Consistency is one of the most important things you can do while training your dog. Whether you’re working on basic manners, teaching your dog a new sport, or just spending time with your dog around the house, consistency helps dogs learn new skills faster and can decrease frustration in your relationship with your dog.
Why consistency matters:
Consistency is critical when training your dog because dogs don’t generalize well. This means when your dog learns a new behavior, it doesn’t mean they automatically know how to do that new skill in every setup or every location. By being consistent in how we work with our dogs and cue behaviors, we increase the likelihood our dogs will understand us better.
If we teach our dogs something new but then change the criteria using different hand signals or verbal cues, your dog will likely not know what you want them to do. Dogs are keen observers of us and will try to compensate for our inconsistencies. However, dogs thrive and are most successful when they know what to expect because we are consistent in how we work with them.
Decreases frustration
If you aren’t consistent when training your dog, it can make life very frustrating and confusing. The result will be less successful and more challenging training sessions for you and your dog. To help your dog be less frustrated and less confused, make sure that everyone in the house is on the same page with what you expect. For example, suppose one family member scolds the dog for getting on the couch while other members encourage the dog to cuddle with them on the couch.
In that case, this creates a confusing and unfair situation for your dog. To keep things consistent for your dog, have a family meeting and ensure that everyone is on the same page with training and expectations for the dog’s behavior. The result will be a less frustrated and better-behaved dog.
Builds confidence
When we are consistent, dogs know what to expect from us at home and when we’re training. Being consistent with your dog helps your dog be more confident because they know the rules and expectations. Dogs naturally want to please us and get rewarded with yummy treats, but if they don’t understand the criteria for success, they can become insecure. Increasing our dog’s confidence through consistency as we train can help dogs pick up new skills faster. Confident dogs are more comfortable learning new skills because learning is fun and predictable. When dogs experience consistency, they aren’t worried about making mistakes. As such, they are more willing to try new things crucial to training and learning.
Increases communication:
Dogs don’t understand English (or whatever language you speak at home), so it’s very easy to be confusing or inconsistent with your dog without meaning to. Dogs are keen observers of us, but they must be taught the meaning of our verbal cues. If you find that your dog is struggling to grasp new skills that you are trying to train or seems confused during training, you might not be consistent enough.
When you train, are you using the same verbal and physical cues for each behavior? Being inconsistent with our cues confuses our dogs and will make it harder for dogs to learn. When we are consistent with how we train and cue behaviors, our dog will be able to understand what you want more accessible, which helps you and your dog communicate better.
Decreases anxiety
Being consistent when training your dog doesn’t only help your dog learn things faster, it can also help your dog to be happier and can help decrease your dog’s anxiety. Being consistent with our dogs allows them to know what to expect, which can help dogs to be less anxious. This can help dogs to display fewer stress-related behaviors. Consistency around aspects of your dog’s life, like the cues you use, where your dog eats, etc., can help your dog feel more secure and less anxious. This can improve your dog’s overall quality of life, allow your dog to learn new behaviors faster, and be generally calmer and more relaxed.
Overall, the more consistent we can be with our dogs, the more successful our training sessions will be. Consistency helps our dogs to feel comfortable and confident with us and helps our dogs to learn new skills faster. Consistency is critical for helping our dogs to understand new skills faster. By being consistent with our training, our dogs know what to expect and can improve the training relationship we have with our dogs.
