Empowering Your Dog: The Impact of Bowl Training for Building Confidence and Connection

A few weeks ago, I was reading a paper from the journal Applied Animal Behavior Science.  In the paper, Gail Clark and William Boyer asked what effects obedience training and behavioral counseling (“providing the owner with an understanding of dog behavior and offering methods to either decrease or eliminate dog behaviors that owners reported as undesirable”) have on the relationship between humans and their dogs. In it, teams that attended an 8-week obedience class that included behavioral counseling and structured interaction for 20 minutes a day showed lower separation anxiety and improved relationships with their people. The study, published in 1993, is still relevant today.

A big part of the training I do focuses on addressing behavioral issues such as barking, pulling, door-rushing, separation anxiety, recall, and paying attention to the handler. While these behaviors may involve complex mechanisms, many of them can be addressed by engaging with our dogs in ways that they find enjoyable. However, it's not as simple as playing more with our dogs to stop issues like barking at passersby from their window perch. Through structured training and daily interactions, we can strengthen our relationship with our dogs and influence their willingness to listen to us more. Engagement is crucial for dog training and having a well-behaved, confident dog. This brings us to the importance of simple yet effective engagement exercises.

I've learned that simple training exercises can significantly benefit our mental well-being and our dog's physical prowess. One such exercise involves teaching our dogs to step on an upside-down bowl. After learning about the benefits of this training from my dog trainer friends, I've incorporated it into much of my training. I use the word "spot" to command this behavior, and I accompany it with a specific arm gesture to indicate where “spot” is.

Engagement exercises like this go beyond mere tricks; they serve as building blocks for a well-rounded, confident dog.  By mastering such tasks, dogs gain more than a new skill—they develop essential qualities that enhance their overall behavior and relationship with their humans.

Confidence
You’ll hear dog trainers say that a confident dog is a stable dog.  (I won’t bog this conversation down with the intricacies of what a confident dog is.  For brevity, we’ll say that a confident dog feels secure in its environment and comfortable with new situations, people, and other animals).  Mastering a new skill, especially one that initially seems challenging, builds self-assurance and a sense of pride for the dog and its human.  This confidence translates into a more fulfilling life for your dog, as it is more likely to explore and interact positively with its environment.

Impulse Control
Training your dog to step on an upside-down bowl requires patience and concentration.  It’s an excellent exercise for teaching impulse control (another term we’ll define in future posts) and focus.  If, in training, we engage with our dogs frenetically, trying to match their energetic and uncontrolled wildness, we create unintentional frustration.  When we learn to slow down and calmly motivate our dog to put two paws on a bowl, we necessarily develop patience and concentration for us and our dog.

Hind-End Awareness
Dogs often have limited awareness of their back legs.  Puppies are especially unaware of where their bottoms are, to hilarious effect and utter cuteness.  Stepping onto an upside-down bowl and then learning to rotate their hind legs while pivoting on their front paws helps increase this awareness.  This improves their overall body awareness and coordination and is especially beneficial for dogs in agility, older dogs, and dogs that participate in other physically demanding activities, like hiking.

Builds Muscle Strength and Coordination
Once our dogs confidently go to “spots,” we can direct them to more challenging “spots,” like balance boards.  Balancing on an unstable surface engages various muscle groups, especially the core and hind legs.  Strong muscles also support joint health, reducing the risk of injuries.

Challenging their balance and coordination are crucial skills for navigating different environments confidently and safely.  Whether hiking rugged trails or simply maneuvering around the house, improved balance helps prevent injuries.

Counterconditioning for Reactive Dogs
As our dogs become masters of the bowl, we can incorporate this exercise into a counterconditioning program for fearful reactive dogs.  Because the bowl represents the possibility of rewards, rewards like your engagement and tasty treats, as well as all your patient adventures with each other in becoming masters of the bowl, stepping on the bowl has so much value and serves as a safe place for your dog while your dog observes external stimuli that cause their fear.  An upturned bowl, incorporated into a counterconditioning program, helps build a confident dog.

Engagement, consistency, and patience are crucial to developing a confident and well-mannered dog.  The study by Clark and Boyer highlights the enduring benefits of structured training and behavioral counseling, reinforcing that these practices can significantly improve the relationship between dogs and their owners. 

A simple exercise like teaching a dog to step on an upside-down bowl may seem trivial at first glance, but have profound impacts on a dog’s confidence, impulse control, body awareness, and overall well-being.  Incorporating these activities into our training routines, we solve behavioral issues and build a stronger, more trusting bond with our dogs.  Remember, every small step toward engagement is a giant leap toward a happy, balanced, and confident canine companion.

If you are interested in Clark and Boyer’s paper, you can find it here: https://doi.org/10.1016/0168-1591(93)90107-Z

Crock Bowl for Pets:

https://amzn.to/3KuKxVe (Amazon) Medium - The bowl I use for most dogs.

https://amzn.to/45pfHr3 (Amazon) Small - I use this size for smaller dogs.

https://amzn.to/3yTitIA (Amazon) Large - For big dogs.

Other fun reading:
Therese Rehn; Linda J. Keeling 2016. Measuring dog-owner relationships: Crossing boundaries between animal behaviour and human psychology. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 183 (2016) 1-9. doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2016.07.003

Andrea Kerepesi; Antal Dóka; Ádám Miklósi 2014. Dogs and their human companions: The effect of familiarity on dog–human interactions. Behavioural Processes, 110 (2015) 27-36. doi:10.1016/j.beproc.2014.02.005

Chloe uses her “spot” to pose on drift log in Tofino.