Gibberish, Translated
Blah, blah, blah…. Have you ever watched a movie in an unfamiliar language without subtitles? It’s very difficult to figure out where one word ends and the next begins, let alone what the translation might be. Imagine what our pups hear when we talk: irrelevant noise. “Noise” – yep. We take this for granted when we interact with our dogs and other creatures with whom we lack a common language. However, the advantage we have when watching a foreign film compared to a dog hearing our verbal banter is that we share a common physical language with humans; we can at least try to interpret that aspect of communication. We can often simply turn on subtitles and we’re golden! Our pups can’t activate “magic subtitle mode” to translate our words: they rely primarily on our body language, even when we’re sure they understand the verbal cues.
Mixed Messages are Confusing
Take the recall cue, for instance. “Come, Fido!” I shout, joyfully. Fido turns to come toward me, but I’m facing him, arms crossed, frozen, my mouth clenched shut. My words invite him to come, but my body is warning him to stay away. Which one do you think he will “listen” to? Some standard cues most dogs learn to respond to are “sit,” and “down,” but then we sometimes muddy the waters by saying, “sit down,” as if they are human and we want them to sit their butts onto a chair. It really is amazing how much they learn despite our deficient training methods.
Another very common example of mixed messages is the typical jumping on people “problem.” The human is saying, “no!,” “off!,” “get down,” while simultaneously engaging the dog in a fun and exciting physical attention game. The human thinks he is disciplining the dog, but the dog finds it tremendously entertaining. Result? Jumping on humans is rewarding!
[You just got a gold star if you noticed that you could combine the human body language of the recall example with the jumping dog to potentially prevent jumping].
Noise becomes Relevance
For our dogs to begin to understand that certain noises (e.g., “cues”) are meaningful, we must intentionally and systematically add value to them. “Value” is always determined by the dog. In other words, if you want your dog to respond to his name (which is just an arbitrary sound we’ve assigned him), the sound of his name must predict great things are about to happen before we can expect him to come when called. Be generous, especially in the early days of training. Avoid committing that “One Treat Blunder” [DDN 11/27/23]. If you want a response, you’d best make sure your pup gets paid for it over and over again. That’s how habits are born (good and bad)!
What exactly do you want *it* to mean to your dog?
When we’d like our dog to do something, say, sit, what exactly do we want him to understand and do? Sit in front of you? Beside you? For one second?
What is the desired observable behavior?
Whether it’s “heel,” “down,” “roll-over,” “get in the car,” “do a back flip,” or anything in between, we must know what we are looking for. We cannot expect our dog to understand a cue (remember, it’s just a noise) if we haven’t defined it. If you were to take a picture of the behavior you want, what would it look like? Is it a reasonable expectation that your dog will understand and respond at that particular moment? Have you rewarded it sufficiently for your dog to understand?
Once we have an idea of what we want the behavior to mean to the dog, we can then break it down and train the tiny pieces of it, incrementally adding value all along the way before we even introduce the verbal cue. For a roll-over, for instance, we would reward each step of the movement: the down, rolling onto the side, tucking the head towards the shoulder, opening the legs, etc. For “heel,” I mark and reward the moment I feel the dog’s shoulder against my leg. THAT is a precise tactile and visual behavior, very clear to the dog. For “sit”, I will lure the head up which invites the butt to hit the floor which is when I dispense the treat. Butt hitting floor equals good stuff. For a spin, I will lure the pup’s head away from me and feed at different “hours of the clock.” In short time, I can cut that down to a simple hand gesture and reward once the spin is completed.
What are your training goals? How are you breaking them down into bite-sized pieces?
Happy Training!
Diana Logan, CPDT-KA Certified Professional Dog Trainer, Knowledge-Assessed
Pet Connection Dog Training, North Yarmouth, Maine
www.dianalogan.com | 207-252-9352