I have been in the dog and people training business for twenty years now. Animals have a way of bringing people together, so as you may imagine I have a lot of professional colleagues and friends, both in real life and on social media sites.
The other day I posted what was meant to be a humorous little quip expressing my frustration with the human component of the training equation. I knew most of my training and behavior friends would identify with it – something like, “It’s Off, by the way, not Down.”
My post was prompted by a scene I witnessed recently while waiting in my veterinarian’s lobby. A very friendly and exuberant young dog was happy to say hello to all of the vet staff and kept putting her paws up on the reception desk. Of course this is not well-mannered behavior, but I found it pretty amazing. The dog was happy to be at the vet! Look for the good in the situation, I thought, and use the joy to shape the behavior you’d rather see! Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.
Everyone was making good-natured jokes about the dog in question – well, everyone except me and the owner, who was a bit embarrassed and busy managing the dog, repeating the word “down” at random intervals, to no avail.
At one point a bystander said, “It looks like someone could use some training.” To which the owner defensively replied that the dog had attended a training class. Up to that point I was assuming that the dog simply had had no manners training and therefore the owner had no means of communicating with her about what she would like her to do besides leaping up joyfully to greet people.
I knew that any class worth its salt would have taught a proper “down” and hopefully a “stay,” too. So suddenly I understood the problem. The dog was at least basically trained, however the owner was not. She was using the wrong cue!
Professional dog trainers use the word “down” as the cue for a dog to lie prone on the ground. The word “off” is used to remind a dog to put all four feet on the floor. This is what would have been practiced in class. Regardless of the word used, however, the desired activity must be recreated and repeated. And not just at class or in one’s living room, but anywhere you’d like it to happen. Even the vet’s office.
Furthermore, simply giving a verbal cue with no hand signal or body language to help a novice dog who is highly excited understand what you want is bound to fail. Dogs generally learn body language cues much faster than verbal instructions.
The misappropriation of cues combined with what I am guessing was a lack of adequate practice caused the dog to appear to fail – to be labeled a dunce or, worse, a “bad dog,” a dog who should “know better.” But I ask you: Given the scenario I just described, who really is at fault? Dogs are generally quite easy to train, but you’ve got to give them clear instructions and frequent rehearsals.
People, on the other hand, can be quite difficult to train. Getting them to use the proper cues when teaching and practicing with their dogs is challenging. We humans use language a lot in our daily lives and are accustomed to using similar words interchangeably. We often interchange words such as “down” and “off,” for example.
My job as a trainer is to help humans better understand and speak Dog. It’s new and unfamiliar to them and it takes practice and time to get it right. Just like it does with dogs.
Please keep this in mind the next time you get frustrated with your dog’s lackluster training performance. The error in communication or execution may be yours. When you falter while learning something new, chances are you are not being stubborn or stupid – and neither is your dog.
Kelly Gorman Dunbar is Director of the Center for Applied Animal Behavior, where she recruits and trains the instructors for the Dunbar family business, SIRIUS® Puppy & Dog Training. She is the creator of the SIRIUS Sniffers scent-detection program. Kelly is also Founder and President of Open Paw and consults on various matters.
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