dog training made fun Archives - Page 7 of 25

Build confidence with “What’s That?” Dog Training Game

The “What’s That?” dog training game helps your dog explore the world with confidence. It’s great for every dog, but can be life-changing for shy or timid dogs.

It also encourages you to shop in one of our favorite places for dog-training gear – your local dollar store. You’ll want a variety of different objects. Vary the size, shape, and material the objects are made from. You can certainly start with stuff you find around the house. Just be sure that nothing you use is breakable or cherished by someone.

First step:

Get your clicker, your timer, a boatload of treats, the object you’re playing the game with, and your dog. When you’re ready, start your timer and place the object on the floor.

Typically, your dog will glance at the object. Click and reward near the thing. Looking at it is the first step. If your dog doesn’t keep looking at it, stand over the object and stare at it (like in “Boxey”). Kneel if you need to get closer. Your dog will probably be confused, especially if you’ve spent their life telling them “leave it.”

That’s okay. Be patient. Stare at the object and wait for your dog to look at it again. You’ll almost be able to see your dog shrug and think “I don’t see what’s so fascinating, but she thinks it is, so I’ll humor her.”

When your dog has received three to five rewards for looking at the object, it’s time to ask for more. It can be anything – nosing at it, pawing at it, stepping on it, mouthing it, licking it. Whatever your dog does, click and reward near the object.

You never know

Every dog is unique and despite knowing your dog well, you can’t predict how they’ll react to different objects.

In Hope’s Beginner Obedience class there are two dogs with opposite personalities. One, a Newfoundland, seems outgoing, confident, and ready for any game.

The other, a miniature Poodle mix, is shy and often tries to hide behind her mother.

Which dog do you think was freaked out by the idea of walking on bubble wrap? To everyone’s surprise, the Newfie was scared of it. The Poodle mix didn’t really even notice it was there and danced right over it.

Take it at your dog’s pace

Decide what the goal is for every object you introduce to your dog. If it’s something they can pick up, you may want them to pick it up and hold it. Something like a small white board that you can write messages on. It may be something you want them to carry, like a small tote bag. Or a foam roller you want them to push. Or a step you want them to sit on.

With your ultimate goal in mind, shape your dog’s behavior with your rewards. Remember that what gets rewarded gets repeated. If you want your dog to hold the object in his/her mouth, only click and reward for using his mouth. Every object can have its own game, but they all start with “What’s That?”

Next step

You can also let your dog guide the direction of what’s that. If you don’t have a particular goal in mind, see what your dog does with the thing and go with it. Always ask for more after your dog has received a few treats for a particular interaction. Look can be followed by sniffing, licking, pawing, etc.

If your main objective is to build your dog’s confidence, you can set up a circuit of different things around your training area. Encourage your dog to check each one out. If they’re not interested or confused, go stand by the object, stare at it, move it a little, and wait for your dog to come check it out. With patience, it will happen.

Expanding their world

“What’s That?” can be played anytime, anywhere, as long as you have rewards with you. When you’re out on a walk and your dog sees something new and different, how do they react? If they’re hesitant, it’s time to get enthusiastic and say “What’s That? Let’s go see!”

The more things your dog has the opportunity to explore, the more confident they will become. Once they’re familiar with the “What’s That?” game, they’ll know they’re safe if you’re encouraging interaction.

With clicker dog training, every “click” is a promise

Clicker training is a fast, simple way to communicate clearly to your dog. Every click says “good dog!” and every click is a promise of reward.

Many people seem reluctant to embark on clicker training their dogs. We get it. The timing and mechanics take a while to smooth out. But it’s worth it. As fluency increases, it gives you more flexibility in training your dog. Every “click” is a promise to your dog. It’s an affirmation dogs love (you’re doing good!) and a pledge that their good work will be rewarded.

Everybody’s clumsy at first

Whether you hold the clicker in your hand or have it on a wrist strap doesn’t matter. There are times it’s not where you need it to be. Or you drop it, or it twirled around your arm and isn’t where it should be.

It doesn’t matter. Your dog doesn’t care and won’t tell anybody that you may have messed up. Your training class teacher has been there, done that. It’s worth sticking with it to be able to use this great training tool.

Nobody has enough hands to manipulate leash, clicker, and treats at the same time. The whole concept of the clicker is its use as a bridge between the behavior and the reward. It lets your dog know “Yes! You’re doing it right!”

Clicker familiarization

Dogs catch on really quickly to clicker training. Most dogs get it after a single session: Have 10 treats in a bowl. Click and give your dog a treat. 10 times. That’s it. You’re on your way to having your dog love the sound of the clicker.

At first you absolutely have to give your dog a reward every single time you click. Even if you click by accident. Even if the clicker hit the ground and clicked. Remember that dogs don’t understand “sometimes” or “maybe.” The value of the reward transfers to the sound of the click. Done consistently, it will always make your dog happy. If you don’t follow through, you diminish the value and your dog won’t care about the click.

Better than “Yes!”

There are a couple of reasons that a vocal marker like “Yes!” doesn’t have the same impact as the clicker. It takes longer to talk than click. Once you become used to using the clicker, it’s almost automatic; you see something you like and you click. If you use a vocal, you have to think about it. It has to process through your brain rather than going right to your reflexes.

The clicker is also a sharper sound, more distinguishable in a noisy or distracting environment. Even in a clicker training class, the dogs can tell when it’s “their” clicker that made the sound. We’re not sure how they know, when everybody has the same equipment, but they do.

Give it some time

If you’ve dismissed the idea of clicker dog training, or at some point decided it wasn’t for you, give it another try. You certainly don’t have to use it all the time, or for every behavior. But there are some games where it’s priceless. It gives you the freedom to lock your eyes on your dog and mark the action you want precisely. When Hope’s French Bulldog Torque is playing his “Bowling” game, he knocks down all 10 pins, hears a click as each one goes down, and then runs back for his reward. It started with one pin, one knock-down, and one click. Games can grow click by click.

Help! We broke our dogs!

We broke our dogs! Hope’s Torque is broken. So is Fran’s Booker.

Not physically. But some training games have apparently been erased from memory. Absolute rock-solid training games have been corrupted or are missing entirely.

Not to worry – when you train step-by-step, you can always recover what was lost. You just go back to the beginning, step-by-step, and see where the behavior falls apart. And take it from there.

Similar and different

It’s just coincidental that both of our dogs are broken at the same time. We play training games with the dogs individually, so there isn’t any cross-contamination. And the circumstances are different, too.

In the case of Fran’s Booker, it’s his Ring-Stacking game that’s gone with the wind. He’s always been a special dog. If he were human, he’d be tested for where he falls on the spectrum. Being an 11-year-old dog, we pretty much stand back, assess what he’s up to, shrug and say “Bless his heart.”

Booker discovered that stealing the rings, sticking his cute little butt in the air and chewing on them was more fun than carrying them to the post and stacking them. He’s okay for the first one, but then it’s like his brain glitches.

Fran’s taken it back to the start. Heavily rewarding him for picking up the ring, carrying the ring, taking it over to the post, and putting it on. Each step is deliberate. And she’s no longer tossing a dozen rings out for the game. One at a time. Heavily rewarding for each step of success.

We don’t know if Booker will ever play a full Ring Stacking game again. It doesn’t really matter. He has fun. Every dog in your life teaches you something. Booker has been expanding Fran’s capacity for patience for years.

Hope busted Torque herself

Hope’s always pushing the limits of what she asks Torque to do. One of her recent ideas backfired – big time.

At the end of Torque’s Bowling Game, Hope decided that he could help “clean up” the bowling pins. She asked him to “get it,” a behavior he already knows. He did, and even brought it over to the basket where the little plastic bowling pins are stored.

What she didn’t figure on was how much Torque would enjoy fetching and squishing the bowling pins.

When Hope says his “Go Strike!” command, he runs to the pins, knocks over a couple, then starts grabbing them and squishing them. Oopsy.

Fortunately, he drops them when told. He even puts them in the basket. But for the moment, his “Go Strike!” is striking out. So sad that we broke our dogs.

The action plan is to go back to the beginning and use incredibly high-value treats to reward Torque for just knocking the pins down. We’ll start one at a time, and discontinue the clean-up part for now. He just needs to remember what this game is about. So even though we broke our dogs, we’ll get them back.

Does it matter?

Yes and no. No, we really don’t care if our dogs are whizzes at Ring Stacking or Bowling. What does matter is that we all agree on the rules of the games we play.

Dog training is a constant give-and-take bargaining with your dog. They get what they want (your attention, treats, praise) when you get what you want (good choices).

You get to define the rules for every single game you play with your dogs. Your dog, your game, your rules. The secret to success is keeping those rules crystal clear for your dog.

Dogs are Copycats

It’s not your imagination. Dogs are copycats. Your dog copies what you do. Copying is one of the ways dogs learn. And it’s not restricted to watching and imitating other dogs. Dogs mimic people, too. That’s why you shouldn’t be surprised if your dog starts digging in the yard after “helping” you with gardening.

Even more impressive, one study proved that dogs not only can copy what you do – they can do it with a significant delay between the time it happened and they’re asked to repeat it.

Demonstrate what you want

A while ago, when we were first developing the Ring Stacking game, Hope was teaching her French Bulldog Teddy the steps. We’d just started taking video of the sessions, so the camera was on.

Teddy had just about all pieces of the game; picking up the ring and going over to the post. The actual placement of the ring on the post was the issue. He kept nudging the post, dropping the ring in the vicinity, but not placing it on the actual post.

In the video, you see Hope showing Teddy what she wants. She probably was doing it out of frustration, rather than really demonstrating. But then you see Teddy stand there and think about it, then place the ring precisely on the post.

At the time, we didn’t know for sure that dogs learn by copying. But it paid off.

Other dogs show them how

It’s true that puppies learn from an older dog in the house. Potty training is much easier when the newcomer has an example to follow. Same with other household rules – most puppies will follow the lead of the established dog. That’s a big reason that two dogs are easier than one, although not if both are the same age. Or littermates. For most people, getting littermates isn’t a great idea.

It’s optimal to play training games with only one dog at a time. But that doesn’t mean training in isolation. With four dogs in the house, three are in crates at the side of the training area, watching the proceedings.

Did you teach him that?

Sometimes when we’re ready to introduce a dog to a game another dog knows, we’ve been surprised. While performance isn’t perfect, the dog already knows the game. It prompts a discussion that goes

“Did you teach him that? I didn’t teach him that!”

“Wasn’t me!”

“Oh, he got it from his brother!”

Try it for yourself

Think of something to do that your dog can copy. In the research we read, one of the things owners did in the lab was stick their heads in an empty bucket. A vast majority of the dogs in the study were able to copy the action after seeing it only once.

Make sure the demonstration is something the dog is physically able to do. Our dogs are too short to get their heads in a five-gallon bucket, so we’ll use something lower. Give the action a name, like “Copy!” using it for all kinds of different actions.

That’s how you teach the dog to mimic you, rather than performing a specific behavior. We’ve even seen it in action with the dolphins at the Dolphin Research Center in Marathon, Florida. The trainers there use a specific signal for “Imitate!”

In no time, you and your dog will be playing “Simon Says!” with all sorts of behaviors. Be sure to get it on video – you’ll need proof of your dog’s genius!

Teaching your dog to fish

“Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” We’ve all heard the saying, although no one seems to know its origins. The point is valid, though. What you’re doing with 2-Minute Training is teaching your dog to fish.

Giving a man a single fish is certainly fast and effective. It solves the immediate problem. Teaching someone to fish takes a lot longer and requires more effort by both parties. But it’s a forever solution to the problem. When it comes to dog training, you have the additional barrier of communication. You can tell a person how to do something. If they have questions, they’ll ask. It’s less clear with dogs.

Making your choice

A specific example most dog owners can relate to: when somebody enters your home, the dog jumps on them to say “Hello.”

Single fish answer: Every time someone comes over, you grab your dog’s collar and prevent the jumping. Or tell your dog “Off!” every time they jump.

Fishing answer: Teaching your dog a greeting behavior that’s triggered by a knock or the sound of the doorbell.

It takes longer and requires more effort to teach the “fishing” answer. It always will. But once learned, it’s there forever and you won’t have to dread the chaos when the doorbell rings.

Pick your battles

Every dog owner has his/her own rules of the house for the dog. Some people don’t want their dogs on furniture. Others don’t want their dogs sleeping on their beds. We know people who don’t want their dogs to precede them through doorways. Everyone chooses what’s most important to them.

Whatever rules you choose as absolutes for your dog, it’s worth taking the time to transform into a training game. Spend a few minutes to break down the behavior. What are the smallest nuggets you can teach your dog?

For instance

If it’s staying off the couch, think about what happens when your dog jumps up on it now. Does it always happen when you’re already sitting there? Does your dog rock back before jumping up? How can you interrupt the action and turn it into something else?

If you’d like your dog to settle in their own bed instead of up on the couch, make sure that bed is in the dog’s path to the couch. When you see your dog getting ready to jump up, they must step on the dog bed first. Use your “place” game and toss a treat into the dog’s bed.

Your dog, your rules

Focus on teaching your dog rules that matter every day. There are some dogs who resist putting on a collar or harness. That’s something that comes into play all the time. It’s worth breaking that down into small pieces:

look at the collar (click & treat)
sniff the collar while you’re holding it (c&t)
touch the collar (c&t)
allow the collar to touch their neck (c&t)
put the collar on (c&t)

Our lives got easier when we taught each of our dogs this simple behavior. They used to get excited and run around like hooligans when we reached for collar and leash. Now they all get excited, run over to us and stay still while we clasp their collars. It’s a small thing but useful many times a day. It was worth it to teach our dogs to fish.

Dogs need your feedback

Do you talk to your dog? If not, why not? Dogs need your feedback especially when you’re playing training games, but other times, too.

Consider this dialog:
Trainer: What day is today?
Student: Tuesday?
Trainer: What day is today?
Student: The seventh?
Trainer: What day is today?
Student:…..

Even if all of the student’s answers are right, by persisting with the same question without feedback, the trainer is causing doubt and frustration. If your dog is struggling to understand what you want, it’s not the dog’s fault. Your role is to encourage your dog to keep trying, offering feedback to keep them in the game. And find a way to clear up any confusion. We’ve encouraged you to talk to your dogs for years, and still our classes can be much too quiet.

Dogs want to play with you

It’s perfectly understandable that you don’t want to look foolish in public. But consider: do you look sillier with high-energy dog training with a responsive, engaged dog? Or with a low-key public session where your dog ignores you?

One of the phrases our students hear most often and are probably sick of is “Be more fun! Be more interesting!” In all honesty, your dog shouldn’t find anything or anybody more interesting than you. You should be your dog’s focal point, because they have more fun with you than anything else on the planet.

When you’re more animated, more enthused, and more focused for those 2-Minute sessions, your dog will be, too. If your dog doesn’t understand what you want, increase your feedback, don’t eliminate it! Give your dog encouragement: “You can do it, I know you can!” “Try something else, buddy. That wasn’t it, but I know you can get there!”

If your dog doesn’t hear good, positive feedback from you – what motivation do they have to keep trying?

Stay engaged

If you’re not feeling it on a particular day, don’t train. It’s really that easy. The session wouldn’t be productive anyway, so just don’t bother. You don’t want to get aggravated, you don’t want to frustrate your dog. So give it a bye. If your mood changes later that day, that’s when you give your dog a couple of minutes. And if it doesn’t, that’s okay, too.

One of the complaints we hear about people’s dogs is that the dogs are more interested in “stuff” in their environment than in their people. It’s not the dog’s job to find you interesting. It’s your job to be interesting to your dog. That doesn’t mean putting on a show. It means paying attention to your dog, not your phone, when you’re out for a walk. And when your dog spots something interesting, engage with them! If it’s something you’d rather they not focus on, redirect their attention with a game or a toy or conversation. If it’s something worth checking out – go do that and be part of the exploration.

That’s the key. Be a part of everything your dog does. Interact, talk to them. Let them know they’re not just a “thing” you take out and play with when it’s convenient. Dogs need your feedback. The more you let your dog know they matter to you, the more you’ll matter to your dog.

Get your dog to stop pulling

Dogs love routine. Dogs love patterns. You can take advantage of this, and cure your dog’s pulling on leash, with 3-step Pattern Walking. It’s a great way to get your dog to stop pulling.

3-step Pattern Walking is easy to learn for both you and your dog. The key aspect is to be absolutely reliable in your treat delivery. Never lie to your dog. If Phydeaux hears the magic word, even if you say it accidentally, Phydeaux gets a treat.

Get started

Pick a three-word phrase you can remember easily. It can be anything you choose – it will only have meaning for you and your dog. One-Two-Three. Do-Re-Mi. A-B-C. Wa’-Cha’-Wej. Whatever you like is fine.

Get a handful of treats and start teaching your dog your pattern words. Say the third word in your sequence and give your dog a treat. Five times. Just the third word and a treat. Your dog doesn’t have to do anything. You’re just familiarizing him/her with the idea that every single time they hear that particular word, they get a treat. That’s your magic word for your dog.

It bears repeating: Every single time you say the third word in your sequence, your dog gets a treat. Even if they’re not paying attention, even if they’re howling at the moon. If they hear that word, they get a treat. A really good treat – top tier nummies.

Next step is to say the last two words in your sequence. When you say the third word, give your dog a treat. You’re teaching your dog the pattern that leads to the golden ticket – your third word. Repeat five times.

Obviously, the next part is to say all three words and give your dog a treat when you say the third word. Repeat five times.

Dogs are smart

Most dogs catch on pretty darn quick. Getting 15 treats after hearing a single word is a powerful signal that it’s a wonderful word to hear. It’s pretty amazing watching them figuring it out.

How does this turn into loose-leash walking? How does this get your dog to stop pulling? By adding movement to your three-word sequence. One step for each word, reward on the third word. Every single time.

Remember that dogs learn by the timing and placement of rewards. For Pattern Walking, that means keeping the reward close to you. If you want a traditional “heel” position, hold the reward by your left thigh.

What if your dog is ahead of you or behind you? It doesn’t matter. Keep the reward where you want your dog to be. You’re showing your dog exactly where he/she needs to be to get the treat.

Stretch it out

As your dog learns the pattern and gets better at staying close, you can stretch out the sequence. Maybe say two steps between each of the three cue words. Pay close attention to your dog’s reaction. If your dog is staying with you, add more steps. If they’re wandering off, or starting to pull, keep the sequence a little tighter.

Most dogs catch on to Pattern Walking quickly. If your dog is still pulling, stop when you say the third word and wait for your dog to come back to you to give the reward. Don’t reach to give the reward – let your dog come back into position.

Don’t ruin your word

If you run out of treats, or forget them on an outing, stop using the three-word sequence. For it to remain valuable, you have to deliver a treat every time you say the third word. Failing to deliver on the promise will lessen, or eliminate, the value of the word. Reliably delivering on the promise you make to your dog will cement the behavior you want.

Don’t even bother telling your dog to “calm down”

Telling your dog to “calm down” is ridiculous. It means nothing to the dog, unless you teach a calmness protocol. And the absolute worst time to try to achieve calm with your dog is when they’re excited.

One of our favorite quotes is from science fiction author Robert Heinlein. “Never try to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and it annoys the pig.”

What you can do

Calm is not a dog goal. If you wanted a calm pet, you should have gotten one that either purrs or is stuffed with cotton batting. Dogs, even some senior dogs, are pets for activity. Whether that’s hiking, biking, canoeing, or strolling around the block.

Can you teach your dog to act politely, even when over-stimulated, stressed, and excited? Of course you can! And that’s the actual goal. You don’t want your dog to be calm. You want your dog to listen and remember their manners even when they’re excited.

Again: your real goal is for your dog to listen and behave everywhere, no matter what’s happening around you. Your objective is a dog who thinks and acts appropriately, even in a state of high arousal. Even if there’s a squirrel running across the street. Especially when a bicyclist zooms by. Definitely when your child’s entire 2nd Grade class is shrieking through the house playing “Hide and Seek.” So telling your dog to calm down won’t work.

How to get there

Dog issues seem to clump into clusters. We’ll hear about the same issue from several people within days, then nothing about that for months. This week it was definitely getting dogs to “calm down” in the presence of stimuli on walks.

And most people seem to think that calm is achieved by redirecting or distracting your dog. It’s not. It’s letting the dog see what’s going on, learning that it’s really not all that exciting, and choosing to get on with life. Two of our students this week mentioned their dog going nuts watching squirrels while out on walks.

We asked them what they did when their dog started lunging and pulling to chase the squirrel. Both pretty much said they dragged their dog off in the opposite direction. So the dogs learned absolutely nothing other than how strong their people are, and which buttons to push to annoy the heck out of them.

Changes in attitude

Instead of redirecting, distracting, and dragging, how about letting your dog watch the damn squirrel?
Try to get far enough away so your dog can watch calmly without pulling. Then just stop and let your dog watch. Squirrels are kind of fun to observe for a few minutes. Your dog will, in time, tire of it. If your dog isn’t chasing, the squirrel’s probably not going to do anything all that interesting.

Just wait. If your dog sits, great! Give him/her a cookie. Don’t tell them what to do. You don’t even need to talk to him/her. This would be the time to check your phone. Let your dog have a couple of minutes to do dog stuff.

When your dog is done watching, or at least staring intently at the squirrel, say something like “Okay, let’s move on!” and go. This is another instance where distance is your friend. Be far enough away so your dog can see, be seen, and still listen to you, a little bit.

Chances are the next squirrel won’t be as fascinating as this one was. Will your dog ever not notice squirrels? You hope not! It’s one of the things dogs are meant to do. Will they be able to glance, recognize, and ignore? In time, as long as you teach them that’s the proper way to behave in public.

Whisper to your dog

There’s a person on this planet who claims an ability to “whisper” to dogs. Nonsense. This tip has nothing to do with that person’s outdated, cruel, made-for-video dog harassment. We’re sorry that a perfectly lovely, onomatopoeic word has been corrupted. Because we do, in fact, want you to whisper to your dog.

Quite serendipitously, we learned this week how useful it can be. In an otherwise horrible, terrible, very bad week (both sisters down-for-the-count with Covid), it was the brightest discovery. We had no voices, no “Mom voice,” no audible authority. So we whispered to our dogs. And they listened.

A wonderful, quiet surprise

Understand that a significant part of dog training, for us, has been about the volume. Public spaces tend to be noisy. Dog training classes always start out noisy. Dog shows are super noisy, especially if a performance event is held in conjunction with a conformation show, which is often the case. Added to the crowd sounds, dogs barking, loudspeaker announcements, catering, are blow-dryers. Not a good place to hear yourself think.

So we’ve always given our dogs short, easy-to-yell names. Our students might argue differently, but we’re not, by nature, loud people. We’ve never been “hushed” by a librarian in our lives. And we’ve spent a lot of time in libraries. It’s taken years for us to shed the polite volume of conversation for the projection teaching demands. But it’s important, so we do it.

Along the way, we may have become louder with our own dogs. Even harsh-sounding at times. Which is odd to listen to, because every time we play training games with our dogs, the overwhelming emotion is joy. This loving, lovable being wants to play with me!

So we whisper to our dogs

We’ve often said that the best part of every day is the time we get to play training games with our dogs. Those couple of minutes when you’re in sync and having fun set the whole day off right. We always say, “Tell your dog everything,” so we weren’t quite sure how it would go the day we woke up with super-low, no-volume voices. We whispered because there was nothing else to do.

So we tried it. And the dogs loved it. They listened harder to make sure they didn’t miss anything. We even got the cutest head tilt from Booker (he’s the only one who actually does it). Their focus was intense. It was wildly successful.

That’s not to say it’s always going to work that way. Just like anything else, if you do it all the time, it’s no longer interestingly different. Then it’s just another routine. But every once in a while, it’s worth trying. Maybe if you’re having a hard time getting your dog’s attention. Or if they seem distracted or a bit “off” that day.

Old memories bring smiles

It actually reminded us of our mother. When we were growing up, she rarely, if ever yelled. Instead, if she wanted us to stop fighting, or pay attention, she whispered. We know of some parents who go so far as to just pretend they’re talking.

Try it! When you whisper to your dog, it’s a pretty effective way to get your dog (or your kids!) to be quiet and listen, instead.

Dog Trainers Talk To Aliens

If aliens ever really show up on Earth, the most in-demand people will be animal trainers. Think about it. Who else makes a regular practice of clearly communicating with another species? Dog trainers talk to aliens all the time. It’s what we do..

Granted, the shoe would be on the other foot. If an alien species gets here, they’ll clearly be far ahead of us in terms of technology, if not intelligence. Although, since they’ve probably cracked faster-than-light travel, and we haven’t, they’ve probably got us there, too.

But assuming we don’t have Star Trek’s Universal Translator by then, who’s most familiar with trying to figure out what non-humans are trying to communicate? It’s animal trainers in general. And maybe dog trainers specifically.

No one else has a better understanding of what it takes to clearly communicate with an alien species. In the thousands of years dogs have thrown in their lot with humans, they still haven’t developed the anatomy to speak our languages.

Communicating clearly

So how can people communicate clearly with dogs? By understanding how dogs learn and making use of that knowledge. Dogs are actually pretty straightforward:

Dogs always do what’s most rewarding to them.
Dogs learn by the timing and placement of rewards.
What gets rewarded gets repeated.
And, for unknown reasons that we’re profoundly grateful for, dogs really do want their people to be happy.

Timing is key

One of the best things you can do to clarify things for your dog is to work on your timing. That’s one of the reasons we advocate using a clicker. If your finger’s on the clicker button while your eyes are on your dog, you’ll hit that button as soon as you see something you like. Taking the time to think about it, travel from your eyes to your brain to your mouth to say “Good Whatever!” may not be as instantaneous. Your message to your dog may get muddied. Especially if your dog, like ours, is extremely active and busy.

You can see a clear demonstration of this in our video “Booker learning to “Push!” Like all the Boston Terriers we’ve known, Booker uses his paws a lot. For this game, the objective was to have him use his nose or muzzle to “Push!” the bowl. It’s the beginning of an idea we have for a “hockey” game for our dogs.

In the video, Fran’s eyes are glued on Booker’s interaction with the bowl. The clicker is in her hand, ready to go. As soon as he swaps using his paws for his nose, he hears the click and gets a reward. Because we’re human and we tend to talk to our dogs, Fran also says “Yes!” when she sees it. That’s okay. He knows he’s good and he repeats the action that got him the “click” and reward.

Crystal clear

Also notice where Fran rewards Booker in this sequence. She doesn’t pull him away from the game. She brings the reward to the “thing” he’s supposed to be focusing on. And it works. Booker knows that the bowl is the object of the game. He doesn’t really know what he’s supposed to do with it yet, but that’s okay. It’s a process.

Good timing and reward placement are key to bridging the communications gap between you and your dog. You’re never going to be able to speak “dog.” And your dog will never speak English. But you can still understand each other. Let’s hope the aliens are patient with us, as we are with our dogs.