05/26/2026
In Which I Reward a Dog for Not Doing the Thing I Want Him to Do: a teachable moment from working with Axel today!
Axel the catahoula has mostly spent his first few days here decompressing and "getting the lay of the land." All I've really done is hang out with him and walk him, but just those two things accomplish a lot: relationship building and teaching leash pressure mechanics, respectively.
We are largely stuck inside due to weather today, and he has been trusting me more and doing super well following the leash/pressure and motion cues, so I thought it might be a good day to introduce "down." Some dogs figure it out just with luring for a reward, but many need a little downwards leash pressure for clarity, to help them understand exactly what is being asked of them, so I prefer not to start it until the dog understands directional cues on the leash.
Axel, as shown on his intake video, is not naturally trusting of humans. "Down" is a very vulnerable position and dogs who don't trust people are normally reluctant to take it at first. We have been doing food work since he got here and I have him happily taking food from me. I used a food lure and sat in the floor (got down closer to his level), placed my hand containing the food firmly on the ground. He tried figuring out how to get the food, with me subtly manipulating his/our positioning to try to make it easier and clearer, but eventually started to get frustrated/disheartened.
At this point I added a little leash pressure to help him, and he absolutely froze. Yes, opposition reflex comes into play a bit, but in Axel's case, it's a little more than that. His easy, newly friendly body language started evaporating, and I started getting the untrusting side-eye again.
If I had put MORE pressure on at that moment, it would have turned into a fight. Could I have slapped my bite gloves on and ignored his protests and muscled him into a down with the leash and then rewarded him with praise and release out of the position (without the addition of food, since after that point he would have been too stressed to take food)? Yes. Would it have worked (*made the down happen*) and achieved my immediate goal for that exercise? Technically, yes.
BUT!
I do NOT want any unnecessary conflict with Axel :). Not just because he reacts to conflict with aggression, but because I've worked very hard since he got here to show him that I am fun and trustworthy and not here to fight with him, and the last thing I want is to immediately undo my own work!
Learning how to safely/healthily navigate conflict IS an important part of behavior mod but we don't need to heap a bunch on this early; there's plenty of time for that once we have more of a relationship established. We had our "you can't bite me" conversation on day 1 and that's enough for right now. He has been interacting with me since then in good faith and I owe it to him to reciprocate.
So, I waited. He looked at me, still tense/unmoving, lowered his head a hair's breadth more, and looked away. This is an appeasement signal, "please, I'm not comfortable but I'm TRYING to do what you want."
Everybody who knows me already knows what I did (the thing I'm always yelling about 🤪) - REWARD THE TRY!!! Even though I was trying to get him to figure out "down" and reward him for "down," and this was NOT "down," what I ended up rewarding instead was "perceive minor pressure/discomfort applied by a human; make the choice to react with patience and tolerance instead of hostility." It's STILL ultimately a step in the right direction for the behavior we want out of him even though it wasn't the intended finish for that specific exercise, so I'm going to reward it anyway, period!
After he breathed his sigh of relief and took the food, I immediately did some silly/playful movement around the room with him to disperse the tension. Now, I still want my down. If we completely abandon it, we'll just be back at that same uncomfortable square 1 the next time I go to work on it, because all he will remember my "down" signals to mean is freezing under pressure and then quitting once he's tolerated it for long enough.
That's not the mental picture we want to leave him with. But we've seen the limits of his comfort and his "try," and know that if we try the exact same thing over again, we're going to get the same result, so if we want success, we have to alter something for our next attempt/repetition. So, I "worked smarter, not harder" and changed up the other most important factor available to me - the environment!
For the next rep, I started out by having Axel hop up on the couch, which
1. puts him higher than me if I'm sitting on the floor, so asking him to lie down is less of an ask for submission and vulnerability (in his eyes) and more of an invitation to simply come down to my level
2. is softer and more comfortable than the floor and more naturally invites lying down
3. gives me yet another thing to reward him for - hopping up onto the couch when asked!
4. gives us a more dramatic and fun 'break' out of the down with a hop back down onto the floor.
With that change made, a lure at paw level and a gentle tug on the leash had him lie down immediately and cheerfully, with no signs of conflict or discomfort at all.
He eagerly took his reward and happily popped back off the couch when released. After that first successful repetition, I was able to get him to repeat the down - still showing only loose, happy body language - with me kneeling next to the couch, then standing. I stopped the session there because that was a big step for him and it's ALWAYS best to end at a high point or at least on a good note! Behaviors only degrade when you drill them over and over. No better teacher than an Arab (horse) for that ;).
Tomorrow, or maybe later tonight if he really wants something to do, I will ask him to down on the couch again, and then show him I just want the exact same thing on the floor, no biggie. He will do it comfortably and happily, and when I next get around to posting footage of him working obedience, you'll see him performing the command brightly and eagerly when asked. Taking that 10-15 seconds to reset and think of what else I could use to communicate to him more effectively is what made the difference between that, or a dog who crouches and flinches and hesitates and looks worried when asked for down, OR a dog who makes no progress at all on learning what "down" means (in the "shrug and give up because he didn't figure it out with food luring only" scenario).
So yes, make it happen, but also, again: work smarter, not harder!! Don't start fights when there don't need to be any. It is very possible to use pressure in training without being a bully.
With dogs like Axel who WILL fight you when pushed, it doesn't pay to create/reinforce more competition. What we want is cooperation, so YOU as the handler need to stay in a cooperative headspace as well - be creative and find ways to teach the dog to work with you, not against you.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk 🤗 Happy training!! 🤪
