Rule #2 – You Are Always Right
The Instinctive Obedience® three golden rules are simple. Rule #2 – You are always right – and you always get to be right because you own everything, and you make all the rules.
Even if you are truly unsure, fake the confidence until you do not have to anymore. Make your mistakes with confidence; your dog needs the security your confidence brings.
You decide what your dog eats. If your dog were left to decide for itself what is appropriate to it, it might dig up an old dead opossum or dig through your trash or eat off your kitchen counter. Do we let our children decide on different candy for every mean and snack? Of course not. They might be happy short term, but it is not healthy or good for them. They may very well end up sick. It is the very same thing with your dog – they do not make the smartest decisions and most of the time it is similar to reasoning with a two-year-old human child.
You are ALWAYS right. You are always right about what to eat, about the proper place to lay down, about yard and road safety, about how to act when greeting other dogs and people. We have to be this way with our dogs or else they run the very real risk of being injured or getting sick. Your dog might not put together that getting to run free equals risk of being hit by a car, but we have to; WE are always right, even if we think we might be wrong.