10/23/2026
Every Time You Train Your Dog, You're Building a Road Between Their Brain and Body!
Yesterday, I talked about why I don't continually accept unwanted behaviors during training and why I believe it's important to address them right away.
Today, let's talk about WHY this matters from a neuroscience perspective!
Think about how a road is built.
When your dog first learns a behavior, imagine the neural pathway involved is like a gravel road. It's rough, slow, and not very efficient. Your dog has to work harder to figure out what to do.
But the more your dog practices that behavior, especially when it's reinforced, the more developed that road can become. The gravel road starts getting paved. It becomes smoother, faster, and easier to travel.
With enough practice, what started as a gravel road can become a SUPERHIGHWAY!
This is an analogy for neuroplasticity, the brain's ability to change through experience and learning. Repetition can strengthen neural connections and make behaviors more efficient and automatic. Myelin, which insulates nerve fibers and helps signals travel faster, also plays a role in neural efficiency and some forms of learning.
Now here's the REALLY important part!
Your dog's brain doesn't automatically distinguish between the behaviors you WANT and those you DON'T WANT when it comes to learning.
You can be paving a superhighway for a beautiful directional cue, a reliable start line, or great forward focus.
OR you can be paving a superhighway for spinning, breaking start lines, biting at the handler, or turning the wrong direction!
Think about a dog that repeatedly breaks the start line and gets to run agility. That behavior may be reinforced every time. Or a dog that spins before taking an obstacle and then continues running. With repeated practice and reinforcement, that spinning can become part of the dog's learned performance.
And when you finally decide to address these behaviors, you're not just teaching something new. You're also trying to change a behavior that may already have a well-developed highway!
This is why I don't believe in repeatedly saying, "I'll work on that later."
When I notice an unwanted behavior, I stop, figure out WHY it's happening, break the training down, and start teaching and rewarding the behavior I DO want.
One mistake doesn't create a superhighway, and practice alone doesn't guarantee a habit. But repeated, reinforced behaviors can become increasingly established.
So think about this the next time you're training.
Are you building a gravel road toward a behavior you WANT to become a superhighway? Or are you continuing to pave a road for a behavior you DON'T want?
Every training session is an opportunity to shape your dog's future performance!
Tomorrow, I'll talk about how addressing unwanted behaviors early can lead to clearer cues, stronger connection, more confidence, and less frustration for both dog and handler.
What behavior has your dog practiced so much that it's become a SUPERHIGHWAY—good or unwanted?
