My Dog Won’t LISTEN TO ME?…

There’s a training tip for that!

Say what? – You’re dog won’t listen to you?

What are you really teaching your dog?

My Norwegian Elkhound, Star, is an absolute love….. a bit independent, but a major sweet heart. She communicates very well with me, but the problem is I can be a little slow on the uptake. Make no mistake though, she always gets her message across in the end!

Here is an example: A while back, I was trying to teach her to sit at my left side when asked. In class I would say “sit.” When she didn’t perform, I would repeat the command, “sit.” Then, when she still didn’t move, I would firmly say, “sit today!”

Each time I said it, I could hear my own voice getting a little louder, a little firmer. And the final “today” was, let me say, emphatic.

So after about two weeks of this, Star had learned the lesson very well. The obedient girl was sitting to the command, “sit, sit, sit today.” Suddenly, it dawned on me: Star was sitting on the word “today!”

Well, what a great job I did. Now I had to break it back down, using the word “sit” only one time, not repeating it. And for goodness sakes, I had to stop saying “today!”

I share this story to help you be aware of the dog’s perspective. It was not Star’s fault, was it? After all, she was listening to me, wasn’t she? Yep, she was.

~ by Darcy Rohats
CPDT-KA