How I think about structure and clarity in my dog’s life

At the end of summer I did an Instagram story poll and feed post on structure in the dog world and had some really interesting conversations. I thought I’d expand the thoughts into a more comprehensive blog!

Here’s how we personally define the terms “structure” and “clarity”—and why we aim for a life with little of the former but lots of the latter.

First things first: Semantics get really messy really quickly

There’s no way I can productively talk about this—or really any topic at all—without acknowledging messy semantics.

Our past experiences and personal associations mean we interpret language differently. While the dictionary definition of a term might be one thing, we add our own connotations to it… and carry those with us when we have conversations with other people.

That means we can all use the same words to mean varying things. The way I personally define terms like “structure” or “clarity” or even commands like “heel” and “place” might not be the way you do. And that’s okay!

It’s a good idea to define terms ahead of time so we can talk about concepts without getting caught up in word choice.

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Let’s define “structure” and “clarity”

“Structure” in general life and in the dog training world

The official dictionary definition of structure is “the arrangement of and relations between the parts or elements of something complex”. As a verb, structure can be used fairly interchangeably with “organize”—you can organize your daily tasks or you can structure your daily tasks. The phrases mean essentially the same thing. Likewise, as a noun, a business’s hierarchy can be referred to as “company structure” or “company organization”.

This is a broader, looser definition of the word “structure”.

In the dog training world specifically, I often see “structure” used more specifically to describe certain commands or boundaries. Many trainers talk about adding structure to your dog’s life by having them:

• Hold a place command or be crated instead of free roaming

• Wait at every threshold

• Not be allowed on furniture

• Wait permission to eat

• Work for all food

• Walk in a heel without sniffing on walks

When I asked our Instagram community how they defined structure, I received both definitions. Several people answered a more general idea of a framework for life or some sort of organization. Others indicated specific examples like the ones above.

My personal associations with the terms