04/30/2020
How the dog experiences the world
In a recent post titled, Wants/Needs, I wrote about shouting at my dog when he reacted to a noise at the front door, and how that was ineffective. There are two main reasons why yelling didn't work. First, as I wrote about in that post, he was too "amped-up" to learn anything except that, I get attention from my human when I freak out, so I'll keep freaking out because I want attention. Second, he doesn't understand the english language, even though we often try to explain to our dog what we want!
So how do we communicate better with our dog? We learn about how he experiences the world, to find a way to communicate that works better for him. Dogs use their nose as their primary sensory organ, like we use our eyes. This is why food can be a great aid in teaching. The dog uses their eyes, secondarily, and then their ears. Ears are last in this list of senses, so this tells us that verbal communication is not the best way to reach them. This is why non-verbal communication can be useful, and for several reasons. One trainer I follow, says, "Nose, Eyes, Ears" often, to the dog owners he is working with. This reminds them how this can be helpful to the dog. He also says, "No touch, no talk, no eye contact" while the over-excited dog learns to be calm. Although it takes practice to not talk, it makes us pay attention to other forms of communication, body language, hand signals, and a calm confident attitude.
Over-Reacting At The Door (finally, something you can try!)
You can start this training exercise by having a family member go outside, close the door, wait a bit, then ring the bell or knock, to have the dog react at a convenient time for you to work with the dog. Calmly, quietly and confidently walk to the door. Step in between the dog and door, facing the dog. you can move him with your leg, firmly but gently. You want to claim the area at the door. Stand tall, chest out, confident, calm. Motion with your hands to block him from running around, and to move him back. If he is barking while you claim the space, you can distract him to change his state of mind in several ways. Move him with your leg, you can make a quick, short "shh" noise, and or poke him with the straightened fingers of one hand in a quick, firm way on his side near his back leg. These things move him out of balance physically, which also moves his brain to concentrate on the push and poke instead of barking. Making the shh noise at the same time increases the distraction. Keep moving him back with hand motion, leg push, poke and shh, until you see a change in his energy level. Distract him and wait for a few seconds for a change. If change, then give some time for him to figure it out. If not, repeat leg push, poke, shh sound. This can take a lot of patience. Keep breathing to remain calm and confident.
The dog will have a different experience, sensing us holding ourselves confidently and quietly. This will be a little confusing for the dog, but also interesting to him. We can also block him from running around and barking, which gives him fewer options to choose. You may feel sorry or sad for him because it appears we are ignoring him, but he realizes we are still engaged with him. If you are feeling sad, he will sense your sadness and that will hinder his progress. He will have the opportunity to figure out how to be calm. You can see the learning happen in his body language, as he figures out how to calm himself and becomes more relaxed over time until he lies down on his own. This can take a lot of patience, but just breathe and wait, watching for the signs of him choosing to calm down. He might yawn or shake his body like when he is wet. This is a normal way dogs shake off stress, so these are things we look for to see that there is progress and learning happening, even if we don't see it yet. We wait until he surrenders to the lesson, lies down and when his head rests on the floor, he has figured out what you want. He chose calm. We support him by only praising him when he is so calm he looks like he will go to sleep. This is a zero on the 1-10 scale of excitement. This is a new rule for the whole pack! Everyone in the family may only pet, or talk to your dog when he is calm from now on, while repeating this lesson. Remember that this is what he needs and wants.
This rule (only pet when his head is on the floor) is only when calming the dog down from an over-excited state, like over-reacting at the front door. You should pet, praise, and pay attention to your dog anytime he is not over-excited, which includes, walking or trotting around, showing his happy, balanced self.
There are many subtle signs that you may miss in your dogs behavior and also that your dog will sense in your behavior, so try and let me know how you make out!
