Even if you’re not a dog trainer, I am sure you have heard this sentence many times, “I want my dog to listen to me”. My reply is always, “really”? You mean when you come home from work you want your dog to come sit by you and stare into your eyes and remain silent while you tell them all about your day without interruption? Of course not. What we really mean is that we want them to respond to us, not listen to us. But before we get started, it is important to realize that as silly humans we don’t even know what to ask for and then get upset when we don’t get it.
Dogs don’t try to pretend, as people do, that they can multitask. A divided mind can never do one thing well. Next time your dog is fixated on something, like barking out the window or getting his toy that rolled under the couch, walk up behind him and touch him. He will probably jump. He was fixated and with fixation comes tunnel vision and some other interesting physical characteristics.
As a retired patrol/SWAT officer and officer survival instructor, I have been in one shooting and hundreds of very tense situations. In addition, I have spent over 25 years as a police officer, bouncer, and combat skills instructor studying the anatomical, physiological, and psychological effects of life and death stress on the human body. I have done so with the intent of understanding exactly how we are wired and and making sure that we don’t waste time using software (training) on our hardware (body) that is not compatible. People who have trained with me know that when it comes to things like firearms, combatives, and edged weapons I “pressure test” all training, tactics, and tools that I endorse. The same is true with my dog training methods. In both my martial teachings and work with dogs, I have little patience for those that make money off of taking the simple and making it complex. This is one of the reasons that I now work so much more with dog training instead of the martial training.
One of my favorite ways to pressure test and get real with edged weapon training was to use stun guns. It caused people to forget complex and choreographed moves and respond, and instead they responded using natural reflexes. Once that was evidenced to them, it was much easier to get them to see the need to train what I called PBRs or Principle Based Responses. The issue was that there was no flare or fluff. Many insisted that there had to be more to it, so they continued their quest to make the simple complicated. I do the same things with training, because remember dogs are perfect until we “people them up”.
While teaching self-defense to people that may not have been in life or death scenarios, I would often give the example of a car slamming on their breaks in front of them to explain some of the things that happen to our bodies during an adrenaline dump. For dog owners, I use the example of a dog attack/fight or their dog running into the street. Here is what happens-
Tachesphia –The distortion of space and time under stress. Along with tunnel vision, this causes everything to go into slow motion and makes it hard to judge space. Your eyes are fixated only on what is right in front of you, the thing causing the stress. It is like you are wearing blinders.
Auditory Exclusion – Even the loudest noises become muffled, especially words in the form of sentences. In Boyd’s OODA Loop, it is Observe-Orient-Decide-Act. Nowhere in there do you see hear because it is not necessary for physical survival.
Vasoconstriction-The narrowing of blood vessels under stress forcing blood into the thoracic cavity (heart & lungs). This leaves you with only gross motor skills.
There are many others but these are the three that have the most to do with our response to what we perceive as a life or death situation with our dog.
You are walking your dog down the street, or should I say your dog is walking you. You have allowed them to habitually walk in front of you and by doing so have signaled to them that they are in that position to protect you. The leash is loose. All of a sudden from around the corner you see a lady being pulled in the same position by a dog much bigger than yours.
You and your dog see him at the same time. Your leash goes tight, your normally calm dog is now hyper excited in reaction to the other dog’s barking and growling, and he goes up on his hind leg. You reflexively jerk back on the leash. This begins to crush your dog’s windpipe. Your dog is already caught in the fight response. He has no flight option because he is attached to you with a six foot rope. Now he feels his air being cut off. His natural reaction is to pull away from what is choking him and it adds to the aggression towards the other dog. The same thing is happening to the other woman and her dog. She can no longer hold him and the dog breaks free attacking your dog. Both you and the woman are screaming at your dogs, but nothing resembling any command. They are savagely attacking each other. Your instinct is to pick your dog up from behind, and when you do, he turns around and bites your forearm. Now you are bleeding, but you once again reach down for your dog and are able to stand him up. The other dog takes advantage of this and begins to tear into your dog’s underbelly. You can use your own imagination to see how this ends, but it’s not good and happens every day.
Both owners would have no doubt described their dogs as “good dogs”. The problem is that they failed to communicate with their dogs in a way that they understood. For humans that speak the same language, it is generally agreed to that only 7% of language is based on spoken words. Dogs are not human so we have to assume that zero is the percentage of how much of our communication with them is based on the words we say.
Interestingly enough for humans 38% of communication is based on tone and the rest on body language. Now this is where it starts making sense for dogs and the fact that we don’t want them to listen to us, we want them to respond to us.
There are three distinct ways I verbalize with dogs.
- Commands
- Plain talk
- Praise
Clients will tell you that it is typically towards the end of the session when I begin to talk to the dogs at all. By not talking to them at all, I have to focus on using only my energy, presence, and body language to communicate with their dog.
We use the same routine for all new dogs. Introduction at the house, pack walk, and The Drill. The drill is where I introduce the five basic commands: Heel, Sit, Down, Stay, and Come. I try to get them to do all the commands, except for come, using leash manipulation and physical enforcement. Keep in mind that we have been working for about 45 minutes at this point without me speaking to the dog. When I have the dog come, I use my praise voice which sounds like an excited school girl that the dogs love. Up until that point, I have not said anything to them so that they will see me as “different” from any other human they have ever met. This causes them to focus on me with their eyes. Then when I finally do talk to them using my praise voice, it means something.
The relationship must come first. A dog has no reason to take commands from someone it has no relationship with. Praise talk is only to be given when the dog does something after being commanded by signal or command to do. That way you maintain its worth where others have to use treats. Most dog owners make the mistake of using praise talk as the primary way they talk to their dog, like you would a baby. Instead, use plain talk.
Plain talk is the same tone you would use with your friends or loved ones when telling them that you love them or how proud you are of them. It is a regular conversational tone, a tone that makes both of you feel good. It makes you feel bonded and committed to the relationship. The more you and your dog feel this way together when you are alone serves to concrete the relationship. This tone does not get the dog excited but rather calm, lead, and cared for.
The last way we communicate is with commands. Whenever possible commands should be one word and never more than two. Be sure they convey what the dog should do when the command is given. Besides the the five basic commands included in The Drill, here are some that I use with my Service Dog Odin:
- Box (crate)
- Out
- In
- Up
- Down
- Post
- Cover
- Take
- Bring
- Give
- Search
- Say Hello
- Touch
- Push
- Here
- No
- Enough
- Speak
They are not said as a suggestion. They are said as a plain, emotionless command.
If you are still with me, you may remember way back in the beginning of this article what I said about dogs not being good at multitasking and how they fixate. Your commands, most importantly Come/Here, Heel, and Stay must be able to cut through that fixation. They must be a programmed response and that takes simplicity, time, and consistency.
Your dog, whether on a short or long lead, must not be allowed to leave your side excited. Although I cannot find a shred of scientific proof (so far), I absolutely believe that dogs also experience auditory exclusion under stress and excitement. The more excited the dog, the less likely they will be able to process your commands. If you ask any K-9 handler what the hardest thing to get a dog to do is, they will tell you that it is recalling the dog back after they have been sent after a bad guy.
Think about it, it makes absolutely no natural sense to the dog to slam on the brakes when going full throttle after something it is going to attack. What does it take to accomplish this? A relationship built on love, trust, rules, boundaries, and limitations. Dog owners who try to do it with only love will never be successful.