16 Your Dog March 2020
DIFFERENT AGENDAS
Although we may fondly imagine that any
dog’s main priority in life is to respond
immediately to whatever we ask him to do, the
truth is dogs also have their own agendas as
animals — and a strong range of more
species-specifi c instincts, impulses, and
priorities that drive their minds, whether these
are to chase and hunt things, follow scents,
seek a mating or feeding opportunity, defend
territory, challenge a rival, dig a hole, or roll
in some foul-smelling muck! And it is all these
mental urges we will be constantly competing
with, whenever we want his attention placed
back on us instead.
We can only do this if the rewards we off er
dogs for giving their attention and cooperation
to us remain consistently high.
Also, be aware that diff erent senses can
take priority in a dog’s brain at any given time,
meaning for instance that when he is smelling
and processing scent information, his hearing
may become more compromised temporarily.
This explains why your dog may genuinely not
hear you when he is smelling something and
you call him, a syndrome known as sensory
confl ict. Diff erent breeds may also have
diff erent mental and sensory priorities, which
you will need to understand better and work
with, rather than just dismissing your dog as
more deliberately disobedient.
and focus on you, including coming back to
you reliably when called.
MAKE ATTENTION AND
COOPERATION PAY
Often people do not want to hear that
better training is the key to better
responsiveness in dogs, any more than
they want to hear that eating less and
exercising more is the key to being slimmer.
The reason for this is because it sounds like
harder work — but it is still true.
When I am out with my dogs, people
will constantly comment on how they are
always watching me, or checking back
with me after running off somewhere to
explore. They imagine this to be some sort
of baffl ing magic I have worked on them,
as opposed to just being the end result of
consistent training in focus and cooperation
that was begun with all of them from early
puppyhood (and which I will be covering
in far more detail next month). You have
to persistently teach dogs that watching
you, and cooperating with you, will be the
most rewarding things they ever do in life.
They are not lessons or behaviours they
would otherwise work out by themselves,
especially in a world full of countless other
Make sure you are
encouraging your dog
to interact with you.Some source of physical or
mental discomfort, such
as pain, heat, stress, or
anxiety about a current
environment, can all
hamper your dog’s ability
to focus on you.DID YOU
KNOW?distractions (see ‘Diff erent agendas’ below).
Many owners believe, however, that
they have some natural right to their dogs’
attention and cooperation on command,
without such prior training; this starts so
many human-canine relationships down
the path to greater confl ict and frustration.
Time and again I will see dogs being
shouted at for the crime of simply not
understanding what an owner — in that
very moment — wants them to do, because
they have not previously been taught it. It
is also the surest way to make any dog view
your presence more negatively, or even
totally switch off from it (see ‘How we make
dogs stop listening to us’).INVESTING IN
YOUR DOG
Whatever dog you have, of whatever
breed or age, it is vital to understand that
the only really natural behaviour dogscome with, is knowing how to be dogs.
The rest we have to teach them, including
the rewards of always watching us and
listening to us. If you cannot readily hold
your dog’s attention at any given time, you
cannot teach him anything else, or control
whatever he does next.
The best way to view your dog’s levels
of focus/attention and cooperation with
you is like a bank account — something
you have to steadily invest in and build up
with the right daily lessons and training.
The more you invest in training your dog to
be alert to your presence and commands,
the better his future responses should
be. Conversely, without this kind of prior
training investment, expecting a dog to
readily focus and cooperate with you when
you want him to is like constantly trying to
draw funds from an empty account — or
one that hasn’t even been set up!“Many owners believe they have some
natural right to their dogs’ attention and
cooperation on command...”