Why Training a Dog Needs a Prelude

1 Overview

So is this right or wrong? Let’s learn why dog training needs a prelude.

Forced Dominance

If you’ve been around, you know the value of a prelude.

Training with no prelude is plainly wrong, even counterproductive.

Why? Exposing the belly is the LAST step of submission!

The Prelude

When a dog submits, it shows body language to ease meeting tension – tail wag, letting the other sniff its rear – the ‘prelude.’

Only if it still senses a fight will it lie down and show the belly.

Watch: any submissive dog does the prelude before lying down; length depends on courage and age.

Timid, young dogs finish the prelude fast and lie down; bold, older dogs resist.

What if there’s no prelude?

Confusion

Dogs know the prelude; skipping to the end confuses their logic.

Think how a relationship without a prelude strains people – dogs get confused, some even attack.

Fear

After this treatment many dogs seem ‘good’ – but it’s fear, not real obedience.

Fear obeys, but breeds distrust; such dogs misbehave and owners repeat the mistake.

Real training builds trust and obedience, not fear and distrust.

Summary:

The prelude is essential daily training – triggered by the dog or provided by you; minor to humans, vital to dogs.

Dogs are direct, yet shaped by inherited memory from thousands of years beside us – trained generation by generation.

These memories are inherited but must be activated by the owner – and activation demands method, not lazy no-prelude acts.