Does My Dog Have Free Will?
And what that means for how we train them
If you’ve ever found yourself wondering why your dog does what they do — especially when they seem to make surprising, thoughtful, frustrating, or downright quirky choices — even as you wonder what’s gotten into them, you’ve probably brushed up against this question:
Does my dog have free will?
It’s a big question — with answers that span science, philosophy, and how we think about agency, learning, and love.
There’s only one thing to do when faced with questions like this:
What Behaviorism Says
Much of modern dog training is built on the science of behaviorism — a framework that looks at how learning happens through reinforcement, environment, and experience.
In traditional behaviorism, behaviour is seen as a product of the environment.
If you’ve worked with me for any period of time, you’ve heard me say (or have seen my shirt that says) Reinforcement Drives Behaviour. What this means is:
Dogs (and people) repeat behaviours that get reinforced.
They avoid behaviours that get punished.
In this model, what your dog wants or feels doesn’t matter — because those internal states aren’t considered directly measurable (we can’t know or measure with perfect objective clarity what a dog wants or feels).
In short: traditional behaviorism doesn’t really leave room for free will. It’s not about choice — it’s about consequences.
But Dogs Aren’t Machines
And here’s where things get more interesting.
In later versions of behaviorism — like radical behaviorism — scientists began to include things like thoughts and feelings as behaviours too. Those thoughts and feelings are, like other more observable behaviours, still shaped by reinforcement and environment, but no longer ignored.
And in modern dog training? We go even further.
We now talk about:
Consent-based handling
Agency in interaction, enrichment, and training
Respecting your dog’s choices — regardless of whether those choices are shaped by their personal history
Even if true “free will” is a philosophical stretch (for all of us), the lived experience of choice still matters. A lot.
What It Looks Like in Practice
So… does your dog have free will?
Maybe not in the purest sense.
Do we?
Also, maybe not in the purest sense.
But your dog absolutely benefits from feeling like they have choices (and so do we!). And behaviorally speaking? That matters.
When dogs have:
More than one way to succeed
Opportunities to say “no” or “not yet”
Predictability, safety, and agency in their daily life
…they learn better. They trust deeper. They feel safer.
And isn’t that the kind of dog-human relationship we’re all hoping for?
In the end…
Whether or not dogs have “free will,” we can respect their agency and give them real choices.
And those choices — how they learn, how they communicate, how they move through the world — can change everything.
Because a dog who feels heard is a dog who can thrive.
And a guardian who listens is building something bigger than obedience.
They’re building a lineage of love.
