09/02/2025
Calm confidence is an essential part of working with a dog, because confidence allows for clarity of communication. A common struggle many dog owners have is communication during times of tension.
For example: The dog starts to bark at something on the walk, and the human has a short moment of panic. Their arms tense, they pull up on the leash, they quicken their pace, start looking around quickly, and all the other behaviors that go along with that tension. This is a completely natural, normal reaction. But, while this is happening, they're also trying to tell the dog to be calm.
Unfortunately, since dogs communicate primarily through body language, this physical tension sends a very different message to them than what the human is actually saying in that moment. And that's because their body language is telling the dog that they should be panicking, too. So what the human is trying to communicate verbally, or with the leash, is being muddied by their physical actions, causing confusion in the dog. This causes the dog to feel like they have to figure out how to handle the situation. Now both the human and the dog are panicking at the same time, despite the human's words.
Remaining calm and confident in a situation where you don't FEEL that way, however, can be very difficult. That's why we practice, though. The more we practice when things AREN'T tense, the more it becomes muscle memory; we don't have to think about it, we just do it. So when the real situations happen, we don't panic, we just follow the script. Now, even if the human doesn't FEEL confident, their calmness allows for their actions to APPEAR confident, thus creating a very clear, cohesive message with both their body language and their words/leash usage, and the dog will be far more responsive because they know what's expected of them. It's all about clarity of communication. So go practice, even if the dog already knows it. 🐶❤️