The opposition reflex is a natural instinct in dogs that causes them to push or pull against pressure applied to their bodies. It is a reflexive response that helps them maintain balance and stability. For example, if you push a dog's shoulder, their natural response is to push back against the pressure.

When it comes to dog training, overcoming the opposition reflex is important in teaching dogs to walk on a leash without pulling. Dogs naturally resist the pressure of the leash by pulling in the opposite direction. To teach them to overcome this reflex, we will be using food and marker training.

This is a brief overview, I will be going over this in more detail in the coming chapters. What I want you to take away from this is the following:

We will be turning leash pressure on and using food to mark the exact moment our dogs turn it off. We will be repeating this enough times until our dogs demonstrate to is that they understand the association. Meaning, "Mom/Dad turns pressure on to come towards them, that tells me which direction I need to move to," and the second they do, we turn the pressure OFF. We do not keep pulling on the leash once our dogs initiate moving to us or into the correct position. Our dogs therefore will learn the leash is a GPS and translator. The leash tells them where to go (GPS) and which position/behavior we want (translator; ie. Come, sit, down, place, ECT).

Stay tuned for a more detailed breakdown on how to work this!