Training isn’t only behavior management—it’s a bond between a dog and a human.

This essay was written by Marc Bekoff, Ph.D., and force-free dog trainer Mary Angilly.

Many guardians start their training journey by enrolling their dog in a basic manners class, which is often seen as a standard first step. Once the class ends, it's common to assume that their dog's training is now complete. This represents a larger underlying issue with how we understand companion dogs as a whole. Basic manners classes should actually be just the beginning; they should provide a person and their dog with skills to build upon and take into the real world so they can continue to experience new things together.

Dog training is often treated as an obligatory task with a clear beginning and end, something to be checked off in puppyhood or after newly adopting a dog. This view oversimplifies both dog behavior and the nature of training itself—perhaps better thought of as educating the dog and their human. For example, once you learn to eat, drink, or read, it doesn’t mean that you don’t need food, beverages, or books any longer. In fact, these skills can make many other opportunities accessible, and many can be enriching.

Psychology teaches us that learning, adaptation, and emotional development occur throughout the lifespan. Ongoing and thoughtful dog training can increase the behavioral flexibility of dogs, enabling both dogs and their humans to engage more fully with each other and with diverse environments, thereby enriching their shared life experiences.

The importance of lifespan psychology and lifelong learning

Lifespan psychology explores the biological, cognitive, and psychosocial changes that occur throughout the course of life. It highlights that development is: lifelong, multidirectional and multidimensional, filled with both growth and decline, plastic, socio-culturally and contextually influenced, and multidisciplinary.

Lifelong learning tells us that learning is a process that occurs continuously throughout one’s life. From the perspective of the lifespan approach, lifelong learning can improve quality of life and provide a sense of motivation, confidence, and increased adaptability over time. This paradigm may also offer valuable insights when applied to canine behavior.

Cognitive and emotional enrichment is for “them” and for us

Early experiences like socialization shape a dog’s adaptability, but cognitive engagement remains essential throughout life. When considering the stages of learning, without ongoing challenge, even well-learned behaviors can fade, much like a second language or musical skill can diminish when unused in humans.

Because of the brain’s plasticity, positive experiences can help build your dog’s confidence and adaptability over time. In this capacity, regularly training with your dog, not only to reinforce known skills but also to teach new ones, offers numerous benefits. It can strengthen your relationship with your dog, provide a two-way communication outlet, give your dog valuable coping mechanisms, and provide both human and dog mental and emotional enrichment. When rooted in positive reinforcement, it strengthens trust, safety, and connection.

For example, if you take the time to teach your dog to come when called (recall), this opens the door for your dog to be off-leash in appropriate scenarios. Dogs are captive animals after all, and offering them opportunities to truly be off-leash can enrich both dog and guardian. Another example of this is teaching loose leash walking. When guardians teach this, it makes walking more pleasant for both parties, and then guardians may be more likely to bring their dogs to different places and to experience new things.

Don’t forget the old dogs—yes, they, too, can learn new tricks

In senior dogs, the function of training shifts even further. As hearing, vision, mobility, and other physical capabilities decline, training can be utilized as a tool for maintaining quality of life. Teaching gentle handling, modifying cues, and maintaining familiar rituals can help aging dogs safely navigate their world with confidence. These small adaptations can prevent frustration, reduce fear, and enhance emotional well-being. Continuing to provide appropriate mental challenges to aging dogs can also help with healthy cognitive aging.

Training as co-regulation and adaptation

Training should be reframed not as an early-life intervention but as a lifelong process of co-regulation and adaptation. When we treat training as emotional and cognitive enrichment, we recognize dogs as individuals with intrinsic value.

In senior dogs, the function of training shifts even further. As hearing, vision, mobility, and other physical capabilities decline, training can be utilized as a tool for maintaining quality of life. Teaching gentle handling, modifying cues, and maintaining familiar rituals can help aging dogs safely navigate their world with confidence. These small adaptations can prevent frustration, reduce fear, and enhance emotional well-being. Continuing to provide appropriate mental challenges to aging dogs can also help with healthy cognitive aging.

Whether we realize it or not, dogs are always learning, and reinforcement, both intended and unintended, occurs continuously. We constantly hear people say that their dogs are learning new tasks or tricks and modifying old ones to adapt to their changing world, or perhaps for fun, to see if they still work. This means that dog guardians have many opportunities to positively influence behaviors and emotional states. Changing old behavior and learning new behaviors are highly adaptive and are standard fare among wild animals, including wolves, from whom dogs emerged.² Play is also an important enrichment. Much evidence shows that fun-filled chaotic play is serious business and can function as training for the unexpected, an adaptation that helps individuals deal with novel and surprising social and nonsocial situations.

The more skills we can give our dogs, the more we can meet their needs and the more coping mechanisms they will have in a human-centric world. This can become a positive cycle in which high-quality training/teaching leads to more opportunities for enrichment, which leads to “better” behavior and guardians who are more bonded with their dogs. Conversely, insufficient training can impair a dog’s ability to adapt to everyday human environments, which can result in reduced access to enrichment and increase the likelihood of maladaptive behaviors.

Who’s a “bad dog”? These factors often contribute to guardian frustration and weakened human-dog bonds. We must be very careful about calling a dog a "bad dog" when, in fact, they're often simply engaging in dog-appropriate behavior or they're misunderstanding or not consenting to what we would like them to do. This could happen because we're miscommunicating, because we're not "fluent in dog" or not taking into account their individual personalities. So-called "bad dogs" need love and help rather than punishment.

Ultimately, dogs and humans are both social, learning-driven species. We thrive when our environments appropriately challenge us, support us, and offer meaningful feedback.

When dogs are trained throughout life with love, science, and consent, it’s a win-win for all. Nothing could be better than guardians and their dogs wholeheartedly embracing an ethic based on working hard to form dynamic, mutually respectful, give-and-take, enriching, fun-filled, and safe and trustful relationships.