Give your dog time.
And by this I mean thinking time.
You see, dogs process information - in general - more slowly than we do.
I know that’s hard to fathom when your dog seems to be on a hair-trigger for reactivity, or rabbit-chasing - but that’s a gut reaction, not a considered one.
We may forget that there’s a big difference between a gut reaction and a thinking one, and mistakenly expect our dogs to respond at high speed every tiime.
Of course, with consistent, kind, teaching, you will get that knee-jerk reaction you want - a lightning recall, an instant drop. But this comes over time and with many repetitions.
Something new
So if we’re asking them to do something that involves thought, we must give them time to think it out!
This is particularly marked when we’re teaching something new.
Dogs need time to process what they’re being asked to do.
So SIT, SIT, SIT (which we so often hear from impatient owners) will only confuse. It’s not going to get the result you want!
SIT .. pause to see if that went in.. And if the dog is unsure, it may be followed by a ponderous sit.
So - most dogs are fairly quick at sitting in fact, but I give that as an example of the kind of time lag we may need to allow when a new thing is being asked.
Our expectations
Coco stacks cups: this level of skill takes a lot of thought from little Coco! You can see me holding back from “helping” him.
Our expectations can be so unrealistic, that we expect the dog to learn a new thing in a couple of moments!
It takes many repetitions for them to learn this new thing.
You’ve probably forgotten, but how many times did you have to be taught, as a 3 or 4 year old, how to read words, how to do sums? Many, many times! Until it became second nature to you.
And so it is with our dogs. However brainy they are, they’re not going to get much beyond a 3 or 4 year old human level. That’s not how they’re made.
The first mistake …
And one of the chief errors I see is people yelling their “command” and expecting their dog to magically understand it!
Until you’ve gone through this simple repetition process, rewarding the dog’s action whenever she does what you’re hoping for, you’re not yet ready to name this action. How you get the action you want is a secret you’ll learn in the Brilliant Family Dog Academy! You can find out about that here.
You’ll see that we teach in a different way to the traditional one. We get the dog to choose to sit, long before we ever mention that word!
Remember, we don’t add a vocal cue till what we want is pretty fluent.
Then we have to teach the thing all over again - or revise, if you like - with the cue in front. We’re saying, “That thing you’re doing, we call that a SIT.”
Softly, softly, step by step! Think of that toddler, struggling to understand us!
Eventually the vocal cue alone is enough. And by this time, you’ll have an instant response.
The second mistake …
And to keep it fast, keen, and enthusiastic - ALWAYS reward what it is you want your dog to do!
Now, before you complain, that doesn’t mean you always have to be stuffing your dog with treats.
Finding out what he finds rewarding, and then administering that reward - be it a run in the garden, a cuddle, genuine praise, another opportunity to earn a reward - is the mark of a skilful dog trainer.
Is that what you’d like to be?
Interspecies communication
All in all, the fact that this species can understand our human verbal language and act on it is - pretty astonishing!
Let’s keep that in mind, always.
Give them grace, and the time to work it all out.
And you’re not alone trying to figure this out! For a helping hand, check out our simple, step-by-step, dog training books!