By Antonius Januar
You’ve probably had a day or two when you felt like your dog just wasn’t paying any attention to you at all, right? You talked, you yelled, you shouted, maybe you jumped up and down and waved your arms, but she just wasn’t interested in anything you had to say to her in any tone of voice. You’re not alone.
1. Your dog isn’t human.
Unless you believe in pet psychics, there’s really no way for you to read your pooch’s mind and figure out exactly what she’s thinking. The good news is that, like many dog owners, the problems you’re having can probably be traced to one simple thing: you’re trying to communicate with your dog from a human standpoint, and your dog isn’t a human.
Sure, you know that, but lots of humans try to relate with their dogs in the ways that they think are rational as humans. The problem is that dogs are driven in every act and every moment by very strong instincts. Deciphering those instincts and leveraging them to build a productive relationship is like finding the keys to the city.
2. Your dog doesn't speak English.
Take the word “no,” for example. Does your dog speak English? Not understand English. Does she speak it? What’s meaningful to her is your tone of voice, not the word itself. Now let’s think about that – we’re taking up excess time trying to teach our dog a word she’ll never speak and that probably doesn’t mean much to her anyway.
Sure, it’s meaningful to us, but that’s only one side of the equation. What about something that’s meaningful to both human and dog?
3. Instincts save time and communicate effectively.
See that? You worked with her instinct and the information hardwired into
her brain, and the result was instantaneous. Why spend tons of time trying to work against that instinct and end up frustrated, angry, and still miscommunications?This approach works in everything from basic discipline to full-on obedience training. You just need to figure out how to apply it in each of those situations.
I’d like to help you learn to apply it, and that’s why I created the multimedia presentation Instinct vs. Man. It addresses day-to-day life with your dog as well as specific topics like playtime, training, and territory.
Beyond that, you’ll get some great insight into why your dog thinks the way she does and how it affects her actions and reactions. You’ll understand why those months of training stopped working after a few weeks and how to get her back into the routine and acting like the fun, upbeat dog you love.
If you are looking for an informative book dealing with how to communicate more effectively with your dog than you can't go past "Dog Lover's Essentials Mega Pack" i highly recommend it:
Dog Training
{ 8 comments... read them below or add one }
Glad you stopped by. I agree with everything you say about training dogs. People can be so silly about their animals. There is a maxim which says 'there are no bad dogs just bad owners'. I am not sure that is entirely true but many dogs have been spoiled because of poor training.
Your growling advise is not only wrong it is dangerous. Growling by a dog means I am uncomfortable or get away from me. Growling back at a dog with a hard stare in some cases just might get you bitten.
And please STOP posting comments on my training blog. They look like advertising YOUR blog to me which I do not appreciate.
I think you must have me mixed up with someone else. The only post I have ever made apart from this is the one above. I did not give any advice about growling. I agree it is foolish to growl back at a dog or stare one in the eye that would be interpreted by them as an act of aggression.
I'm sorry for the missunderstanding.
Let me explain,
@ vic grace : you're right, marie is not talking about you, she is talking about me, i'm the one who own this blog, i'm also the one who post a comment to her blog, but i'm honestly not trying to promote my blog, maybe it looks like it, but what i really want from commenting to her blog is that i could have someone visiting me to become my friend and someone who will give me advice about dogs.
@ marie : i must apologize for you, i'm very sorry if my comment on your training blog has been disturbing you. I really really doesn't mean to do that. If my comment really bother you that much you can always delete it. One more time, i'm really sorry, it'll never happen again.
And about the growling thing, i myself don't really think it's a good idea, but sometimes when we are at a situation where our dog is beyond control, we need to calm her down, and i'd rather growl at her than hitting her, because it might work (she will realize who's the bos), and she will be fine too, i think you'll agree that every dog owners don't want their dog to get hurt, right?
Thank you for clarifying that. I received an post about it sent to my gmail box so I don't know why that happened.
I am sorry you got off to a bad start but please feel free to visit my blog anytime
You are welcome to leave comments on my blog. It's just that you left 3 that were all exactly the same under different topics so it looked like spam to me.
The growling advise is just plain wrong. Yes I agree, no one should hit their dog but if they growl at it and stare and the dog bites someone in the face in response (out of fear or reaction to the challenge given) you have done way more damage if the dog then ends up getting "put down" for being aggressive. Or losing it's home because now it has a bite history, one which could have been avoided.
If your dog growls at you you need to take the context into account. Is it growling because it is being possessive of something? Then learn how to modify that behavior. Is it growling because it is scared? Get it away from the scary thing. Is it threatening you? Stop the interaction (avoid eye contact) and call a professional for advice!
If you are going to post training advice then please know what you are posting. Telling people to growl at their dog is bad advice and will get someone hurt. Because unfortunatly growling at them also usually involves staring which in dog language is a threat or challenge. The dogs will respond to that and it might not be pretty. If they (the person staring and growling) are lucky the dog will move away but not all dogs will respond that way. Dogs you know well that you have already established a good leadership role with MIGHT be ok getting growled at. (though they may not understand it-we are not dogs after all) Others not so much.
Good luck with your blog.
Thank you very much for your advise, marie. I know i'll learn something from you, and now i did.
i've removed that growling advice from my post. Now i totally agree with you.
Great training tips and that is very helpful... want to train my dog so well and I guess you post will be very useful to me...^_^
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