Tips From Ellen The Dog Trainer!
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Dogs Read Our Bodies, Not Our Minds They Hear Our Voices, Not Our Thoughts
You’ve come home excited to see your puppy, him getting all wiggly and running over to you. You greet with a big smile, bright eyes, and open arms, exclaiming, “Hi, Puppy!” He’s giving you puppy kisses and is so excited to see you, too!
You have the most wonderful encounter only to then look up and discover he’s destroyed your favorite pair of sneakers! Angry, or at the very least super disappointed, you point your finger and frown, furrow your brow, and tell him, “Bad puppy!” In turn, he slinks away with his body low to the ground, head bowed, averting his eyes and looking every bit as guilty. You’re convinced he knows exactly what he’s done, I mean look at what he does when you look at him and point to your shoe; he cowers even more! He clearly knows what he did to make you so upset.
Wrong.
He has no idea why you’ve gone from the happiest and most loving human to suddenly an angry one displaying all sorts of reactivity in your facial expressions and tone of voice. Simply put, there’s no ability for him to figure out that you are pointing to the shoe at 5 PM means he’s in trouble for chewing on it at 2 PM. He’s just responding to your reactivity at that moment, scared and nervous about your behavior towards him.
Why? In a nutshell, dogs read our bodies, not our minds; they hear our voices, not our thoughts.
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Dog Responds To Your Body Language
Getting angry or disappointed with our dogs will happen. We are a human living with a dog – two very, very different species cohabiting with a heavy emphasis on meeting our human needs, as it needs to be in many ways (not by being alpha; that’s for another newsletter). We are a human society, and for us to function well in our communities, our dog’s life is mostly built around what works for us. But that does not make them less of a dog, so dog stuff will happen. Puppy behavior will most definitely happen!
When it comes to communicating with our dogs when our own reactivity happens well after the cause, our dogs are not connecting the dots; they are simply responding to our body language and tone of voice at that moment in time.
Those “I ate my mom’s flowers/shoes/tv remote” guilty signs that are all over the internet… they’re just dogs responding to their guardian’s body language, that’s all. They are NOT admitting guilt or remorse over the prior incident. Promise.
So next time your puppy or even adult dog does something hours before your discovery, head to the nearest mirror and scold yourself for what you might have done to cause it. Did you forget that puppies love to use their mouths on everything? Did you leave your teenage dog in the backyard all by himself and expect him to leave the hose and sprinklers alone? If the answer is yes, point that finger and scowl in the mirror.
When Communicating With Your Dog – Do This
If you want to communicate clearly with your dog, first check your body language and tone of voice to make sure they correlate to the timeline of events. Otherwise, you are confusing and maybe even scaring your dog.
Speak Dog Clinic (FREE)
Join us for our exclusive one-day SPEAK DOG event on Saturday, October 12th, from 12 – 2 PM at the San Luis Obispo Farm Supply Company located at 224 Tank Farm Rd, San Luis Obispo.
Speak Dog is a people-only event available to anyone who wants to understand their dog’s body language.
Does a yawn mean your dog is tired? Is a wagging tail telling you the dog is happy? Become fluent in speaking dog!
You’ll leave with more confidence in understanding what your dog is trying to communicate with the body and their voice. Knowing dog body language will help you create positive and safe experiences that will last a lifetime, reducing uncertainty and increasing trust.
This event is for humans only, allowing you to learn without worry or distractions with your dog. Attend for a chance to win prizes!
