I hear some version of this all the time:

“He KNOWS this.”

He sits perfectly in the kitchen.

Comes running when you call him from the living room.

Can stay while you're holding a treat.

Maybe he was even the star of puppy class.

And then you take him outside.

Suddenly, you apparently don't exist.

You say his name.

Nothing.

You ask him to sit.

He's staring at a squirrel.

You call him.

He's sniffing something approximately 400 times more interesting than you.

And you're standing there thinking:

I KNOW YOU KNOW HOW TO DO THIS.

Here's the good news:

Your dog probably does know it.

He just doesn't know it as well as you think he does.

Dogs aren't very good at “Oh, this applies here too”

This is one of the biggest misunderstandings I see in dog training.

We teach a dog to sit in the kitchen and think:

My dog knows sit.

Your dog may actually think:

When I'm standing in this kitchen, you're facing me, there isn't much happening and you say that particular word, sitting makes a treat appear.

That's not quite the same thing.

Dogs don't automatically generalize learning the way we do.

Change the environment and, from your dog's perspective, you may have changed the entire exercise.

Go from your kitchen to the backyard.

Then the sidewalk.

Then the pet store.

Then soccer practice.

Each one adds another layer of difficulty.

And then there are distractions

Let's make this even harder.

Imagine I asked you to solve a math problem while you're sitting quietly at your kitchen table.

Now solve the same problem while your favorite song is playing, someone is offering you $100, a friend you haven't seen in ten years just walked past you and there's a plate of your favorite food sitting six feet away.

Same math problem.

Very different level of difficulty.

That's what we're asking of our dogs.

The squirrel matters.

The smell on the grass matters.

The dog across the street matters.

The person approaching matters.

Your adolescent dog's brain matters.

The environment isn't background noise to your dog.

It's information.

A LOT of information.

“But he does it when I have a treat!”

I hear this one a lot too.

Sometimes people worry that using food means their dog is only listening because they have food.

But usually that tells me something useful.

Your dog needs more reinforcement history in that situation.

If your paycheck suddenly stopped arriving, how long would you continue showing up at work because your boss said you should?

Rewards aren't cheating.

They're information.

They tell your dog:

YES. That thing you just did? That was worth doing.

As the behavior becomes stronger and more reliable, we can change how and when we reward it.

But expecting a dog to perform a newly learned behavior around enormous distractions simply because “he knows it” is often expecting too much, too soon.

The answer isn't repeating yourself louder

“Cooper, come.”

“Cooper...COME.”

“COOPER!”

“COOPER, COME!!!”

We've all been there.

But if your dog couldn't respond the first time, saying it four more times usually doesn't make the environment easier.

Instead, ask:

What would make it possible for my dog to succeed right now?

Maybe you need more distance from the distraction.

Maybe you need a better reward.

Maybe this environment is too difficult right now.

Maybe your dog needs to practice the skill somewhere between the living room and the farmers market.

This is where good dog training becomes much less about making a dog listen and much more about setting the dog up to learn.

Stop practicing only where your dog is already good at it

If your dog can do a beautiful down-stay in your living room, doing another 100 down-stays in your living room probably isn't what you need.

Take the skill somewhere slightly harder.

Try the kitchen while you're making dinner.

The driveway.

The front yard.

A quiet parking lot.

Outside a store.

Then gradually add movement, people, dogs, smells and other distractions.

Think of it as levels in a game.

You don't go from Level 1 to Level 47 and decide your dog is stubborn because they can't beat it.

Build the levels in between.

That's where reliability comes from.

This is why I care so much about real-world training

I don't really care if your dog has a perfect sit in an empty room.

I care whether that sit helps you in your actual life.

Can your dog wait while you open the front door?

Can they settle while you're eating dinner?

Can they walk with you when another person passes?

Can they come away from something interesting?

Can they listen when they're excited?

Can they make good choices when life is actually happening?

That's the training that changes your life with your dog.

It's also why so much of what we do at Sit n Stay focuses on taking skills out of the theoretical and putting them into real situations.

Because knowing a skill and being able to use that skill are two very different things.

Your dog probably isn't being stubborn

This is the part I really want you to remember.

The next time you find yourself saying:

“I KNOW he knows this!”

Get curious instead.

Ask:

Can he do it HERE?

With this level of distraction?

At this distance?

In this emotional state?

With this much excitement happening around him?

If the answer is no, that doesn't mean your dog is giving you a hard time.

It tells you where the training needs to go next.

And that's actually great information.

If you're tired of saying “But he does it at home…”

That's exactly the kind of problem we can help with.

Maybe you need a group class, where your dog can learn to work around controlled distractions.

Maybe you want more support and feedback through one of our online training programs, so you can show us what's happening in your actual environment.

Or maybe you're thinking:

“Kim, I don't have time to create 47 levels of distractions myself.”

That's where Dog School can help us do more of that hands-on practice for you.

You don't have to know which option you need.

Tell us what's happening and what you'd like your dog to be able to do instead, and we'll help you choose the easiest path to get there.

Help Me Find the Right Training Option

Because the goal isn't a dog who can perform perfectly when nothing is happening.

It's a dog who has learned how to work with you when real life is happening.

And that takes practice.

Better Every Day.

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