Dogs need THIS from you more than anything.

Chris Williams
May 11
3 min read

Updated: May 12

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSGfmsxCD3A

It's not more toys, better food, a nicer bed, or anything like that. It's not even necessarily more time with you. Those things are nice but they aren't the answer. Ask online dog training experts what dogs need to thrive and you'll commonly hear things like "Structure!" And that's a totally fair answer and it's true. But we can get a little more specific.

Your dog needs clarity.

Clarity, for me, is defined by the dog feeling confident they understand what you want from them and what they should expect. We'll talk in a moment about how to CREATE clarity. But most of your problems really boil down to one of two issues: unclear boundaries or unclear commands. In either case you deal with a dog that doesn't exactly nail what you wanted from them.

Either because they don't KNOW what you want them to do (unclear commands) or because they don't care (unclear boundaries.) In all fairness, structure (rules and limitations) WILL BRING clarity in many cases, but not all.

What is structure?

Your dog should have rules and limitations that help them reach the conclusion that they haven't been left to their own devices, and more importantly that they don't just get to do whatever they want.

You've of course heard the phrase

"Practice makes perfect."

That is the central point of structure is that if your dog practices obeying you on a daily basis, they get better at it. If they practice listening to you on things, listening to you becomes the knee-jerk reaction.

So if your dog isn't allowed to bolt through the door ahead of you, if they aren't allowed to jump on company, take food off the counter, pull you on the leash, etc then they get a daily example that YOU set the expectations. These rules are your "doormat" insurance to make sure you don't become easy to ignore. And if you stand up for these boundaries...

You'll have won enough tiny battles that the larger war basically wins itself.

That's great, right? But while structure is important and it will often times CREATE clarity, structure alone cannot.

So what's the difference and why should I care?

Upholding structure is great and you definitely should pick 4 or 5 rules for your home, and then die on the hill. That's structure. But to create clarity you need to ALSO have consistent language and consistent outcomes. If someone says to me "I yell at her and tell her to stop! I have tried saying no, she doesn't listen!"

And then I ask the dumb question "Why would she listen to no or stop? Have we made those words mean anything?"

If you say "No." and then dish out some sort of undesirable consequence, your dog will learn that "No" always comes with something they DON'T want to happen. If you're consistently saying no, and then giving corrections, "No" will begin to be synonymous with correction and the word itself will begin to work, alone. Why? The dog knows what it means. If you say "it's okay" every time the dog is nervous at the vet, eventually "it's okay" is how they KNOW things are most definitely not okay. And it becomes how to create anxiety, not confidence. Why? Because consistency created clarity on what the word always seems to mean. Structure is important, and it can create clarity, but consistent verbiage, consistent action, and paying close attention to how the dog might view things will make a dog that you love to live with.