The Power of Habit in Dog Training

If your dog practices a behavior enough, they'll start to offer it before you even have to ask.

Before every walk, I leash my dog up, then let him loose in the hallway. "Wait!" I yell out the door as I'm getting on my shoes. Milo stops in his tracks at his customary spot on the landing of our stairs, waiting for my signal.

We've been doing this for years, with variations. I used to make him sit right outside our front door, but I found he was mostly in my way there. Plus, after he injured his hip, I didn't want to make him sit unnecessarily, when all I needed for him was to pause. He used to pretty often get so excited about going on his walk that he'd ignore my command entirely, so I had to keep hold of his leash so that I could physically stop him from barreling down as fast as he could.

Eventually, he got used to stopping at the landing, and now, he'll do it even before I ask him to. Just reaching the landing has become his cue, rather than my word.

Behavior that gets practiced gets repeated, dog trainers like to say. It's all just a matter of getting our dogs to practice the behavior we want to see, rather than the behaviors we dread.

Habitual behaviors can override even strong drives.

I've been working to get my cat and my boyfriend's cat to peacefully cohabitate for more than a year now. They're both adult cats who would prefer to live alone, so it's been an uphill battle. My cat, Casper, is a bit of a bully who tries to swipe at his new sibling Juneau whenever she's within paw's reach—which doesn't often happen, because we have a strict management protocol in place keeping them separated by multiple baby gates.

As the cats have become slightly more tolerant of each other, we've become less strict about keeping both gates closed. If someone's around to supervise, we'll often leave one gate open, allowing them to get closer to each other if they choose.

Casper at his gate

Casper still occasionally rushes at Juneau. But more often than not, we find him hanging out just beyond the (open) second gate. For months, this was as close as we allowed him to get to her, and he could often be found lurking just beyond the closed gate, staring the newcomer down.

Now, he does the same thing—even though the gate is open, and he could walk right up and swipe at her through the bars of the one remaining gate.

But he's made a habit of keeping a few feet away from her—enforced for months by our "airlock system" of two gates—and now, even when he doesn't have to, he sometimes still chooses to keep his distance. Because that's the result of countless hours of practicing that behavior.

With our dogs, there are countless opportunities throughout the day to build habits. The habit might be as simple as sitting and waiting to be released at a crosswalk, or as difficult as giving space to a strange dog your curious puppy really wants to run up to. It might be coming when called even in a crowded dog park, or eating food around a trigger.

As you practice, these responses become habitual, like muscle memory. You may find your dog responding to you in situations where they've never been able to hear you before. Because that's what you've practiced, over and over and over again.