At any given moment you can give your dog a command, and he will obey the command because he respects you, even though there may be distractions. Obedience is how we teach our dogs not only what the word no means but to respect the word no when we say it. The word no simply means, Stop what you re doing. Let s take a moment to look at the concept of respect. If you said yes to any of these questions, your dog does not respect you.
Respect is different from love and fear.
Your dog can love or fear you and not respect you. If your dog only listens to you when you raise your voice, then your dog listens to you out of fear, not respect. If your dog only listens around the house when there are no visitors, but does not listen when there are visitors or does not listen when off leash outside, then your dog does not respect you. Let me give you some scenarios to think about. In both of these scenarios, if your dog continues to chase the rabbit or the ball, then he has a lack of respect for you, and his lack of respect could be potentially dangerous.