If we pay attention, there are a few ways that dogs and people can communicate easily.

Dog to Human:

• Opinions/Emotions – “That scares me”
• Request for behavior — “Can you open the door so I can go outside?”
• Share Information — “There’s someone at the door”

Human to Dog:

• Opinions/Emotions – “I like that”
• Request for behavior – “Come”
• Share Information – “I’m leaving”
• Ask a Question – “Do you want to go outside?”

Some of these types of communication happen naturally and some have to be taught. Consistency is the key.

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Opinions/emotions

First let’s talk about how dogs communicate their opinions and emotions. It’s pretty much the same for most mammals, although there are some species differences and humans are probably more complicated. But the basic emotions of fear, anger, joy, etc. are felt in some way by both dogs and people.

We have these labels for the emotion, and I do use them, but I find it most useful to think in terms of what sort of change would make the emotion fade for this particular dog. The reason is because that’s really all you can do for your dog. You can’t talk things over, but you can change something in the environment to meet his needs. Or better yet, often you can teach him to do that for himself. More on that later in the course.

Here are some examples. Usually the more behaviors that you get, the more sure you can be about the dog’s emotional state.

“I want to get away from that” (running away, jumping up on owner’s legs, body crouched, tail lowered / tucked under belly, ears back, moving away, panting, shivering)

“I want that to go away” (barking, running forward and bouncing away again)

“I don’t like that” (barking, nipping at human hands, moving toward whoever/whatever did something)

“That’s mine!” (lowering head into food bowl, freeze, whites of eyes showing)

Watch this video for the two or three puppies who are showing fear of the pilates disk on the upper right. Notice that there is not enough room for the puppies to escape, so they are having a harder time getting used to the objects. This appears to be a positive experience for the rest of the puppies.

[vc_video link=”https://vimeo.com/135894287″]

For more details on body language read through “Understanding Your Dog’s Communication” in the book that I recommend with this course, the Ahimsa Dog Training Manual.

Note! We will cover more about fear and other issues as we go along, but if you see that your puppy might be afraid or needs space from something, help him! Call him away and feed a treat. If he’s comfortable going a little closer, let him do that without letting him get too close. Just make sure it’s the puppy wanting to go back and not you leading the way.

Requests for Behavior or Permission

Dog to Human: Teach the dog that certain behavior from him gets certain behavior from you. Behavior in a certain context/situation is paired with consistent consequences.

You can do this by observing which behaviors the puppy tries and consistently reinforcing that behavior with the consequence he wants. So if he’s outside and barks at some point, you can open the door to have him come back inside. You can tell by the context that coming inside is what he wants. So he has a consistent way to ask you.

A more complicated way to do that is to pick a behavior you want him to do, train it, and then ask him to do it when you can tell he wants a particular consequence. This works better if the dog isn’t already doing the specific behavior you want in that situation. For example, you can train a Ring the Bell cue and whenever you see the puppy wants to come back inside, request Ring the Bell and reinforce him by letting him inside.

More examples of explicitly trained communication requesting our behavior – dog brings bowl for food, dog brings leash for walk, dog nuzzles hand for petting, dog looks at toy cupboard, dog holds chin on couch to be allowed up.

You may not always grant your dog’s requests every time, but it’s confusing to just ignore him, too. I have a hand signal that means “I heard you, but no.” It’s the same as my All Done cue, which is to show my palm to the dog and rotate my hand (as if showing there are no treats).

Human to Dog: This is normal ‘dog training’ and we will cover some of it in this course each week. For reading in the Ahimsa Dog Training Manual, check out “Teaching Reliable Behaviors.”

Share information

Dogs and humans can both learn that certain words, sounds, or actions predict something else. (For you dog geeks, out there, this is standard classical conditioning).

So for example, if your dog runs to the door barking, you probably know that someone is at the door. If you pick up your keys and put on your work shoes every day right before you leave for work, your dog will learn that the keys/shoes combination means he isn’t coming with you. I like to be clearer by teaching this sort of association on purpose.

For example, I say “I’ll be Back” when my dog, Peanut, is not coming with me. So if I’m getting ready to go and he’s on the couch deciding whether to get excited or not, I can say “I’ll be Back” and he can continue his nap. This is taught the same way that the accidental cues are taught – by repeatedly pairing the word with the event. By simply saying “I’ll be Back” just before I shut the door as I was leaving, he eventually learned that it means he’s not coming with me.

Other examples of actions/sounds that have meaning via this kind of association:

• click (clicker sound means dog is about to get food/toy)
• “Yes!” (similar marker predicting food/toy/reinforcer)
• Good Night (“I’m going to sleep and won’t be paying attention to you any more”)
• All Done (“no treats/petting/attention/play” – use as “I heard you, but the request has been denied”)
• Ready? (“you’re coming with me”)
• There’s a Dog (“another dog is coming”)
• Relax (“I’m about to massage you in a relaxing way” – great ‘off switch’)

Ask a Question

Humans can also ask dogs specific questions, like “what do you want?” Dogs could probably ask us, too, but I’m not as sure about that.

“Which one do you want?”

Use reinforcer sampling. Just have multiple options available and see which option the dog takes (multiple kinds of treats, toys, etc.) Test this under normal circumstances when your puppy is calm. Then if his food preferences change, for example, you know there’s something intensely emotional happening, from excitement to distress. Look at the rest of the body to know what kind of emotion it is.

“Do you like this?”

5-second rule. Look at body language to see if your puppy wants to be petted (let her approach you) and then stop after no more than 5 seconds. Most puppies would prefer that you stop after a shorter time, like 1 or 3 seconds, so don’t just take the full 5 seconds every time. After stopping, wait for another clear signal that the puppy wants more petting. Pet for fewer seconds if you are unsure the puppy likes it.

“Which way do you want to go?”

Sometimes you will have your puppy go the way you want to go, but sometimes the puppy can choose. If you want to see which way your puppy wants to walk, you can either just wait or you can move in a few different directions to see which way he goes most eagerly. I use this when I think the puppy may be afraid of something.

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