My Dog-training Red Lines: 7 Areas Where I Don’t Compromise
- Marc Edwards
- 4 days ago
- 10 min read
Every good dog trainer has lines they hold.
Mine are not about being strict for the sake of it. I am not trying to turn dogs into robots, suck all the joy out of their lives, or pretend every walk should look like a police dog display.
That is not the point.
The point is much simpler: Dogs are always learning.
Not just during “training”. Not just when we have treats in our hand. Not just when we have decided that the lesson has officially started.
Dogs learn from what we reward. They learn from what we allow. They learn from what works. They learn from what gets them access, attention, food, space, excitement, relief or control.
If a dog pulls towards another dog and gets there, he has learned something.
If he jumps up at a visitor and gets fuss, he has learned something.
If he barks at the window every day and the people, dogs, vans and delivery drivers always move away, he has learned something.
If he pesters at the table and someone eventually gives him a bit of toast, he has learned something.
So when I talk about “non-negotiables”, I am not talking about arbitrary rules. I am talking about the patterns I try not to let dogs rehearse, because those patterns have a habit of becoming habits.
And once behaviour becomes a habit, it usually takes more time, more consistency and more effort to change.
Neutral is underrated
Before getting into the specifics, there is a bigger point worth making.
A lot of people want their dog to be friendly, confident, playful, affectionate, sociable and happy.
Fair enough. I want those things too.
But in normal, everyday life, one of the most useful things a dog can learn is how to be neutral.
Neutral does not mean shut down.Neutral does not mean miserable.Neutral does not mean frightened, suppressed or “submissive”.
Neutral means the dog can notice the world without being dragged around by it.
A neutral dog can see another dog without needing to get to it. He can hear the doorbell without losing his head. He can watch people pass without barking or lunging. He can smell food without trying to steal it. He can get excited and then come back down again.
For many dogs, that ability to return to neutral is more useful than being “friendly” with everyone and everything.
This sits underneath a lot of the lines I hold.
The aim is not to stop dogs having feelings. Dogs are not furniture. They are going to get excited, frustrated, worried, distracted and over-stimulated at times.
The aim is to stop them being ruled by every feeling, trigger, opportunity and impulse that appears in front of them.
1. I don’t set dogs up to fail
This is probably the biggest one.
If I already know a dog is likely to struggle in a situation, I do not see much value in walking him straight into it and then acting disappointed when he does exactly what we could have predicted.
That is not training. That is poor planning.
If a dog is reactive around other dogs, I am not going to start by marching him down a narrow path full of dogs and hoping for the best.
If a puppy is chewing everything, I am not going to give him free access to shoes, wires, rugs, children’s toys and then complain that he has made bad choices.
If an adolescent dog has no recall, I am not going to unclip the lead in an exciting open space and then blame him for running off.
If a dog jumps all over visitors, I am not going to let him loose at the front door and expect calm behaviour to appear from nowhere.
Dogs need chances to succeed.
That usually means using the tools available to us. Leads, long lines, crates, pens, baby gates, place beds, food, toys, distance, timing, supervision and sensible routines.
These are not signs of failure. They are how we create the conditions for learning.
Sometimes the best training decision is not to “test” the dog. It is to make the situation smaller, clearer and more manageable, so the dog can practise getting it right.
A dog who is repeatedly thrown into situations he cannot handle is not becoming better trained. He is becoming better rehearsed at struggling.
2. I don’t let dogs rehearse behaviour I want less of
This follows directly from the first point.
You cannot let a dog practise something six days a week and expect one hour of training to outweigh it.
The maths is not on your side.
If a dog barks out of the window every afternoon, that is practice.
If he drags you to every dog on a walk, that is practice.
If he ignores his name at the park because the environment is more rewarding than you, that is practice.
If he steals food from the worktop and occasionally succeeds, that is practice.
If he jumps at guests every time they arrive, that is practice.
This does not mean we panic every time a dog makes a mistake. Dogs are living animals, not machines. Mistakes will happen.
But if the same unwanted behaviour is happening again and again, day after day, then we have to stop calling it a one-off and start calling it a pattern.
And patterns need changing.
That might mean closing the curtains. Moving the dog away from the window. Using a lead when guests arrive. Putting food out of reach. Using a long line. Building recall in easier places before asking for it in harder ones. Practising calm behaviour before the exciting thing happens, not after the dog has already lost his head.
Training is not just about teaching new behaviours.
It is also about stopping the old ones from getting stronger.
3. I don’t treat on-lead greetings as normal socialisation
This is one I hold fairly firmly.
As a general rule, I do not like on-lead dog greetings.
That does not mean dogs should never meet other dogs. It does not mean every dog has to live in a bubble. It does not mean I think all dog interaction is bad.
It means on-lead greetings are often a poor way to teach social behaviour.
Leads restrict movement. They create tension. They often push dogs into direct, face-to-face greetings. Owners tighten up. One dog gets too excited. The other dog feels trapped. Then everyone is surprised when the interaction becomes messy.
Even when it “goes well”, the dog may still be learning the wrong lesson.
He may be learning that every dog is available. Every dog is an opportunity. Every dog is something to pull towards, stare at, bounce at or obsess over.
That is not the lesson I want.
I would much rather teach a dog that other dogs are often just part of the background.
You can see them. You can pass them. You can move away from them. You can check in with your handler. You do not have to greet them.
That might sound boring, but boring is often exactly what we need.
A dog who can calmly walk past other dogs will usually get more freedom in the long run than a dog who is desperate to say hello to everyone.
Good socialisation is not about meeting everything.
It is about learning how to cope with the world.
Sometimes that means interaction.
Very often, it means neutrality.
4. I don’t allow food to become a free-for-all
This one needs a bit of nuance.
I am not especially worried about a dog occasionally eating a bit of suitable cooked meat, egg, cheese or vegetable.
I am very interested in whether the dog thinks the kitchen worktop, dinner table, bin, child’s hand, picnic blanket, shopping bag or dropped sandwich are open-access resources.
There is a difference between deliberately giving a dog food and allowing the dog to believe food is there to be taken, demanded, guarded or stolen.
That difference matters.
Pestering at the table can look harmless at first. So can hovering in the kitchen. So can “just one little bit” from someone’s plate.
But dogs notice patterns.
If staring works, they stare.
If pawing works, they paw.
If whining works, they whine.
If stealing works, they steal.
And if the dog learns that food can be taken from hands, plates, counters or children, we may have created a bigger problem than mild bad manners.
So the line I hold is not really “never eat human food”.
It is:
No self-service.
No snatching.
No stealing.
No pestering until someone gives in.
No treating the kitchen or table as a buffet.
What do we do instead?
We teach calm behaviour around food. We reward the dog away from the table. We use beds, crates, pens or gates where needed. We manage the environment while the dog is learning. We teach leave, drop, place and patience. We make sure the dog understands that food comes through us, not through taking matters into his own mouth.
That is not being precious about manners.
It is safety, clarity and prevention.
5. I don’t let the front door become the dog’s job
The front door is one of the most common places for dogs to rehearse chaos.
Doorbell. Knock. Delivery driver. Guest. Post. Movement. Excitement. Suspicion. Frustration. Access. Escape risk.
It is a lot.
And many dogs are expected to handle that moment with almost no guidance.
They charge to the door, bark, jump, push forward, block the entrance, rush guests, squeeze through legs, or throw themselves into a state of frantic excitement.
Then, after they have rehearsed that explosion dozens or hundreds of times, people decide they would quite like the dog to be calm.
The first thirty seconds of someone arriving should not be a riot.
If we allow it to be a riot every time, the dog gets very good at rioting.
The front door is not the dog’s job.
It is not his role to decide who comes in, who gets barked at, who gets jumped on, or whether he can launch himself into the street.
So we create a routine.
That may mean the dog goes behind a gate. It may mean he is on lead. It may mean he goes to a place bed. It may mean he is crated or penned while people come in. It may mean visitors ignore him until he is calm enough to interact.
The exact setup depends on the dog.
But the principle is the same: we do not let the most exciting moment become the least structured moment.
Calm greetings are trained.
They do not appear because we wish for them hard enough.
6. I don’t confuse freedom with lack of responsibility
I like dogs having freedom.
I like dogs being able to run, sniff, explore, choose, play, relax and enjoy their lives.
But freedom should be something a dog grows into, not something we dump on him while hoping for the best.
Too much freedom too soon often creates problems.
A young dog with full run of the house may practise chewing, toileting indoors, stealing or harassing another dog.
A dog let off lead without recall may learn that disappearing is more rewarding than coming back.
A dog allowed to rush every visitor may learn that people entering the home are his personal entertainment.
A dog left in the garden to bark may learn that barking is part of the garden routine.
This is where people sometimes mistake structure for unfairness.
Using a crate is not automatically unfair.
Using a long line is not automatically unfair.
Using a gate, lead, pen, boundary or place bed is not automatically unfair.
Often, these things are what allow the dog to have more freedom later.
A dog who can settle can be included more.
A dog who can walk calmly can go more places.
A dog with recall can enjoy more off-lead time.
A dog who does not mug visitors can be around visitors.
The aim is not to restrict the dog forever. The aim is to build the skills that make freedom safe and enjoyable.
Uncontrolled freedom is not kindness if the dog cannot handle it.
It is just lack of responsibility dressed up as trust.
7. I don’t let embarrassment make the training decisions
This one is less about the dog and more about us.
A lot of owners make poor training decisions because they feel watched.
That is very human. Especially in Britain, where many people would rather dissolve into the pavement than have a stranger think their dog is badly behaved.
So they let the dog greet another dog because saying “no” feels rude.
They laugh when the dog jumps up because addressing it feels awkward.
They drag the dog away too sharply because they feel judged.
They feed the dog to shut him up.
They abandon a training exercise because someone is looking.
They apologise repeatedly instead of calmly taking control.
They allow a stranger to interact with the dog because the person seems nice, even though the dog is overwhelmed, excited or simply not ready.
Embarrassment is a very poor dog trainer.
It makes people rush. It makes them tense. It makes them inconsistent. It makes them perform for the audience instead of helping the dog in front of them.
This does not mean anything goes.
It does not mean your dog gets to be a nuisance while you proudly ignore everyone around you.
It means your job is not to perform respectability for strangers.
Your job is to make good decisions for your dog.
Sometimes that means creating distance. Sometimes it means saying, “No, he’s training.” Sometimes it means using a muzzle, long line, crate, lead or food without feeling the need to explain yourself to everyone nearby.
Sometimes it means allowing your dog to look a bit messy while he is learning, rather than panicking because someone might judge you.
Dogs are always learning, but so are owners.
One of the most useful things an owner can learn is how to stay calm, clear and steady when the dog is not.
So what do I negotiate on?
Quite a lot, actually.
Training should fit the dog, the household, the breed, the owner’s ability, the environment and the real life that dog is living in.
I am not interested in rigid rules for the sake of rigid rules.
But I am very interested in patterns.
If a pattern is making the dog more frantic, pushy, reactive, frustrated, entitled, anxious or difficult to live with, then we need to look at it.
If a dog is practising the behaviour we want less of, we need to change the setup.
If the dog cannot cope with a situation, we need to make that situation easier before making it harder.
If the owner is avoiding responsibility, hiding behind labels, or making decisions based on embarrassment, we need to address that too.
None of this is about making life smaller for the dog.
It is the opposite.
A dog who can walk past other dogs without losing his mind gets better walks.
A dog who can settle when visitors arrive gets to be included.
A dog who can be around food without stealing or pestering is easier to live with.
A dog who can return to neutral after excitement is less exhausting for everyone, including himself.
A dog who understands boundaries often earns more freedom, not less.
Structure is not the enemy of kindness.
In many homes, structure is the thing that allows kindness to actually work.
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