When was the last time you filmed yourself training your dog? If the answer is never, then chances are you are doing things you weren’t even aware you were doing. One of the biggest mistakes I see is regarding our need to be heard.
Training a dog is not an easy thing to do. The problems are numerous for first time dog handlers. Many of you may have never had a dog as an adult before, and as such, have never had to take direct responsibility for the dogs entire training from start to finish. You are learning how to train in the same moment your dog is learning how to be trained. Even if this isn’t your first dog, you are bound to run into challenges. It’s not an ideal situation to have novices training novices and yet, look how many of you have had great success already! You deserve a pat on the back for all the hard work you have been putting in and believe me when I say, I salute your efforts!
That being said, you are going to make mistakes. It’s all part of the process, and fortunately, dogs are pretty forgiving. It’s how they’ve earned the name, “man’s best friend,” after all. The trick comes in recognizing your mistakes and correcting them. As egotistical human beings, this is the hardest part. We don’t want to admit when we are struggling at something and it’s often easier to blame the dog than it is to carefully consider how our behavior may have been the cause of the problem. Without knowing you are doing it or having a way to catch yourself doing it (either by filming yourself or having it pointed out to you by a trusted source like a friend, family member, or dog trainer), you are doomed to keep repeating the same mistake over and over.
For our purposes today, I’m going to narrow our discussion down to one common mistake: The misuse of our voices. Humans love to make noise. We talk. We laugh. We yell. We cry. We sing (even if we don’t admit it to anyone). Our voices can be a powerful tool in training our dogs. Aside from just verbal commands like “sit” or “down,” our voices can signal many things to our dogs: our disapproval, our pleasure, our amusement, or our admiration of their behaviors. We can use our voices to initiate play, to indicate alarm, or to get our dog’s attention from a distraction.
The problem is that we are not always aware of what our mouths are doing. This sounds silly, but it is absolutely true. How many of you have caught yourself humming while folding the laundry? Or cursing out loud then you stubbed your toe even though there was nobody else home to hear it? We vocalize ourselves all the time without any real consideration as to how or why we are doing so. It just… happens.
The trouble is that we do this while working with our dogs. Something as simple as clicking our tongues or making a kissy sound to get our dog’s attention can turn into an out-of-control reflex we start doing every time we get frustrated with our dog’s inattention. Instead of clicking, getting the attention, and then rewarding the dog for responding to our sound, we find ourselves clicking, clicking, clicking and the dog ignores us, ignores us, ignores us. Before we know it, we are walking down the street with our dog, clicking the whole way along, with no discernible result whatsoever.
And if clicking or making a kissy noise isn’t your thing, perhaps it’s your dogs name you are repeating over and over and over. Or perhaps the word, “sit.” How many times has that been repeated with no acknowledgement from the dog?
Part of us wants to blame the dog. Why didn’t they do what I asked? There a couple of factors here: distractions and consequence. If your dog is nose deep into a particularly exciting smell outside, a few tongue clicks from you, a kissy noise, or their name might not be helpful. Distractions wise, you are wasting your breath. You might need to gently pull (if your dog is leashed) your dog a small distance from that distraction before you attempt to use your voice to get their attention. In that moment, smell is going to beat sound nearly every time. Adding distance will help you. With proper distance, your dog is going to be much more capable of ignoring a distraction and get that head turn towards you that you were looking for.
The other potential issue is that your sound has no consequence. If you say your dog’s name, or click, or say a command like “sit” and don’t follow through with your dog to ensure you get your result, your dog is going to assume that cue/sound is meaningless. “My owner says my name all the time, but they never actually expect anything from me when they say it.”
Think of this in human terms for a moment. How many of you have planes that fly over your home, or live near a train where you quite literally stop hearing the sound because it has no influence on your everyday activities? You might notice if the plane was flying particularly close, because the sound has changed, but otherwise, unless you intentionally listen for it, you probably don’t hear it at all. You don’t hear it because your brain has figured out there is no relevant consequence for you. That being said, how many of you can actually remember being hyper sensitive to the sounds of planes after the September 11th World Trade Center attacks? Suddenly that sound DID have consequence for you. But over time, that too, went away.
Your dog probably feels the same way about the telephone ringing. Has your dog ever jumped up and ran for your phone when it rang? No, because to them it’s completely without meaning or purpose. At most, it means their owners might get up and walk to the device. If you are clicking or saying your dog’s name all the time and it isn’t being followed up with something, that is going to become just as meaningless as the phone ringing in your house.
Knowledge is power! When I was in school and studying theatre and acting, I had teachers pointing out to me every misstep and every word that was mispronounced or said with the improper inflection. Each mistake was pointed out to me. Were these teachers trying to be mean? Break my spirit? Make me quit acting? No!! They were teaching me to be self-aware of my body and voice. To this day, I can’t even express how grateful I am for that. It has given me a great step ahead of many dog trainers and dog owners. Since I can only assume none of you are regularly being followed around by acting teachers, I suggest that you film yourself. Even the best dog trainers in the world film themselves to catch mistakes and increase their skills. And you would be shocked, and probably happy to hear, how often even the professionals catch themselves making mistakes. We are all human after all!
I implore you to examine your habits. Be aware of what your body and voice are doing because, I can promise you, your dog is noticing all those things and that may be the difference between a mediocre training session and a brilliant one.
Happy Training!
Nicole L Yuhas CPDT-KA
This blog is intended to be informative as well as entertaining. It contains my opinion which may not reflect the opinions of any organization I may be affiliated with. My opinions should not be interpreted as those of my coworkers, family, friends, casual acquaintances, and certainly not the opinion of my cat, although my dog probably agrees with everything I say, if for no other reason, than because I provide the treats and meals (cats are less inclined to agree with anyone but themselves). Information provided here is accurate and true to the best of my knowledge but, as information and opinions change, neither the facts nor the opinions expressed here may be true or accurate at any future date. As I don’t currently own a time machine, I cannot be responsible for things that prove to be untrue, or opinions I change my mind about, should those changes become apparent in the future. It should also be noted that, as I am human, there may be omissions, errors or mistakes in the information provided here. Frankly, even if I were a computer, it is likely there would be errors, as computers, in my experience, can be a royal pain in the butt. This blog may contain affiliate links which you are under no obligation to click. If you click them, they will hopefully take you the place I intended. But they may not. As I’ve said, computers can be a pain. If you find yourself somewhere you don’t think I intended, click your ruby slippers three times together and say, “there is no place like home.” If you do that, and click the “back” button, you should be safely returned. Computers can, at times, have a mind of their own. Any training suggestions or opinions expressed here should be taken as information only and should not be seen as advice particular to you or your dog’s unique situation. Please consult with a training professional before taking any action.