Do we talk to our dogs too much?
I believe many people do. So many dog owners have conversations with thier dog, believing or thinking that their dog in some way understands them. Not that there is anything wrong with chatting to our dog, it's when we do it that can create problems.
I'd like to give an example from a client consultation I had over the weekend.
I visited Charlie ( a Beagle) and his owners for some help with what the neigbour considered excessive barking. We eventually narrowed that down to boredom, and I gave them some stratagies to help alleviate this.
Another concern was that Charlie was becoming more assertive and continually seeking attention from his owners. The owners found they were losing Charlies respect, and could not control him.
They got Charlie about 6 weeks ago, he was around 3 years old. When he first came to the home, they said that Charlie was very responsive to them. The lady of the house told me when they first got Charlie, she felt sorry for him, and therefore gave him a lot of affection and attention, especially when he was 'demanding' it. Gradually over the 6 weeks Charlie was becoming more and more assertive, and would continually demand attention, try to get into the fridge and cupboards when they opened the doors, and jump up at the table when there was food around.
As we were sitting at their dinning room table, Charlie came over to me, and pawed me for attention, and stared at me intently seeking my attention. I simply ignored him, he then pawed me again so I assertively tapped him away, I didn't say a word to him. Charlie then went over to the owners, I asked them to just ignore him. Now seeing Charlie wasn't getting the attention he felt he deserved, he quickly went to the couch, jumped up, and looked over the back of the couch to us. The lady of the house said "Charlie get off there", Charlie looked at her, and showed his pleasure of finally getting the attention he desired.
I walked over to the couch and without a word removed Charlie from the couch. Charlie immediately went to jump back up again, so I instantly removed him again, not saying a word. As Charlie was put back on the floor the owner, said in a pleasent voice, "Charlie no, now on your bed" Charlie again went to jump up on the couch. I asked the owner not to talk to Charlie, as I again removed him. From memory I did this about another 2 times and Charlie finally gve up and left the room we were in.
I explained to the owners what had just happened. Charlie couldn't get the attention he felt he deserved, so he went to the couch knowing he would then get attention. I said to the owner that trying to have a conversation with Charlie, he was getting a response from her, which is what he was seeking. I informed her that many people try to have conversations with their dogs when trying to enforce rules or correct behaviour. This in fact has the opposite effect. Remember the dog has no idea what we are talking about, and interacting with them in that way was giving the dog what it was seeking, attention.
I also informed them that there was a very small window of opportunity for a dog to understand what rule we were trying to enforce. You have approximately around 1.5 seconds to either reward or correct a dog for a response. Dogs are totally focused in the present, so whatever they are getting corrected for or rewarded for, it was for what was happening at that very moment in time. So with the couch episode, Charlie first tried to get our attention by coming to our table. That didn't work, so he ran around jumped onto the couch and stood there staring at us. Your response was to ask Charlie to get down, Charlie actually got what he was seeking, your undivided attention. Then when he wouldn't get down you then go over still talking to him, asking him to get down. So as you can see, Charlie eventually got from you what he wanted. Not only didn't Charlie understand you wanted him off the couch, he was actually rewarded for being up there.
Also you missed the window of opportunity by talking to him first. Whenever Charlie jumps up on the couch, you don't talk to him, you immediately walk directly over to him and assertively remove him from the couch. You stand there , and if he jumps up again you remove him immediately again. There is no need to talk to him, just show him by your actions what your rules are, then he will understand what you are trying to tell him. As you saw from my example, Charlie gave up and walked off.
I then asked the owner to get some food from the kitchen and bring it to the dinning room table. She left and came back with a nice raw roast lamb. Sure enough Charlie was right behind her. As the lamb was placed on the table, sure enough Charlie started jumping up at the table. I gave Charlie one of my 'taps' in the neck, and Charlie walked of to his bed. I didn't say a word. The owners were shocked! "We have never had Charlie move away from the table like that. Usually he just keeps jumping up until we get mad at him and lock him outside. I informed them that it was no different to the couch, you try to have a conversation with him, asking him to leave the table. As he wasn't responding to this you get angry. Charlie doesn't understand your anger or conversations. He certainly then doesn't understand why he was locked outside. What I did was immediately indicate to Charlie what my rules were. No need for conversation, and because of the couch episode earlier he knew that there was no use challenging my authoriy and went off and layed in his bed.
The owners couldn't believe how fast Charlie responded to me, and totally understood from my demonstrations how silly they were by firstly trying to talk to Charlie and then missing the 1.5 second window.
So yes everyone.. Many of you talk way to much to your dogs at inappropriate times... Remember dogs don't have conversations with each other to enforce rules. They react immediately first usually by touch ( a nip or bite), and then body language is enough for the dog to understand the new rule.
We went thorough a lot of other information on dog psychology, and I demonstrated to them how to get Charlie's almost instant respect.
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