How we talk about a dog’s behaviour matters.

Quite often when I ask a client to tell me about their dog’s behaviour, they talk about their dog being stubborn or defiant.  For me, this sets a very confrontational tone to future interactions.  If you think that your dog is being defiant then it puts you into a difficult emotional state as you think that the dog is ‘wrong’ and trying to wind you up.  All negative emotions.  No matter how much you try not to let it, your emotional state will affect the way that you interact with your dog and it will also affect the way that you try to deal with the situation.

Working breeds, in particular, are bred to be persistent in their jobs.  Terriers need to persist in hunting rodents that can be very illusive; Retrievers need to persist in holding a scent trail of an injured bird and track it until they can bring it back to the handler; herding breeds need to persist in pushing livestock in the direction that their handler needs; to name but a few.  This persistence is a genetic trait which is there in the dog’s make up.  This persistence is desired in work behaviour but dogs need to be educated when to persist and when to stop.

Many times, when a dog is being labelled as stubborn, they are actually, either confused, or not sufficiently motivated to carry out whichever task we have asked them to.  Labelling a dog as stubborn makes it a dog problem rather than a handler problem.  If we look at it as a handler problem we can be solve it with better communication and better motivation.

Common reasons that dogs fail to respond to a cue: –

1. They don’t understand the question. The cue hasn’t been sufficiently explained, proofed or maintained so the behaviour isn’t fluent in the current situation.
2. They understand but would prefer to continue doing what they are doing. There isn’t enough value instilled in the behaviour to make it worth the dog’s while to respond.
3. They understand but are frightened to comply. This tends to happen when responding to a cue would put the dog closer to the ‘scary thing’, alternatively the dog is so scared in that environment they cannot use the cognitive part of their brain.

Looking to try to find why the dog was unable to respond and then trying to address that problem is a far more efficient way of dealing with ‘failure to respond’, than blaming the dog for being stubborn or defiant.

Taking time to describe what actually is happening means that we often find the route to a solution.

My dog won’t come back to me – he’s just being stubborn.

This can be looked at in a different way: –

My dog didn’t come back to me when I called him when he was with another dog.

This is a statement of what happened, no emotional content as it doesn’t ascribe motives to the situation, only describes what actually is happening.

To find a solution we need more information:-

1. Does the dog enjoy playing or was he being harassed by another ‘friendly’ dog?
2. What is your recall cue?
3. Are you consistent with using this in the same way each time?
4. Does your dog understand what a recall means in a low distraction environment?
5. Have you had chance to practice ‘recall away from another dog’ in a training situation?
6. What sort of rewards have you been using previously?
7. Have you created enough value in returning to you when there are no other dogs around?
8. Does your dog return enthusiastically to you when call in other circumstances?
9. How much access does your dog have to other dogs?

Your answers to these questions and any others that you can think of, will inform you as to how to find a way through this so that your dog can understand what is expected of him, and he is motivated to respond in the way that you would like him to.

You can then make a constructive plan to improve your dog’s response to recall when other dogs are around.

We also need to be very specific in how we describe what the dog is doing.  My dog won’t come back to me.  Is too vague.  You need to put it in context.  My dog won’t come back to me when he has a stolen tea towel in his mouth, is a very different issue to my dog won’t come back to me when he is chasing a rabbit.

These two problems need two very different solutions.  The symptom – failure to return is the same but the causes are very different.  The first one is a possession issue and the second one is a chase drive issue.

We need to focus on the actual cause of the problem rather than labelling the dog as defective in some way.  Describing the actual behaviour, rather than ascribing motives to a behaviour, leaves us with a much better route to finding a solution.  All behaviour can be modified, some require more finesse and knowledge than others to find the correct solution for you and your dog, but there is always a route to a less frustrating relationship if we focus on facts not feelings when trying to educate our dogs.