Dogs seem to view their world in terms of ‘always or never’. Once you break the rule of ‘never’, it becomes an ‘always’. To illustrate this ‘always or never’ perspective, jumping up is a good example. Perhaps when you are playing with your dog, you encourage the dog to jump up and give you an eye to eye greeting ( or an eye to knee greeting, with small dogs ). You may enjoy this and reinforce the dog for this. The dog will be reinforced positively by your body language and tone of voice. From the dog’s perspective, this jumping up behaviour has become an ‘always’. Therefore, no matter whether you are dressed for working in the yard or going out to an elegant social event, from the dog’s point of view, jumping up to greet you is a perfectly fine idea. In fact, you have reinforced it previously. How confusing it must be for the dog that there are times when such a loving greeting puts you in such a terrible mood.

Never has to mean never. There are times when one slip on your part is remembered by your dog. If, for example, you are feeling particularly generous at the dining room table and slip the dog a leftover treat, the dog will not forget. That is guaranteed. The dog must think that it has discovered the most wonderful, tasty food source. And, of course, what you have is a dog who begs when you are at the dining room table. It really must befuddle the dog that now you won’t share.

Dog are most comfortable with ‘always’. As an illustration, if you walk your dog on your left side and always walk the dog on the left side, try walking the dog on the right side. The dog will not like this and will struggle to return to its usual side, with its right shoulder off your left leg.

This consistency - always or never - is a source of security for the dog. It makes you more predictable and less confusing. It lowers the dog’s anxiety and allows the dog to cope with human interactions more efficiently. Of course, humans are not that consistent and humans like to deal in shades of grey - and in terms of ’sometimes’. From the dog’s perspective, humans must be terribly difficult to train.

Catherine Forsythe
Director of Operations
FlyingHamster: http://flyinghamster.com/

Tags: dog training, dogs, jumping up, begging, dog rules, security, catherine forsythe