5 Steps to a Confident Dog

We all want a happy, confident dog. Whether your dog is a patio buddy, a 6am soccer practice companion or your avid adventure copilot, you need them to feel safe and self assured.These five points are the key to build your dog's confidence.

1. Read their body language to keep them safe.
   The first step to a confident dog is learning to read dog body language. If we can learn the subtle signs of stress and fear, we can prevent our dogs from experiencing scary or high stress scenarios. A dog who knows people around him will listen to his cues is a confident dog.
   

2. Proactively teach skills
   “Confidence is a function of fluency” (Hannah Branigan). No one can be confident in a situation they’re unfamiliar with. Break big things down into smaller portions and teach your dog what to expect and any skills they might need to be successful. If new situations offer opportunities to practice tricks and skills your dog already knows they become much less overwhelming and worrying.
   

3. Focus on the positive
   Teach your dog what TO do instead of what not to do. It’s so much easier for both us and the dog to focus on “lay on your mat” rather than “don’t flail around and acost random people in the vet’s office”. Again, if your dog is fluent in the behaviour they need (lay on mat), their confidence will grow.
   

4. Be consistent
   Nothing makes us more anxious than an unknown outcome. The same goes for our dogs. If we are consistent, they can rely on us and we can eliminate a potentially huge source of confusion and anxiety for them.
   

5. Give them choice
   When we give our dogs options (what game to play, whether or not they want to train, if they want to be petted) we give them a huge boost of confidence. The ability to control their outcome really can’t be overstated. Yes, there are times when choice isn’t going to be available to them, but if we use positive training methods those times are way fewer than we might otherwise think. Just like we feel more confident when the dentist shows us how to ask them to stop, our dogs become more confident when we give them options and then respect their choices
   

Does your dog have a problem behaviour you want resolved? Need help building your pup's confidence?
Contact us today!