As you pull up to the traffic light, it switches from green to yellow.
What do you do?
Keep going and hope you make it through the intersection before it turns red, taking a chance that you won’t hit someone or someone else won’t hit you?
Or do you stop and wait for the light to turn back to green?
As long as the light is green, you know you can keep going with little to no consequences other than getting to where you want to go within the timeframe you planned. But when the light changes from green to yellow, now you must make a choice. If you stop, you might be late. If you speed through, you might get pulled over if you’re caught or you might cause a fatal accident. It is in that moment of choice that true teaching happens.
Training your dog is like a traffic light
Green light means “you’re doing great, keep doing what you’re doing.” This is the positive side of dog training, the 90% when we reward our dogs for good behavior, usually in the form of treats, toys, affection, and “good boy”.
Yellow light means “caution, you might want to stop and think about what you are doing.” This is the negative side of dog training, the 9% when we teach our dogs to think before they act and give them constructive, informative, and corrective feedback to change their behavior before they do something they or we will regret.
Red light means “STOP NOW or you will face the consequences.” This is the non-negotiable side of dog training, the 1% when we must stop bad behavior that will harm our dogs or others.
When your dog pulls up to the traffic light and it switches from green to yellow or yellow to red, keep this mantra in mind: “Be as fair as you can be, but as firm as you need to be.”