Ty The Dog Guy On The Daily

Today I want to write a little bit about context, an important element of training that a lot of owners simply don’t consider at all. Let me illustrate this concept with a very easy example: a dog that sits. A lot of people come to us and say “My dog’s trained, he knows how to sit.” So we tell him to sit, and he won’t. The reason is simple. The dog will only sit under contexts A, B, C, and D. Context A might be the dog sitting in the living room with a treat. Context B is the dog in the backyard with a treat. Context C is the dog in the living room with no treat. Context D is the dog on a walk with no distractions. These are all of the contexts in which the dog can obey the “sit” command. When you’re on context R, however—perhaps inside a strange training facility that’s full of distractions—then the dog won’t do it. This is the reality behind most training that I see. Owners make the mistake of only training for a few contexts. They don’t teach their dog what I call “functional obedience”: the ability