What is a relationship? A relationship can be defined as:  the way in which two or more people or groups regard and behave  towards each other.  This definition is suitable for our needs, but we need to tweak it a little to fully suit  the definition of the relationship between human and dog: “The way in which a human and a dog or groups of humans and dogs regard and behave towards each other.” The relationship (using the above definition) is the most important aspect of dog training as it is the stage upon which training occurs.  As part of our definition of relationship we have included the word ‘regard’.  This is an important word and the way we regard our dogs has a massive impact on the relationship between dog and human.  If you  follow the pack leadership and dominance theory of dog training then the dog should be regarded as an  individual who is seeking to supplant you as ruler and commander of the house.  To avoid this, the  human is required to take leadership and regard their dog as a subservient member of the household.   This is a very master and servant view of the human canine relationship.  The human owns and rules the  dog and the dog is expected to follow commands or face punishment.  In some cases humans regard their dogs as property.  In most of these cases the dog(s) have a certain  function which brings a benefit to the human.  The most obvious example of this is commercial dog  breeders.  The breeding dogs are the property of the human and by breeding produce an income for the  breeder.  This is not so different from regarding the dog as a car, tv, laptop or any other item which we  class as property.  Dogs can also be regarded as a member of the family, with equal rights to their human counterparts.  You will have heard many a person make the statement ‘My dogs are my children and I love them like other  people love their kids’.  I am sure there are many other ways in which humans can regard dogs.  But I  think in most cases they would fall somewhere on the spectrum between the above three examples.  The way we regard our dogs dictates the way we behave towards our dogs and ‘behave towards’ is the  last part of our definition of relationship.  If we fall into the pack leadership ethos and regard our dogs are servants who need to be constantly kept at the bottom of the ‘pack’ then we will behave towards them in  a manner which will keep them at the bottom – usually through physical punishment.  Humans who relate  to dogs in this manner are far more likely to use punishment as their main form of control and the basis of their training. If we regard our dogs as property then we will behave towards them as we would any other inanimate  object which we own.  Humans who relate to dogs in this manner tend not to interact with their dogs at all  and if they do it is not generally with gentle and compassionate treatment.  And if we regard our dogs as  equals we will behave towards them as we would our fellow humans, with kindness and compassion.   Humans who relate to dogs in this manner are far more likely to use positive reward based training and  far less likely to resort to punishment.  I think many people will agree with the statement ‘My dog is my  friend’, after all the vast majority of dogs in the Western world are kept purely as companion animals.  If  we regard our dogs as our friends or even part of our family then we are far more likely to treat them  humanly. We have looked at the relationship between human and dog, but this is only part of the story as our dogs  also have a relationship with us.  The way we, the human, regard and behave towards our dogs is going  to dictate how our dogs regard and behave towards us.  If the human has a master and servant relationship with a dog then the dog is going to regard the human  as an individual who is frightening and likely to cause physical pain and this in turn dictates the way the  dog behaves towards humans.  With best course of action being to avoid the human, use body language  to display fear and hope that the human gets the message.  In some cases the only course of action left  to a dog is to display aggressive behaviour in an attempt to defend themselves from the human.  A dog  which finds his or her self in this sort of relationship with a human is a dog which is not confident about  interacting with humans, a dog which is wary of humans and worst case scenario a dog which is terrified  of humans.  If the human relates to the dog as property then the dog regards the human as something  from which nothing good happens as dealings with a human are likely to be unpleasant.  This leads to  the behaviour of avoiding (and being fearful) of humans.  If avoiding the human results in being left alone  then that is the best course of action. If the human relates to the dog as an equal the dog is far more  likely to regard the human as a source of positive interactions and will therefore behave in a way which  increases their opportunities to interact with humans.  This dog will be relaxed and happy while  interacting with humans and will be far more willing to engage and work for our attention.  The  relationship between dog and human is at the basis of all training, it is the foundations upon which new  behaviours are learnt.  For this reason the relationship needs to be addressed before we can begin  training our dogs.  Dogs are very sensitive to human emotions and many people who are experiencing difficulties when it  comes to training their dogs become frustrated.  If we become frustrated with our dogs we will regard  them slightly differently and behave towards them slightly differently. Research would suggest that the  dog is reading and responding to the subtle changes in our body language and micro expressions and  altering their regard and behaviour towards us accordingly. Frustration is not the only human emotion  which a dog can have a negative reaction to.  If we become fearful this will also alter our regard and  behaviour towards the dog.  Many people have a dog which is reactive towards other dogs and when an  off lead dog approaches the human’s first response is to become fearful, altering the regard for both dogs (the reactive dog and the dog approaching) and that in turn will alter our behaviour towards both dogs.   Once again both dogs will respond to the changes and alter their regard and behaviour accordingly.  If  the human predictably alters their emotions in response to a given situation, which in turn alters the  humans regard and behaviour towards the dog and in turn the dog alters their regard and behaviour  towards the human (and the situation – as learning does not occur in a vacuum) then the dog will learn  though associative learning that the change in the relationship (brought about by the human) is a  stimulus for specific event to occur.  That specific event could be another dog approaching or that the dog is about to be physically punished as a result of our frustration.  It is even possible for the dog to learn  that in a given location or in a given situation the human will alter the relationship and the dog can pre-  empt our change and alter the relationship before we do. The relationship is the stage upon which training occurs.  This message was delivered right at the  beginning of this article.  We need to be constantly aware of the way we regard and behave towards our  dogs as the relationship between human and dog does not magically come into existence when we  engage in training.  The relationship is there are all times whether we are actively training our dogs or  not.  If we as humans fail to create a positive relationship with our dogs at all times then engaging our  dogs in training and in turn the successful learning of new behaviours is going to be much harder.   Humans (like dogs) are not perfect and I will be the first to admit to losing my cool on occasion and  becoming frustrated when I have had a long day or not feeling well.  But this should always be in the  minority.  Thankfully dogs are incredibly forgiving creatures and they certainly don’t hold grudges.  In  some cases we need to take that leaf out of the dogs’ book and remember to be forgiving when our dogs  make mistakes and not to hold grudges about past behaviour. To build a healthy relationship with our dogs we need to regard them as equals with the same rights we  receive as humans and behave towards them with kindness and compassion and in turn our dogs will  regard as a source of positivity and be willing and enthusiastic about interacting and engaging with us.  Establishing a Working Relationship The working relationship is the relationship between human and dog (and dog and human) when we not  only engage in training new behaviours but also when we give a dog an instruction to perform a learnt  behaviour.  Whenever we are in a situation where we need to give our dog instructions we are involved in a working relationship.    The working relationship is easily demonstrated when we are walking our dogs.   In fact the walk should be viewed as the working relationship in action, as when exercising our dogs off  lead we need them to respond to our instructions.  The most notable of these instructions is the recall.  The working relationship is the next layer of the foundations when it comes to successfully training our  dogs.  We need to establish a healthy and positive working relationship between human and dog and dog and human.  A relationship where both parties understand what is expected of them and adhere to the  ‘rules’ of that relationship.  Once again the way we regard and behave towards our dogs when engaged  in the working relationship will affect the way our dogs regard and behave towards us.  We have  established the relationship should be a positive one and we simply build upon this in the working  relationship.  Firstly we need to teach our dogs about the working relationship and to achieve this we need to teach our dogs that paying attention to us is a positive thing.  When we, the human, change from the general  relationship to the working relationship, the way we regard and behave towards our dogs will change and  as a result the way our dogs regard and behave towards us will also change.  Once again if the human  change is predictable, i.e. the human will always alter the relationship from general to working when the  dog leaves for a walk the dog will learn to pre-empt the human and switch the relationship from general  to working on their own accord.  Building Value The first step to creating a healthy working relationship is to show the dog that the human is a valuable  resource.  It is very important to understand the underlying principles of behaviour and what drive an  animal to perform any given behaviour. What is Behaviour? A behaviour is defined as any action a living organism performs.  Sleeping is a behaviour, walking,  running, sitting, having a drink of water and playing with a toy are all behaviours.  Behaviours evolved to  increase an organisms chance of survival and survival is all about getting the chance to reproduce.   Reproduction is the end goal of all organisms and when Darwin refers to ‘survival of the fittest’, the fittest  animal is the animal that has the largest number of offspring when compared to their rivals.  For this reason behaviours evolved to be valuable to the animal.  For example, nesting behaviour in birds is a valuable way to protect young and therefore would increase the fitness of birds which nested.   Predator recognition is a valuable behaviour as individuals which are able to recognise a predator and  run away were less likely to be caught and therefore more likely to go on to reproduce.  Behaviours are  also hierarchal, with some behaviours being more important than others and the importance of any given  behaviour will be affected by the immediate environment in which an animal finds themselves.  For  example, there is no point in building a nest when it is not the breeding season and there is no point in  running when there is no predator.  The last important note to make about behaviour is that when an animal is engaged in one behaviour,  say nest building, they are unable to engage in other behaviours such as foraging.  Engaging in a certain behaviour may also increase the risk of a predator spotting you, for example song birds sing to attract a  mate and defend their territories from rival males, but the behaviour of singing also alerts all the local  predators that a tasty snack is just around the corner.  While the domestic dog is no longer a wild animal, like humans the dog still places value on to the  behaviours they perform.  We will put going to work before watching TV, even if we would prefer to be  watching the TV.  We would rather reading a book than doing the laundry and we would rather be doing  anything other than having to make that trip to the supermarket.   Dogs are not that different, a dog would rather be playing fetch than being taken to the grooming salon.  They would rather be snuggled in front of the fire on a cold winters night then be left outside and they would rather be doing anything else when we  pull up outside the vet surgery.  Ok so dogs don’t really think like that but it is a hypothetical example we  can relate to as humans.  The truth is a dog will perform the behaviour which is most valuable to them at  the time.   Back to Value The real reason that many dogs have a poor recall is simply down to the dog placing more value on not  coming back compared to the behaviour we want, coming back.  Not coming back is a better option to  the dog, there are smells, other animals, other dogs, puddles to splash in, cyclists to chase, and the list  goes on and on.  Coming back means losing the ability to engage with all these other exciting things and  in the majority of cases means they are going home and the fun is over.  Recall is not the only example,  barking at the postman is more valuable to the dog than not barking, jumping up at guests is more  valuable than not jumping up and stealing food from the bin is way more valuable than not stealing food.   As humans we need to combat this by not only making ourselves valuable to the dog but also by making  the behaviours we want them to demonstrate valuable.  The first step to creating a healthy working relationship with our dogs is to demonstrate to the dog that we are a valuable resource and that paying attention to us is a valuable thing to do.  We need to teach our  dogs that we are more valuable than the other dog in the park, or the cat on the street corner or the  postman walking up the drive.  When our dog has learnt that we are a valuable resource we will have dog which is eager to interact with us.  This is a dog which will always have the corner of one eye on us at all  times – a dog which pays attention to us.  This dog is a dog which is ready to engage in training and  successful learning.  Summary: • How a human regards a dog affects the way the human behaves towards the dog • The way a human behaves towards the dog will affect the way the dog regards the human • The way the dog regards the human will affect the way the dog behaves towards the human • To create a positive and healthy relationship between human and dog, the human needs to regard         the dog as a friend and companion, an individual who should be treated fairly and with compassion.  The simplest thought to have at the back of your mind is the question: Would I interact with my best  friend, my sister, my mother, my grandfather, my children etc. in the way I am about to interact with  my dog? • The result of a healthy positive relationship between human and dog is a dog which is willing and  wanting to interact with humans without fear or uncertainty.  • To create a healthy and positive working relationship with our dogs we need to teach them that we  are valuable to them. • When we have a dog which is happy to engage with humans and understands the ‘rules’ of the  working relationship we have a dog which is ready to engage in training and learning.