Why "No" isn't Part of My Dog Training Plan, Part 2

Last month I shared how my journey as a professional dog trainer started with a “No” to “No.” Check that out if you haven’t already.

Today, I want to talk about two other reasons I don’t make “no” part of my training plan.

#1 Your Dog Can’t “No”

Telling the dog what you want (versus everything you don’t want) is the fastest way to get the behavior.

Years ago I saw something on social media that said, “‘No’ isn’t a behavior.”

It’s true! What is a “no”? What does “no” mean? It’s not actually a behavior like “sit” or “down” or “come.”

If I can’t define “no” how can I train it?

And even if we define “no” as, “stop doing what you’re doing and don’t do it again,” dogs can’t do multiple definitions for one word.

“No” can’t mean “stop jumping,” and “stop chewing,” and “stop pulling.” That would be like “Down” meaning “lie down,” and “get off the couch.”

#2 “No” Isn’t Enough Information

Not only is “no” not a behavior, but it doesn’t tell your dog what he should be doing.

This breeds frustration for everyone and is a much longer route to the behavior you actually want. There are a lot of things your dog can do that aren’t the right thing, and you could spend a VERY long time saying “no” to ALL those things.

A human analogy helped me understand this concept better:

Imagine you’ve gone to choir practice. Everyone is singing along when the director says, “no.” The sound trickles off to silence then the director says, “okay, and again” and everyone resumes singing. You don’t get much further before the director says, “no” again, but he’s a bit upset this time. Everyone quiets down then, once again, he says, “okay, go.” You’ve barely begun singing before he shouts, “no!” and leaves the room.

All the choir members are ready to sing, but they need more information. Are they on the wrong song? The wrong measure? Does he just want the Bass voice part? Are they supposed to be chanting the rhythm instead of singing? Are they too loud? Too quiet? What does he want? They’ll give it, if he’ll tell them what he’s looking for.

“No” isn’t enough information.