PDTE 2016 July Newsletter

Hard hitting: Saying
NO to dogs
guilty, he must know what he has
done”. Actually, our dog is simply
responding to our “threatening” body
language and communicating in the
only way he knows how to.
Dogs are dogs and they do dog stuff:
chewing, digging, peeing, barking,
nipping, etc. This is all normal
behaviour for dogs, but unfortunately
for them we have a tendency to dislike
these behaviours. So we start saying
NO without even realizing it. At first,
because to him, these behaviours are
normal, our dog becomes confused;
then frustration sets in on both
sides. This can lead to stress further
damaging the desired relationship.
when we say NO. If the dog is doing something we do not wish him to do, instead
of shouting NO, let’s offer him an alternative:
If our dog is jumping up on us, let’s keep turning away from him, without speaking
to him or making eye contact, whilst giving the hand signal thereby giving him a
clear message that now is not the time for any interaction.
If our dog has run off with our toddler’s shoe, let’s invite him to back to us,
offer him a reward for coming and giving us the shoe back and then offer him
something he is allowed to play with. Remember it is our fault not his that he has
the shoe in the first place.
If our dog is barking at the fence/front door, let’s thank him for letting us
know, then show him that there is nothing to worry about and take over the
responsibility, allowing him to take himself off without a care in the world.
How often do we use the word “no” to our dogs? What does it mean to them and should we be using it?
Marina Gates Flemming from Belgium asks us some tough questions about getting tough on dogs.
Photo Credit: Toni Martinez, Spain
“
A healthy puppy certainly, will be
curious and will want to investigate
the world, mostly with his mouth. By
saying NO or stopping the puppy,
we are interrupting this natural
behaviour and not allowing the
puppy to develop at his own pace,
into a healthy adult.
During the summer, I heard someone say NO to her dog
in the garden next door. I could not see anything but I
could hear it and it was obvious, as they were repeating
themselves, that it was not working. We humans talk too much and
one of the things that most people say all too often to their dogs is
NO. It probably starts as soon as the puppy arrives home: “NO, stop
biting”; “NO, don’t jump on me”; “NO, leave that alone”; “NO, not
there”; “NO, that’s my shoe, stop chewing it”. And so on. However,
saying “NO” to our dogs does not help nurture a relationship based
on love, trust and mutual respect.
A healthy puppy certainly, will be curious and will want to investigate
the world, mostly with his mouth. This is how he discovers what the
world around him has to offer. By saying NO or stopping the puppy,
we are interrupting this natural behaviour and not allowing the
puppy to develop at his own pace, into a healthy adult. We need to
remember that a curious dog is a healthy dog. A dog who is unable to
interact with his environment is not coping and is either in shutdown
(depression) or just too stressed to relax into discovering what is
around him. This can ultimately lead to chronic stress.
Dogs have no idea what NO means. Dogs communicate primarily
through body language. So if we use the word NO our dog is not
responding to the word, but to our body language. He will pick up
that we are upset and that something is wrong but he has no way
of knowing what it is. To that you may answer: “But my dog looks
We probably say NO in many
different situations and the dog has
no idea which action the NO applies
to. How can our dog understand that
NO means stop jumping up in one
instance, stop nipping in another and
don’t chase the neighbour’s cat in yet
another. NO is said so very many
times that dogs simply do not even
hear it any more*.
This apart, we could also be giving
our dog attention and therefore
reinforcing that behaviour because
attention, even if negative, as in a NO,
is still attention and can therefore be
reinforcing to the dog especially if that
is what he was seeking.
Worse still, we may not realise this,
but by saying NO, we are actually
punishing our dog and this can be
very disruptive to our dog’s wellbeing.
Indeed, our dog needs to feel
safe when with us, so in addition to
being ineffective in changing the
“unwanted behaviour”, it disrupts the
bond between us. The inconstancy
caused by the NO will result in our
dog to feeling a lack of safety with us,
instead of feeling happy and confident
in our relationship.
We are not teaching our dog anything
Photo Credit: Winkie Spiers, UK
Saying NO is a bad habit, which is best not acquired. If acquired it’s wise to work
hard at losing it as quickly as possible as it will not benefit our relationship with
our four legged friend.
* In psychology, this is called “Learned Irrelevance”, the dog is not able to link a consequence
to the sound and therefore decides it has no relevance to him and systematically learns to
ignore it (this happens all too often with “recall” as well).
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