Steven Lindsay's "Dead Dog Rule" is a concept that proposes training criteria and objectives should be defined in terms that a dead dog cannot satisfy. This guideline serves to help dog trainers focus on promoting behaviors that only a live, actively participating dog can demonstrate. The rule encourages training goals to be set in affirmative, action-based terms rather than negative or passive terms. For instance, instead of training a dog to "not bite," which a dead dog also wouldn't do, trainers are guided to train dogs in behaviors that indicate trust and friendliness, which are active behaviors a dead dog could not perform. This approach ensures that the training objectives are positive and that the behaviors taught are active and desirable rather than merely the absence of an unwanted behavior.
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Steven Lindsay’s “Dead Dog Rule”
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Reading this when I first got here made me think about how much I was asking dogs to stop being dogs. Things got sooo much easier when a priority was put on their freedom to be the animal we got them to be…and the relationship is so so so so so much better. I love these articles you are posting!
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Steven Lindsay is so huge in all of my training. I know those books like the back of my hand. What he says just make sense and he does it without losing scientific integrity or validity. I know a lady who met and had a beer with him at the IACPs last year. I was going to go to see him and Dr.P. Could you imagine a beer with Steven Lindsay? I would absolutely die! Someday I hope to meet him!
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