We were in Cumming last Tuesday shopping at the local Publix Super Market. Since our car has “Home Dog Training” signs on the sides, we often get stopped as we are loading our car in the parking lot. Last week at Publix was no different. A very nice couple approached us and asked if we trained dogs. Not wanting to be wisenheimers, we replied “Yes, we train dogs. How can we help you?”
They said that they had adopted a two year old Bull Terrier about six weeks ago and were having a very hard time getting him to listen to them. They told us that he didn’t pay attention when they tried to talk to him. Was there something wrong with their dog? Was he stupid or deaf or obnoxious or what? Should they just give him a quick little hit when he doesn’t listen to them?
We immediately told them that they should never hit their dog. We also explained that he is not stupid nor is he deaf. We then debunked the incorrect “human idea” that “dogs are obnoxious”. They may act in a way that resembles obnoxious humans, but their actions are not based on that principle. These are all characteristics that we project on our dogs because we believe that they are “human like us”. They are dogs and they do things like dogs.
We often need to work through this issue with our clients. The problem is that we don’t comprehend how our dogs communicate. There are several communication levels that dogs use to talk to other animals.
One of the ways that dogs communicate is to use their voice. We use our voice to create words, phrases, sentences, etc. Dogs use their voices to make sounds. We often refer to our dog’s sounds as “growls” or “yips”, or “crys”, etc. They are unique sounds made by our dog when he wants to use his voice to communicate.
Let’s discuss the difference between our dog and ourselves. You and I use words and our dog uses unique sounds. We have thousands of words and sounds to mean different things, depending on how they are used. We have dictionaries and have spent years in English Class learning about nouns, verbs, adverbs, antonyms, pronouns, synonyms, etc. The words “no” and “know” sound exactly the same but mean completely different things. We have different languages where different words (house and casa) sound completely different but mean the same thing.
Our dog uses unique tones to generate specific meanings. There is no “casa” and “house” and “no” and “know”. They hear a sound and it always means the same thing. There is no inflection; there is no language; there is no “grammatically correct”. A sound means one thing.
This means that we can not simply talk to our dog in the form “Hi my dog, how would you like to take a ride with me and then go see Aunt Heather?”. He has absolutely no idea what we are saying. Talking to our dog “in words and sentences” does not work.
When our dog is doing something wrong, we may say “Stop it” one time, “Bad dog” the next, or “Get off” another time. We just transmitted three different sounds when our dog was doing something wrong. Our dog will only understand one, unique sound in response to a specific event or situation.
One of the sounds or tones we often suggest is a low, guttural tone. This is often described as a growl. This is a unique tone because it is something our dog normally doesn’t hear us make. We often suggest that our clients use this tone as their form of “Excuse me, you are doing something wrong!” sound.
Another sound we often recommend to our clients is a high pitched tone. This, like the low pitched tone, is something our dog probably doesn’t hear from us. Thus, it can be unique and can be assigned one meaning. We often associate this tone with a “Congratulations, that was the right thing!” sound.
To be clear, canine communication is based on more than just the use of two tones. The important thing that we want to remember is that our dog does not understand every word we say. Our dog understands very few words we say. The audible tone, and more importantly, the uniqueness of the tone is the vocal communication he is processing.
Please call Robin or me at (770) 718-7704 if you need any dog training help. We are blessed to have been your local dog training experts for over sixteen years. We have trained over 5,000 great dogs and loving families and are ready to help you.
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