In my opinion, if you want your dog to anticipate what you want them to do, you usually want it to. Anticipation is a good thing as long as their anticipatory is correct! Here is what I mean
If you want to get your dog to the dog bed when the bell rings, you must learn, practice and recreate until this skill is functional. Eventually, your dog may hear the doorbell and run to their dog bed before you can even tell them to do so – this is good anticipation.
When going out for a walk, your dog must walk with you on your left side – you must teach, prepare and practice this. One day, you start your walk and your dog automatically places himself on your left side and starts to walk with you – this is a good anticipation
The other side of the anticipation occurs when the dog has wronged with his actions. Although their intentions were based on paying attention to you and trying to be a good dog, their anticipation led to non-observance. A few examples :
When you teach your dog to come when called, it might be common to bend like a catcher to encourage your dog to come into you. While this is a great way to assist your dog in the initial stages of the training, your dog can’t anticipate this for life. If they do, your dog may break a sit / stay, down / stay or place every time you bend over to tie your shoe – this kind of anticipation is not desirable.
Each dog needs a functional sit and nap. It’s common for dog owners to start their dog sitting down and then proceed into a down position. During time, when your dog is placed on a sitting berth, he can anticipate that the next command is a down. He will often put himself into a down moment without waiting for the command to come – this kind of anticipatory is not good.
As your dog training progresses, your dog is becoming aware of what you want and how you require him to behave. If your training has led to incorrect anticipation, you may need to mix things and modify a little bit of detail so the picture can be changed for the dog. The correct anticipation will therefore bring you closer to a dog that is on autopilot.
