training your dog
Winnie photo by Terri Draeger
Do You Speak Dog? Whether your dog is going to be a couch potato, a jogging buddy, an agility dog, a guard dog, a service dog, a show dog; whether your dog is a country dog, a city dog, small or huge, young, old, blind or deaf and handicapped, all dogs are pack animals, they live in the moment and they communicate with us 24/7. Dogs communicate with their eyes, their body, their barks, and their voice. Do you understand their language? In order to train your dog, it is very important that you learn to communicate with them!
My four dogs talk to me and to each other all the time. Just a tone or a glance speaks volumes. I can't begin to tell you all that I've learned from living with them, most of which I wish I knew before I had my children! Seriously, my dogs have taught me to be aware of the moment, and to be a better communicator and listener. Having four of them, or I expect any number of multiples, even two, is a great opportunity to experience how dogs communicate with each other, and establish their position in the dog pack and home pack. If you watch dogs with other dogs, it will help you understand how they communicating with you every moment. Even a dog sitting in the corner alone is giving you messages with their eyes and body language. Can you read them?
I don't remember the moment that it happened, but it did - I suddenty understoody my dogs' language. Maybe it was all of the books I had read, or the forums I joined for advice that made it come together. Being with them wasn't an effort any more. Our communication flowed. My dogs weren't just in the room. We were constantly communicating, even without my conscious awareness. I knew the meaning of a look in their eyes, a turn of their head, a posture, a sound, the tone of each bark - yes, their barks were different. They act like children and bicker amongst themselves, yet they lie next to me and won't leave my sice if I'm sick. They don't need our words to tell us what they're thinking and feeling, they are telling us with everything they do. I have no clue how I learned to speak dog, except that I did. And my relationship with my dogs has become so loving and beautiful that I thank God every day for having the experience of sharing life with them.
When I found my Lily, she had spent five months in a cage. I was told she was not taken out to play, and I thought that she was mentally damaged because when the store clerk took her out of her cage she did nothing but jump up and down. Lily made no eye contact at all until they put her back into her cage. The day I took her home, I put her in our backyard on the grass and she stood stone still. She had no clue what to do. Lily would only move when I moved, and she stayed right at my feet. I cried for her when she walked up to a hibiscus flower and stuck her entire nose right into it. You could see the smile on her face. Her body was light; there was no tension in her muscles as she smelled it. Then she turned and looked at me as if to say, "Mommy, look, look, it smells so good." That night she fell asleep in my bed with her head on my shoulder. She didn't need any words to tell me that she was happy and felt safe. Lily spread out against me and sighed the biggest sigh; then she laid her head over my neck and fell sound asleep. Could any words say more?
As I look back, it took about three months before she started to understand what I was saying to her, and I would see that look of understanding in her eyes. Lily had a people/dog language delay because no one ever spoke to her. Perhaps it would be the same if you or I went to China and didn't speak Chinese. How would we ever get people to understand us if they didn't try to understand our gestures and facial expressions. Language and communicating, dog or human, is not just about understanding words and sounds, it's the whole picture, including reading expressions and body language. Can you just imagine how frustrated our dogs get at our lack of understanding of them? And, the saddest part is that if we fail in teaching our dogs to communicate and we don't understand them, many of them end up in shelters or put to sleep - because WE failed them.
Working with your dog and training them is definitely an experience that will create a strong bond with your dog. One of our members, Tammy trains and works her dogs in agility competitions. Her boy, Jake, has won many titles and they have lots of fun competing. Jake's official title is UGRACH, UCDX Tammy Lynn's Jolly Jake RN, CD, NAP, NJP, CGC. Click here to enjoy Tammy and Jake's agility photo gallery.
If you are interested in formally training your dog or just training them to be to be wonderful companions and good citizens, here are some great books that I've read or other members of our site have read. There are many more listed in our bookstore. Understanding your dog and their own built in drives specific to their breeds is so important to successfully training them. Reading, working with trainers, and getting into the forum groups with other dog owners is the way to go. I've listed several sites on the right that you might want to chedk out and bookmark; they also have member forums to join.