Dog owners and trainers alike need to be wary of inadvertent training. Make your interactions with your dog intentional, and you will see better results.

What is inadvertent training?

Accidentally praising or reprimanding a dog for the wrong behavior behaviors.

Consider this example. Your dog is loose in the park, you see another dog, and you call your dog. He does not come on the first call, so you run after him, continuing to call him. He finally decides to come, and when he gets to you, you reprimand him for not coming when he was first called.

What have you just taught the dog? You have taught him that he will get reprimanded when he comes to you. The fact is that he has probably long since forgotten the first calls you made to him. He will hesitate to come again when called. In his mind, he is being punished for coming.

Here is another typical example. An owner calls his dog that is running free; the dog does not respond. The owner goes after the dog; the dog keeps his distance and eludes the owner. Among other things, the dog is taught that when he is off-leash, the owner has no control and cannot follow up with a correction.

Inadvertent training is a widespread problem that causes many owners anxiety and eventually costs them money for professional training. Even worse, it has cost many dogs their lives. If you allow your dog to run off-leash before he is 100 percent reliable working under distraction, you will teach him that he does not have to obey you. Retraining this idea is extremely difficult and time-consuming.