Dog Obedience Training Blog
Why Dog's Struggle To Understand No
Let’s face it… we’ve all had our dogs choose to not listen to us at one time or another.
We’ve all asked our dog’s to come here, or drop it, or told him NO; only to have him completely ignore us because he’s interested in something else.
At first we try to simply repeat the command, like somehow he didn’t here us the first time.
Sometimes this approach works, and other times it just seems like we just have to start saying No louder and louder.
Why does this happen?
Is this just a dog related issue, or is there a bigger law of learning at work here?
Let’s think about this from a few different angle that more of us can relate to.
For those of you who don’t know, I have an 11 month old son who’s up and walking all over the house. He has no bad intentions, he just reaches and goes for whatever his little mind feels like going towards.
Sometimes what he goes for are OK, and other times they are a bit dangerous, like when I realized it was time to get some electrical outlet covers as he was reaching for them with his fingers.
When I first saw him reaching for the electrical outlet I shouted “No” at him, not to be mean, but for his safetly. The second he heard my voice his little head jerked up and he stopped reaching for the light switch.
Did this mean he understood my No command?
Or did he just get startled by dad making some big loug noise.
It was probably the latter, because 2 seconds later he was right back reaching for the outlet.
You see, when we give commands to any living creature those commands need to have consequences. Those consequences can be either good or bad, but they have to be there to help understanding.
And what animal trainers have known for years, is that if you ask for the same behavior from an animal too many times in a row, especially without a reward, that behavior becomes less and less reliable.
How many times have you told your dog NO, and then rewarded him when he obeyed lately?
The number’s probably slim to none.
So what can you do instead?
I reccommend that you try to teach your dog’s behaviors that mean something to him. Things like leave it, or drop it, that have very real meanings, and very real ways of training them that allow you to give your dog a reward when he obeys you.
For example, I try VERY hard to never tell my dog NO, and to never yell at him with his name when he’s in trouble. Instead, I spent time early in his life teaching him to leave things alone like his food bowl, or to drop items on cue that he was chewing. And I worked on them enough so that they are VERY reliable.
And the second thing I do is I try to use the ‘leave it’ or ‘drop it’ commands as commands for staying out of trouble instead of NO. And I always have a reward nearby to randomly reward my dog with a food treat for obeying me.
Plus I make sure to continually keep these behaviors sharp by NOT overusing them, and making sure I spend a little time each week giving food rewards for leaving or dropping certain items on command, so he doesn’t just stop listening to me because he knows nothing good ever comes from obeying me.
I encourage you to have an open mind about this topic…
You may be reading this thinking to yourself that your dog DOES understand no because you use it along with punishment, or you swear your dog looks guilty when you tell him NO, or several other reasons. And to those of you thinking those thoughts, you bring up some great points that I’ll talk to in future posts, as there are some good, bad and easy to misunderstand points to all those points.
But we’ll save them for another day.
Happy Training!
Chet
Chet,
I enjoy reading and learning from what you have to say. I especially appreciate that you wrote about dogs not understanding the word “no.” It is far more clear when related to your child and his initially responding to your tone rather than your words.
Hopefully, this will help reduce a lot of frustration and yelling for people with new pups!
Thanks for making it so clear and easy to understand.
Gayle Cousineau
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@ February 9th, 2009 at 09:12We have three cocker spaniel puppies, 17 months, 6 1/2 months and 8 months. Two out of the three are good, want to please dogs who just need some training. The other one is a real handful who does whatever he wants and heeds no attention to what we expect from him. He is always picking a fight with the other two and I’m afraid we’ll end up with three bad dogs before it’s over. I’ve never had to scream or swat a dog before but I find myself so exasberated with him that I just lose my cool. That’s why I purchased your complete program. I NEED to get the two youngest puppies trained soon. I also have two elderly cats who have always gotten along well with all the dogs I’ve had, including dogs of various roommates. They would sleep on the bed beside them. Now, the dogs terrorize the cats to the point I keep one in the back bedroom with food, water and a litter box. The other stays in the family room area behind my computer, up on high furniture or wherever he can hide. It’s not fair to them and I feel bad.
We also have three parrots who have always been friendly with the dogs and cats. We had a very happy family with all pets getting an almost-equal one-on-one attention with us. The birds spend a lot of time out of the cage except at night or when we are gone. Our cockatoo is an escape artist though and loves getting out of her cage and then opening the doors for the other two. We never had to worry very much, but since getting the last two puppies, I fear what could happen if they cornered one of them. All three will gang up on the cats, making escape diffi-cult and they could do that with the birds also.
And now to a problem that I hope can be resolved easily. I ordered and paid for the program tonight. I got “Amazing Bonus Tricks for Your K-9 Companion”, Training the Limp, and then info from HealthyPetNet. I listened to the audios about Life’s Abundance and a talk from Dr. Jane Bicks, set up an account and ordered some of the Life’s Abundance. I ate some supper for less than an hour. Then I went back to finish downloading the rest of the program but nothing else was there. Is there a time limit on how long the information stays on line to be downloaded? What do I do now? Does the rest of the program come later? I’m really confused as to what to do. I know you are legitimate because I’ve ordered from you before and never had a problem.
Please let me know what to do. My email is above and my telephone number is 719-380-8439. Linda Brown
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@ February 16th, 2010 at 00:35In my email updates from Chet who tries to answer dog training questions, I got a narrative on a GSD that was chasing cars , with or without owners present, along with his recommdations. I was SHOCKED that the first thing recommended was NOT ” always keep your dog leashed or teathered when outside of a safe zone. Such as a fenced area or way out in the country woods where there are no cars. What is the point in teaching a dog anything when it is going to end up killed or maimed. Secondly why did Chet not address the most obvious reason the dog chases anything? The dog is a herding dog for hundreds of years and no matter how poorly or well the breeding lines of this dog the basic drive is to herd or chase. Third, what about the amount of excersize the dog gets. These are active, focused, energetic, task oriented dogs. Give them many jobs and chasing anything but a ball will be less interesting. Fourth there is a basic lack of bond with owners. People need to research their breed before you buy or bring home a 10 year commitment. Being pack animals, dogs are not meant for yard orniments (looses, in a pen, or on a chain). Don’t get ANY dog unless you are committed to give up your time and energy and affection for the duration of it’s life.
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@ June 4th, 2010 at 01:27