He knows what to do, he's just being Stubborn!

How many times have you felt that when working with your dog? You’ll be at the West Coast Park Dog Run, saying “Sit, Sit, Sit, SIT” but your dog’s too busy checking out the action around him to pay attention.

So has he really gone strategically deaf or is there something else going on? 

There’s two possibilities of what might be happening.

Why Your Dog Won’t Listen Around Distractions

First – it could be that your dog understands that sit means butt on the ground, but only in the context of limited distractions. So, he can do it excellently when you’re together one on one, but when someone comes to visit or if there’s other exciting dogs around, it’s like he doesn’t even know you exist, much less hear the words coming out of your mouth.

What’s really happening here, is that you probably haven’t proofed the Sit behavior with enough distractions.

For this, you need to practice in different situations: you moving around after having said sit, then jogging, then running, shaking different toys in front of him. Then bring in other people and go through the same progression bit by bit, always working at the level of distraction the dog can easily succeed at. The more distractions you practice around, the more solid the behavior becomes, and your dog gets that sit means butt on the ground no matter who is around.

Why Your Dog Won’t Listen in New Locations

The other possibility is that your dog knows how to sit, but only in the context of your home. That’s why when you’re out at the park or outside a store, it seems like he just doesn’t want to do it.

In reality it could be something as simple as him not having put the pieces together yet that sit means butt on the ground irrespective of where you are.

For this, practice the behavior in multiple locations, both in and out of your home. Dogs generally need to be able to do a behavior in roughly three different contexts before they clock that the cue means the same thing regardless of where you are.

If you want to understand more about how your dog is processing what you’re asking of them, the free Dog Body Language Guide covers a lot of the foundational stuff that makes training make more sense.

Is Your Dog Actually Being Stubborn?

As mentioned in my earlier post here, dogs don’t have the cognitive ability to practice complex human emotions such as revenge or altruism. With that in mind, dogs are incapable of “being stubborn” just for the heck of it.

If you find your dog is unable to respond to cues he has previously demonstrated he knows, look around you and see whether the distractions competing for his attention are more interesting than you, or if you’ve ever practiced the requested behavior in that environment before.

So no, he’s not being stubborn, its simply that you guys haven’t practiced enough in different contexts for him to clock in that Sit means butt on the ground no matter where you are or what’s going on around you!

Frequently Asked Questions About Dogs Who Won’t Listen

How do I know if my dog actually knows the behavior or is just guessing?

A reliable indicator is consistency across multiple repetitions in a low-distraction environment. If your dog gets it right eight or nine times out of ten when you’re at home with no competing distractions, they know it. If they’re hitting fifty-fifty, the behavior probably isn’t as solid as it feels. That’s where you build from before adding distractions or new locations.

How many times should I repeat a cue before my dog responds?

Once. Repeating a cue multiple times — “Sit, sit, SIT” — teaches your dog that the first few repetitions don’t count. If your dog doesn’t respond to the first cue, the behavior isn’t ready for that level of distraction yet. Step back to an easier environment, get a few successful reps, and build back up. Saying the cue once and waiting also tells you a lot about where your dog actually is in their training.

My dog listens to my partner but not me. Why?

Usually this comes down to consistency and reinforcement history. If one person in the household is more consistent about rewarding responses and following through on cues, the dog learns that responding to that person reliably leads to good things. It’s not personal. It’s the dog doing their cost-benefit calculation. The fix is making yourself equally predictable and rewarding to respond to.

Go practice in a new location today and watch what happens. You might be surprised how quickly things shift once the context starts to click for them.