A few weeks ago, the dogs started barking at 1:00 a.m. and they just would not shut up. My husband and I ignored them because usually they’re just excited about a deer or coyote or cat. It’s part of living in the country with hound dogs, and we’ve learned to filter it out. In the morning, we woke to discover that my husband’s wayward luggage had been delivered by the airline at 1:00 a.m. That was what our dogs had been barking about. If I had been paying attention, I’m sure I would have noticed a pretty big difference between the barking triggered by strangers in my yard and on my porch in the middle of the night, and the barking that happens when something four-legged and chaseable is in view but out of reach. Though we’re humans and communicate primarily via mouth noises, we’re remarkably able to misinterpret or ignore the mouth noises of other species. We’re all pretty willing to accept this about ourselves, but we’re still surprised when our pets ignore all the talking we do.
The vast majority of dogs don’t want to ignore or displease their people. Dogs communicate with each other primarily though body language, and it’s easy for them to get lost in the sea of our verbal language. How often do you talk to your dog and expect absolutely nothing from him? Talk to other people in front of him? Listen to people talking on the TV or radio? Their world is full of verbal language that doesn’t really pertain to your dog and he’s going to tune most of it out. This is why it’s so much more effective to use distinct, repeatable, non-verbal noises and hand gestures as a component of training.
Clicker training is an excellent example of this concept, and people frequently scoff at it and ask why they can’t use a verbal marker instead. Frequently the marker is something fairly complex for a dog, such as an enthusiastic “GOOD BOY.” To your dog, every variation of your tone, body language and delivery need analysis. If you understand the language, it’s simple. If it’s part of an ocean of gibberish, it’s much less clear. Using a marker noise such as a clicker provides a very clear, easy to understand indication that the dog did the right thing. He’s already trying to figure out what you want, and it’s silly not to make it easier for him in such a simple way. You don’t even need to buy a clicker — many people use the “click” sound made by a retractable pen. Any distinct noise you can make consistently and quickly will work.
Hand signals are useful because our dogs are always watching us. Body language cues tend to be picked up much more quickly than verbal cues because dogs are visual communicators. It’s a simple way to take advantage of how they’re wired. It takes no more time or effort to pair a hand signal with a verbal cue when teaching a new command, and once they’re both learned, you can use one, or both, if you need emphasis in a difficult situation. For commands your dog already knows, you can simply begin pairing hand gestures with the command until your dog begins to make the association. It’s also handy to have your dogs trained with hand signals because many dogs begin to go deaf as they age.
Clicker training is just one example of the distinct noises dogs learn to identify. Cans opening, the sounds of a treat bag, car engines starting, or any number of other noises can come to mean something to your dog, and could potentially be used for training. My dogs are trained to come to vocal commands, but if they’re distracted, a referee’s whistle or the sound of “their” truck cranking will get their attention much more consistently. Again, they don’t want to ignore me, they’re just much better able to get information from cues that don’t sound like the same stream of stuff they listen to all day. It takes less brain power, and sometimes their brains are busy doing other things.
To teach your dog that a specific marker sound means “yes” all you need to do is pair the sound immediately with a treat. After a very few repetitions, use the marker sound to let your dog know they’ve done the right thing and give them a reward. It takes very little time for them to pick it up, and it makes it much easier to train. Soon you’ll be able to “capture” natural behaviors, such as laying down, bowing or jumping on cue, and you’ll be able to shape more complex behaviors by marking tiny progressions until your dog has it.
I hope that this sheds some light on why professional trainers seem to want to add these seemingly useless pieces of equipment and gestures. After a little thought what looks like a stupid gimmick is actually a pretty powerful way to communicate with your dog.
9 replies on “Your Dog Is Ignoring Your Gibberish”
Yay information and ideas for my future dog-having life!
I’ve noticed during my weekly SPCA visits (it’s good for my sanity) that the dogs AND the cats seem to like calm, friendly talking — even if they don’t understand the language, they’ve figured out “human is making words, I don’t know what words are but it’s nice”.
Well, except for one cat that just came in this week. She was cranky and picking fights and not letting anyone pet her (http://www.petharbor.com/pet.asp?uaid=WAKE.A075335). I’m guessing she didn’t like being in a new place with lots of other cats. I’m hoping she’s mellowed out. Though my first instinct (which I mentioned to the volunteer) was that she may be happiest in a no-kid, only-pet home. She seemed to both want attention but not want attention. (Of course, daylight savings makes everyone cranky.)
To me it’s very clear when my dog recognizes when not to listen and when to do. I mean, when walking her I hum songs, dance and talk to other dog walkers. But when I do want her attention I add her name and/or a whistle. When the head pops up, I know I’m close to connection.
I wish I could whistle. The dog’s last home must have been a place where they whistled for her, because she KNOWS that means, “They want ME,” and she comes running to see who it is who wants her so badly. As it is, I use a tongue click noise to get her attention, as a way to say, “Focus up. Something important is going to happen.”
I can somehow only whistle high and shrill. Which is great, for dogs. I’m the dog whistler.
Lmao. Let me know when your blockbuster film comes out. I can’t wait to see it.
We’re talking, I’ll send you the premiere invite.
(some people get so angry though. “Why are you calling my dog!” Uh, ma’am? No?)
I’ve actually never clicker trained before, but our new 3-year-old addition is completely untrained (never wore a collar, never been on a leash, although she figured out housebreaking very quickly — good girl!), so I’m thinking this will be the best way to give her some basic commands. She’s a runner, so we really need to work on a strong recall command.
Karen Pryor has great basic clicker training resources and good starter “games” for dogs that are too fearful to offer behaviors to clicker.
Kathy Sdao and Sophia Yin both have good recall training techniques that have worked for our dogs. It helped that we were starting young, but coonhounds have notoriously awful recall and our two do pretty good as long as no deer are involved.
We don’t use a clicker, but we use a consistent and enthusiastic “Yes!” to mark correct behavior. And I keep a squeaky toy in my pocket for those moments when we’ve seen squirrels, rabbits, and other dogs. Nothing is as effective as getting attention as the sound of a toy.