By Lisa Ellman
This column covers things that a dog owner does that may be, and most likely are, confusing their dog. Many people tend to transfer and project human thought processes onto their dog without realizing just how differently the canine brain works. Meaning, dog owners address canine behavior as they would human behavior, thus producing much confusion for the dog and the result often being ineffective training and inefficient responses to the behavior you’re attempting to teach and or change.
Let’s start with play. For puppies and young dogs, being mouthy is part of their natural development. They explore everything with their mouths, much like toddlers. Dogs also play with other dogs using their mouth. To your puppy, you’re just another puppy. One of the ways to inhibit your puppy from biting and chewing on your hands is to never have them anywhere near the dog’s mouth. This means no wrestling, no finger pointing or waving, no hand playing at all. Use a toy to teach your dog that’s what goes in its mouth, and that’s when you engage in play. If the pup bites your hand instead of the toy, the game ends for a minute, then go back and try again. You want the puppy to learn that only the toy goes in its mouth. Never raise your hand to threaten your dog or give them a smack. It’s essential that hands should always be associated with nothing but affection and food. The dog should know that when any person (especially children) offers a hand to them, good things will happen.
Next, inconsistent vocabulary, rules and boundaries. Everyone in the home should be using the same vocabulary for training purposes. If one person says down for lying on the ground, and another person uses it to prevent jumping, that’s confusing. Decide what word is going to be used for specific behaviors. I often suggest putting up post it notes around the house to refer to. Use words that address the behavior (sit, stay, halt, off, etc.). The word “no” is NOT a behavior. It’s more productive, and easier, to teach the dog the behavior you want, rather than what you don’t want. Rules are something that should also be consistent. Make them and enforce them. The humans decide what they are and everyone follows. It doesn’t matter what kind of rules you want to make, as long as they are fair, and enforced by all. If you decide it’s ok for the dog to jump on people, great! If you decide the dog is not allowed to jump on people, then it is enforced by everyone. No one gets jumped on, not even when playing. This is because dogs don’t have a “gray” area, their world is black or white; it’s either allowed all the time, or it isn’t.
Next, inadvertently reinforcing fear and/or anxiety. This is a common thing. Again, because people assume that dogs think like humans, they use positive reinforcement to help the dog relax. What’s happening is that, in the dog’s head, the calming soothing words are reinforcing whatever headspace the dog is in at that exact moment. For example, your dog is showing fear at a person you are engaging. Most people will try to calm the dog by saying, “it’s ok, good girl”, and stroking her gently. In the dog’s mind, you are telling her it’s ok to be fearful, she’s hearing praise for what she is doing in that moment. Small dogs especially, when they’re afraid, often get picked up and soothed, thus reinforcing the fear/anxiety state of mind.
There are many good books on dog psychology and how dog’s think that I encourage owners to read. Once you understand how dogs think and learn, training becomes uncomplicated and even fun!
Good Dogma has been training humans and their dogs since 1996 and is currently taking new clients. Contact information for all offered services can be found on our website www.GoodDogma.net. Readers are invited to submit questions to gooddogma@hotmail.com.
