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The art of communicating with your dog

The art of communicating with your dog

by | May 30, 2016 | Uncategorized

It is easy to fall into the trap of focusing on how smart your dog is or isn’t at learning. Your dog is probably astoundingly smarter than you think. You just need to start communicating with it in a language that it understands.

Imagine if I expected all my clients to learn from me while I only spoke in Danish! Would you want to come to my classes to learn if I scolded you for not understanding me? And wouldn’t it be crazy, since we both speak English?

Of course, neither English nor Danish will ever serve as effective ways to communicate with your dog. Dogs are not even born with the concept of a verbal language. Instead, they have a very well-evolved body language. This makes them incredibly perceptive to changes of mood and energy. Humans have both, but because it is so easy to communicate with words, we often neglect to use our body language and intuitive perception.

Dogs can learn a few words, but it is as hard for them to learn words as it is for us to distinguish exactly what each type of bark means. Please note, a bark is not a word; it is an expression of the state of mind: impatient, hostile, over-excited etc.

Since both humans and dogs understand body language, it makes perfect sense to use it when we communicate with them. In fact, our body languages are very similar. The only difference is that the dogs’ body language is simpler than ours yet also more extreme.

As an example, when you scold a person, they may lower their head and look away. However, a dog’s reaction will be more extreme. As well as lowering its head and looking away, it may also crouch right down towards the ground and put its ears back while squinting.

There are fewer nuances in the canine language. The dog’s reaction above could mean several things such as submission, begging, trying to get away with disobeying an order (fake submission), cowering and even just a submissive dog’s standard greeting. In a dog’s mind, they are all the same one thing: appeasement.

Using the right language is a great first step to getting the desired responses from your dog. I suggest you start by focusing on how you can communicate in a way clear and easy to recognise manner. Start with commands like stop, stay outside the kitchen, and come. A quick way to get yourself thinking correctly is to imagine that your dog is a deaf person. You will amaze yourself with your own creativity and range of signs/ body language expressions that emerge.

Check out my quick video of instructing Meg, a 12 weeks old Cavoodle, without using any words at all. She performed the sit-stay-come-stop half way-sit-and-come perfectly in our very first go, simply because the instructions were clear to her:
https://www.facebook.com/242826639078102/videos/1264863220207767/

If your dog isn’t paying you enough attention to read the signing, then you need to consider if it is motivated enough. Most parents would know that their problem is seldom about the child’s understanding, but instead about respect and willingness to cooperate. For gaining the right attitude from your dog, please check out our page about the Canine Code.

(The only) 3 commands that you need

(The only) 3 commands that you need

by | May 30, 2016 | Uncategorized

Teaching your dog many different commands and tricks is GREAT! When you and your dog connect by communicating, understanding and responding to each other, your bond and mutual respect increases. Whether you train your dog in an obedience school, by following the instructions from Youtube videos, or joining a doggy dance class, training is fun, meaningful and helpful. But it isn’t strictly necessary.

As a dog owner, for everyday life with kids, cars, grocery shopping, walking in the dog park, and snuggling up in front of the TV, you only need THREE commands: Stay, Free (release) and Come.

STAY:

If your dog knows to stay outside the kids’ toy room, then it won’t be stealing any toys. If your dog knows to stay out of the hallway when the doorbell rings, then it won’t jump on visitors. Likewise, if your dog knows to stay in the car when the doors open, it won’t jump onto the road. If your dog knows to stay alone in public, then you can nip into a shop and make a quick purchase while it waits outside. If your dog knows to stay on its bed, then it won’t try to get up on the couch. However, if allowed on the couch, then it can stay at the other end of the couch while you relax.

Personally, I’m not at all concerned about whether the dog is standing, sitting, or lying down while in stay command. I just want it to be quiet and stay in command until I give the release command.

FREE:

Not many people are familiar with the concept of a release command, but it is in fact very important. Without knowing exactly when it is free to stop following your command, your dog will not know how long to continue following the stay command.
Therefore, you will never get a good reliable stay command unless you also consistently use a release command.

COME:

If your dog knows to come when called, you will be able to call it to come outside the house. You can also call it to come to you in the park and on the beach. This is no doubt an essential skill.

Again, personally I’m not at all concerned whether it comes and sits, or comes and walks around my right side to end up sitting on my left side, or comes because I call out Buddy, come or chicken. I just want the dog to come to me, close enough and for long enough for me to take hold of the dog collar…with dignity!

With this article, I have no intention whatsoever of discouraging further training of your dog. In fact I highly recommend it. But for those who are too busy for in-depth training, these three simple commands make your everyday life much easier.

If you would like to get started training your dog to stay or come when you call, please check out our workshops schedule. We often train both in our Out & About Obedience and Recall classes.

Dogs & Children Do’s & Don’ts

Dogs & Children Do’s & Don’ts

by | May 30, 2016 | Uncategorized

Did you ever have an image in your mind of sitting relaxed in your family home and enjoying watching your children play with the family dog? I bet it didn’t include sharp puppy teeth, petrified little girls and bloody scratches, did it? Well now that it’s all happening, let’s get started on some damage control…

Firstly,
DON’T think that your children are going to rank higher than your dog in the pack’s pecking order. Your dog knows the age of your children and the level of their maturity. They will never be above the dog in the hierarchy, in the dog’s eyes. There’s nothing to fear and nothing wrong with that. Your dog is going to be mature enough at a very early age (8-16 months depending) to deal responsibly with your children and to follow your guidelines about interacting with them.

DO act like the ‘policeman’ who makes sure that every member of your pack follows your instructions on how to treat the other pack members. Do intervene and stop the dog from bullying your child (or vice versa!). If you do not intervene, you will appear as a weak pack leader –or simply not as a leader.

DON’T let the children consider the dog as a toy who has no right to say no.
DO provide a space where your puppy can rest and be left alone. Typically if the dog is in it’s bed, or hiding under the coffee table, you would instruct your children not to touch it.. In my experience, children develop a much healthier and more respectful attitude to the dog if they take part in the practical care taking. Poop scooping, brushing and feeding – it all counts.

DON’T let young children pick up the dog in their arms or carry it around all the time. It’s exhausting for the dog and it will soon become tired and grumpy. It will be likely then to start growling or snapping at your children.
DO instruct small children that they can only pick up the dog in their arms if they are sitting flat on the ground. This position tends to calm the child and help it focus on holding the dog properly. It’s also a lot less scary and stressful for the dog if it feels confident enough to wiggle out of the grip and safely jump to the ground.

DON’T up your energy in order to calm your dog. If you are playing together and you yell out ‘No!’, try to push away the dog with your arms, tap the dog over the nose, or try to run away, you will most likely excite your dog further. Its play will only intensify. The same will happen with your children, but possibly even more dramatically, because your dog thinks of them as equals and playmates.

DO teach your children to stand up straight, put their hands on their shoulders and turn away from the dog. Your dog may make a small attempt to continue playing, but your childrens’ body language clearly says no. Becoming bored, your dog will soon look elsewhere for fun. You can use the same technique yourself so that your dog learns to read the message even faster.

DON’T let your dog and your children play together without having put some guidelines in place first. Especially if this involves toys. It can get out of control very quickly.
DO teach your children to always hold dog toys below their waist. If they hold them up at head height, they will soon have dog teeth and dog claws flying around their face.

DON’T let the living room become a race track.
DO insist that all boisterous play must happen outside in the garden. Then make yourself a cup of tea and sit back to enjoy the quiet, while it lasts.

Stop! You are rewarding your dog for pulling

Stop! You are rewarding your dog for pulling

by | May 30, 2016 | Uncategorized

What would you do if you were tied to the branch of a tree, feeling very very hungry and there was an apple lying on the ground just 2 feet beyond your reach?

Would you try to reach, stretch and pull to get access to the apple? If the branch gave in and bent enough for you to get the apple, would you try to reach another apple? Would you in fact try with even more determination than last time? Because your strategy worked once, do you now have faith that it will work again?

Anything that your dog wants is a reward while the dog still wants it. Imagine your dog wants to go and sniff a tree and pulls you towards it (with tension on the lead). Every step you take towards the tree becomes a reward for pulling. Your dog is learning that if it pulls you hard enough, for long enough, frequently enough… you will give in. Sadly, it is easy to end up in a situation where we have trained our dogs to be persistent leash-pullers.

Before we even discuss the strategies for punishing a dog for pulling, we must stop inadvertently rewarding the behaviour.

Dogs learn by observing patterns of what works and what doesn’t. Are you creating a pattern that teaches your dog that sometimes there’s a nasty consequence to pulling on the lead, but at other times it’s exactly what was needed? In that instance, it may take a very harsh punishment to convince your dog from pulling again next time. In fact, your dog will start to ‘gamble’ and fall for the temptation of testing out whether this time pulling might pay off. What this means is that you are creating a situation where your dog will continue to pull. You will need to use harsher and more frequent punishments in order to make it stop. Does this sound familiar?

So, first step in training a dog to stop pulling is never walk in the direction the dog is pulling. It is not fair to the dog to use punishments in the training, unless we have already become mindful and taken control of when we are (perhaps inadvertently) rewarding our dog.

Many Youtube clips will show you to stop if your dog pulls on the leash, and make it walk in a 360C circle around you before continuing. I, personally, find this approach time consuming and ineffective. Making the dog walk around in a circle holds no value as a correction (negative consequence). This method rarely creates a lasting change in the dog’s behaviour. It is however a good way to get the dog back into the correct position behind your leg. It’s great in that way for those times when you had already missed the right moment to give a punishment.

One punishment for pulling on the lead is to tighten the strap of a head collar or a training harness. But for some dogs I also find that ineffective or just too unpleasant.

In any case, I prefer to train the dogs to fully understand that I do not want them in front of me. I want the dog to choose to stay right behind my leg. I like to see a dog turn its head to check its position in relation to my leg and choose to draw back and avoid getting too far ahead.

Training a dog to walk on a loose leash behind my leg is one of my favourite things to teach. If you would like to walk down the street in a calm and relaxed manner, without any stress on your shoulder, then watch this video on how to achieve Loose Leash Walking. Even owners of hard pulling dogs will see a dramatic change within the first session. After only two sessions, most dog owners have mastered taking back the control of the walk.

Inquire here…