Dog Training Inside The Box

Dog Training Inside The Box by Andrew Ledford 714-827-4058

Dog Training and thinking inside the box seems like a natural subject for me. If you’ve participated in my dog training programs or read my book you would think the idea for this blog resulted from working with my dog training mat. While I often speak about training inside the box I was inspired to write this post from a dog trainer’s Twitter post.

Thinking inside the box vs. thinking outside the box

Thinking inside the box.

As usual I feel that dog training is a great metaphor for other areas of our lives. In dog training as in other areas of life we can consider thinking inside the box as the straight forward orthodox approach. (This program is no-longer available, but I am moving most of the information to this website. To see the first couple of pages follow the link- You can learn more about box training by enrolling in my online dog training school. )

We are always training within a box..

I believe that we’re always training within a box. I call this box the “Awareness Box.” Training inside the box is the first spatial orientation exercise in my dog training program. First we must learn to train within a structured system before we can move to a more fluid form of expression. The box represents that structure. I believe in Chinese mythology the square represents Earth. Until we have a solid understanding we must remain firmly grounded. Even when we move beyond the orthodox we must maintain balance. often combining the orthodox with the unorthodox will bring the best results.

The Awareness Box is comprised of eight directions or positions. The eight positions consist of four sides and four corners. These eight positions makeup the angles of movement and the reference points for orientation. The complex version of the Awareness Box is best imagined as a three dimensional cube.

Thinking outside the box

In dog training as in other areas of life we can consider thinking outside the box as the roundabout or unorthodox approach. I hope to cover this in a separate post.

One of my older dog training logo is an interesting example, although it’s symbolism a little different than how I usually teach the Awareness Box concept. It visually conveys the concept of the positioning needed for effective communication and the execution of training techniques. After people understand working within the Box we can explain the details. The Adaptive Dog Training logo visually encompasses both thinking inside the box and thinking outside the box, It is both conventional and unconventional at the same time. In a traditional context I think it is a type of unorthodox orthodoxy. This may be a difficult concept to understand within a Socratic sense, but it makes more sense when contemplated in a Taoistic system. As China rises to greater world power we must strive to understand different systems of thought if we are to flourish. Dog training is flexible enough that it can be used as a vehicle for learning about many aspects of human nature.

If you are interested in learning more about what humans can learn from dogs I am writing a new series of short books about how to change our lives through the lesson learned in dog training.

Wishing you the very best in dog training and in life,
Andrew Ledford
I can be reached at 714-827-4058