k9 Communication - do you get it?

There is always something being said, learn, watch and listen.

There is always something being said, learn, watch and listen.

Do you communicate well with your dog? Recently I’ve had workers at my house. It has been my job to coordinate and schedule all of the work. When I communicate well with all of the different trades, it’s a win win. But if I fail to properly communicate which I did the other day, it’s a big learning curve for me. Of course this made me think about the communications that we have with our dogs.

On a day to day basis we communicate with our dogs; even when we don’t think we are communicating with them. We’re not the brightest species on the earth when it comes to communication. Come on, you know I’m right. Have you ever become frustrated because someone didn’t get what you were trying to communicate? What about when we assume? We all do that, I happen to do it a lot.

So we aren’t great communicators. I often ask my clients “do you know what you are saying to your dog right now?” Of course they have no idea that they were conveying an incorrect message to their dog until I tell them. Dogs signal and read lightning fast. They have the ability to send and receive messages that we have a tough time seeing let alone understanding. They are masters, we are not.

But we can improve, there is hope for us. Yes really.

We need to learn how dogs communicate. So many times people tell me about the weird things that their dog does that they cannot figure out. Much of the time it has a learn sequence but because we don’t understand canine communication like they do, we don’t get it. The smarter the dog, the bigger the problems…typically.

Canines learn through association. Once you get that, the rest is easy. Read, read and read some more. Learn how your dog communicates so that you can bring your best game to the communication field.