In this video: Sarah and her young dog Cruz work on the distinction between letting your dog decide for themselves and making them rely on input from you.

Hard Boundary – Trusting your dog

Trusting your dog to decide whether to cross the boundary or not is the core to creating safety with hard boundaries. Without any influence or hints from you. Then you know your dog can make the decision by themselves. 

Instructions:

1. When you teach hard boundaries please give your dog a chance to make their own choice before you provide input.

2. Make sure your dog is not relying on any cues or signals from you to decide out what to do.

3. During lessons, do not block your dog with your body or hand.

4. Let your dog decide. With no influence from you.

5. Wait until they have clearly made their choice before providing any input. 

Making your dog safe

Making your dog safe with hard boundaries is only possible when they do it without any influence from you. 

When you use body gestures and verbal cues to remind your dog what they need to do they don’t learn to do it on their own. It means they cannot think for themselves and hard boundaries are not working.