Choice...Why it's so important

Why is the concept of "choice" so important in dog training? 
Giving your dog choice is basically letting them decide what to do or not do without much intervention from you. 

This will:

• Give them time to think
• Make learning easier because they have less to think about
  • Not a lot of verbal chatter that they need to figure out
  • Not a lot of  body movement from us that may or may not mean something to the dog
• Allows them to think "what do I want to do here"?
• Puts them in the best emotional frame of mind without external pressure
• Because there is no penalty for failure they can try things, low risk

For example, your dog comes over to you and you say "sit". Now your dog has a choice.  He can sit or not. If he's had a lot of rewarding experiences for doing that behavior (getting tasty treats for the offered sit) he may very well sit. It's his choice.
If he doesn't sit what is your response? Do you view the request to "sit" a "command"? Is your dog being "disobedient"?
Is he challenging your "dominance", as the "alpha" in the family? No, he just didn't choose to sit, for his own reasons and we should be OK with that. Respecting the dog's right to choose has many benefits:

• It causes us to think about this behavior from the dog's point of view
  • Maybe sitting after the request isn't yet a habit
  • Maybe it's not been practiced enough
  • Maybe the reinforcement (think treats) is not all that reinforcing to this dog or at this time.
  • Maybe his mind is on something else
  • Maybe he is not feeling well
  • Maybe he is in a situation that makes him nervous, anxious or excited

So if you are old school you might:

• Repeat the command, maybe several times, maybe get louder each time
• Grab the leash and pull up while pushing his hips down
• In other words FORCE THE SIT

I guess in a way this is your choice. I would however suggest a different approach. What if instead you took responsibility for the success of the behavior you are wanting to encourage? What if you took a step back and created more reward-able opportunities? Go back to the offered sit process where your dog sees and smells the tasty treat and gets it after choosing (no command) to sit. Then after many successes at this offered sit, you add in the word sit as your dog is doing the behavior, sitting. Now the dog begins to learn that these two things go together, they are associated. After many pairings of the word and the behavior, you can test your progress by saying the word "sit" and see if it works. If your dog chooses to sit it's because he can predict that this will be a good move for him. He can predict that a reward will be coming his way.

We know that autonomy and choice are important to us humans too. Children learn faster and are happier when they have autonomy. Employees are happier and more productive when they are not micromanaged. The same is true with our relationship with our dogs.

I hope you will consider the concept of choice as an integral part of your relationship with your dog. 
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