustration around other dogs, we need to be the ones to set the boundaries around what is and isn’t appropriate behaviour. We need to choose when, how and who we allow our dogs to interact with carefully so they are set up for success in building confidence and learning about appropriate interaction. And we need to be mindful of how ALL the dogs involved are feeling in that training process. 🌟

It isn’t my dogs job to correct your dog. That’s your job.