12 Ways You’re Accidentally Setting Your Dog Up to Fail

“Always set your dog up to succeed. That means never making things difficult for them.”

This is one of the most important points on the training guide that London-based behaviourist Rima Chehlaoui, Even Better Dogs K9 Behaviour and Training, sends out to all her clients (me and my rescue dog Lucy among them). Because, despite our best intentions, Rima says she sees many of her clients inadvertently setting their dogs up to stumble on their training journeys – without meaning to, of course. 

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Perhaps you’re doing it, too. Without knowing it, you could be reinforcing the exact behaviour that you’re trying to avoid or putting your dog in a situation they don’t know how to handle – even if you think they do. So, Rima and I put together a list of the common hurdles that pet parents accidentally put in the way of their dog’s training goals, which can send them down the wrong track.

But don’t worry, it’s never too late to fix it – we’ve got plenty of expert tips and advice along the way. Let’s get into it.

1. You leave your shoes and socks out to be chewed on

Think about it – where are the shoes that your puppy keeps chewing? On the floor? At their level? Within easy reach of their mouth? “Training doesn't happen without management from you,” explains Rima. And in order to manage this particular behaviour – and, ultimately, for your dog to learn to stop chewing your shoes – you need to put the shoes in a place where your puppy can’t get to them. For now, anyway. This doesn’t mean forever (eventually you can gradually re-introduce the items and teach the ‘leave it’ cue).

“Instead, give your pup plenty of appropriate things to chew, including natural chews like goat’s or pig’s ears or root chews – literally the root of a tree,” advises Rima, who says that chewing is a natural dog behaviour and so, of course, your dog doesn’t just miraculously know what they’re allowed to put in their mouth and what they’re not. 

2. You don’t give them treats

Would you work for free? Nope, neither would I. And neither does your dog.

In fact, Rima suggests you grade your treats from five up to the number one spot – number one being the highest value, so the treat your dog loves the absolute most: cheese or chicken or something extra tasty. This means your dog gets paid every time they do something you like. Reward the behaviour you want and it’s more likely to happen again. “Use lower values – four or five – for easy things that they know how to do or in areas (such as the house) they know well,” Rima explains. “Save the higher value – one and two – for harder things to train or in areas with high distractions (for example, the park).”

3. You don’t take location into account

You’ve taught your dog how to do their best ‘sit’ and they do it beautifully at home, so they obviously know how to sit, right? But then you’re at the park and you ask them to sit (or ‘stay’ or ‘come’ or [insert any other cue you’ve been working on here], and they completely ignore you. So frustrating. And a familiar story to many dog parents. “Dogs don’t generalise well,” says Rima. “It takes performing/practising the required behaviour in about 300 different locations before we can say the behaviour is ingrained.” 

Rima uses the ‘Teach it! Generalise it! Proof it!’ approach. So in this situation, you’ve mastered the first part, you’ve taught your dog the thing you want them to do but you haven’t generalised or proofed it yet. Generalise by practising everywhere you can. “Each park you go to, along the high street, wherever you go – your dog needs to learn to adapt to different locations until they can recall all the information relating to the exercise reliably, regardless of where they are,” explains Rima. Then proofing begins. “Do this by gradually increasing the level of distraction until they’re able to concentrate when there are, for example, dogs running, people walking or squirrels.”

If your dog ignores you, Rima says you should always ask yourself: “Have I taught the cue properly?” “Have I generalised it?” “Have I proofed it?” And if you haven’t, go back a step. 

4. You’re overwhelming them with other dogs

You’ve been taking your dog to the dog park but they just keep barking at all the other dogs. 

“If your dog is reactive to other dogs in the park, it can take a long time and a lot of work before they get to the stage where they can be around other dogs,” explains Rima. “Often people think if they keep putting their dog in the same situation they’ll just get used to it and get better. But this is most definitely not the case.” Rima says this is a classic way of setting your dog up to fail. In fact, rather than immersion or exposure therapy, for a dog to learn to get used to a scary thing, they actually need space from it. “If your dog isn’t keen, taking them to a park where off-lead dogs can run up to them is only going to make the situation worse.”

Rima hears it all time “they should like playing with other dogs” – but she says it’s not that simple. “Your dog may be fearful, anxious or any other number of things.” Also, maybe your dog just doesn’t like the dog park and that’s OK, too. 

5. You can’t accept your dog isn’t a pub dog

Here’s the thing about dogs, they don’t always like doing what we do. And one of the most important parts of pet parenting is “managing your expectations and meeting your dog where they are and not where you think they should be”, says Rima. 

If you know your dog hates the pub and you’re forcing them into a situation they’re uncomfortable with, Rima says you need to rethink your motivation. “If they are happier at home in the quiet on the sofa, then that is the better choice for the dog’s well-being,” says Rima. “Especially if your dog might nip, bite or lunge.”  Rima says to look out for subtle signs of stress, too – “hiding, cowering, tail tucked”. But she says if you’re guessing how your dog is feeling, consult a reward-based trainer to help you instead.

6. You’re over-repeating cues

We’ve all done it – and probably witnessed it in the park, too. Saying the same thing over and over again and still your dog just won’t do it – but if I just say it, one. more. time. they’ll get it eventually, won’t they? “​​No. Do not keep repeating a cue,” asserts Rima. “Only say it once. You can say your dog’s name a few times to get their attention, but do not repeat the actual cue.” You want your dog to listen first time, otherwise the cue will become “sit, sit, sit, sit” – a mistake Rima admits to making in the past with her dog Leilah. 

7. You keep expecting them to just ‘get used to it’

“Put your dog in the same position and your dog will keep presenting with the same behaviour,” says Rima. It’s our responsibility to teach our dogs and puppies what we want from them. Dogs rarely just get used to something – my dog, for example, barks and lunges at bin lorries. She used to do this all the time. With every single bin lorry that passed us, Lucy would be aggressively barking. And, turns out, it was never something she’d just get used to. I followed this advice from Rima: “Reward your dog when you’re far away from the thing, slowly bringing them closer.” Now, Lucy mostly tolerates bin lorries – unless one takes her by surprise. But, I know her, so I’m always there ready to manage her reaction. 

8. You’re telling them off

Dogs do not understand anger or being told off. “If you raise your voice, your dog will become desensitised to it,” warns Rima. “I’ve had clients constantly saying ‘NO’ to their puppy. Of course the puppy carries on doing whatever they are doing.” Instead, Rima recommends distracting and getting your dog’s attention with silly voices or offering up a toy or something else fun.

9. You’re telling them off when they do what you want

“Another favourite of mine is when a pet parent is screaming for their dog to come back,” says Rima. “They’ve been standing there for ages, then the dog finally comes back and they tell the dog off.” But, Rima questions: why would the dog come back to get shouted at? “They’ve been having a grand time playing and running around, then they come back and you tell them off.” The lesson they’ve learnt? Coming back to you is no fun. “A long line is an important tool here,” says Rima. “Slowly give them more freedom and distance gradually over time.”

10. You’re expecting them to follow rules based on human logic

Dogs don’t follow rules – you need to teach them how to navigate the human world, especially a house. Rima tells me about a client with a large dog that was not allowed upstairs because that’s where the cats lived but, crucially, they put nothing in place to stop the dog going upstairs – and so he did, every time he got the chance. “Here is a great example of no management or training, and just an expectation that the dog should just not do it. Totally unreasonable.” Rima says it’s easier to manage than train this behaviour: “Just get a baby gate,” she suggests.

11. You skipped ahead in training

Yes your dog is clever, but support them and don’t rush ahead. “Just because you’ve been training something for a week does not mean your dog will suddenly become a pro at it,” says Rima. “Training is not linear. Things will go back and forth, up and down, brilliantly then terribly and eventually even out. Have patience.”

“If you get stuck on something, take it back to the last time you were successful. For example, if you are training your dog to look at you and you want him or her to look at you for 15 seconds and you can’t seem to get past 10 seconds, go back down to eight seconds then build up again from there.” And if a training session is successful, quit while you’re ahead – “Don’t let sessions go on too long and always end on a good one.”

12. You expected a dog to fit into your life 

You probably have sensed a theme to these points. Lots of people get dogs and expect them to magically become their sidekick through life but wonder why they don’t just simply slot in like they do in films. Rima talks a lot about “managing the environment in order to train the dog.”

And sadly, many people retort with: “Well, why should we do that? Why should we change our lives to suit the dog?” And so Rima explains to them that in order for the dog to understand what they want from them, it’s important to set the scene for training by managing the environment. 

Rima warns that you should always be mindful of what you’re expecting from your dog. Dogs should never just slot into our lives – they’re sentient beings with their own unique personalities and history. We should mesh our lives together and learn from each other. Let our dogs open our eyes up to new ways of being… the best of friends learn from each other, right? And never is that truer than with our dogs.