Barking Mad Day 4

Day 4 - Developing Communication

Today we are going to be looking at various methods of communication between dogs and humans. This may include different types of vocalizations that dogs do including that loud alert barking that is driving you made, shorter frustration barks, happy roo-roos when something they love is about to happen, or even super quiet whispers. Dogs also communicate with body language and behavior! Every dog has their own communication, but pay special attention to the ears, nose, back and tail! Behaviors just as jumping on the owner or pulling harder on the leash also can tell us how a dog is feeling.

As humans, we jump to communicate with words most of the time. What we often do not think about is the emotional tones in our voice as we say those words. Some people  use hand signals to ask a dog to do a trained behavior, but we can also use body positions and movements to communicate. Most of our Canine Coaches use hand targets to communicate with our dogs, letting them know where to stand/walk or do a specific behavior. Dogs have a way of reading our emotions, sometimes better than we can. So even if we are not trying to communicate with our feelings and body language, our dogs will often pick up the subtle cues we give

Many dog owners enjoy putting different types of barks on cue which can make it easier to reduce barking. If a dog has a loud alert bark, teaching them that a whisper still gets our attention can really help. We are going to focus on using a verbal cue/marker and emotions to help reduce barking. So often we have the habit of saying cues such as Quiet!, Stop It! No Barking! Etc. And the more frequently we’ve used that cue, the more we become frustrated with saying it. This often causes that cue to become less effective and seems more like barking with our dogs instead of asking them to do something else. We want to change that cue, coming up with a completely new verbal cue or sound that we can do with a happy tone just before we provide the amazing reinforcement our dog loves.

Penny was struggling with this very issue and feeling very frustrated with Belle’s barking. She mentioned this in C2C Coach Zoom and someone suggested something about a new cue that used POODLES! Then Penny remembered one of her favorite Dr Suess rhymes in “Fox in Socks.” It starts with, “When tweetle beetles battle with their paddles in a puddle….” (Ask Penny to quote you more!) That put a smile on Penny’s face and now she uses the cue “Tweetle Beetles whenever Belle begins alert barking and Belle immediately turns to look for her treat scatter. You’ll see this in action in the video with this lesson. The point is, the cue Tweetle Beetles is something that puts a smile on Penny’s face and keeps the negative emotions from sneaking in.

Today’s Game: 

This game is almost exactly as yesterday’s game, only you will give your new cue or sound as you are scattering the treats for your dog. Repeat! Repeat! Repeat! 

As your dog is starting to understand and respond to the cue, you start saying it earlier and earlier. Perhaps you say it two steps before the treat toss, moving backwards to the point that you can say it when you present the hand target/food lure to start the dog moving away. Repeat! Repeat! Repeat!

When your dog is doing really well with the game, the cue, and you’ve been successful adding in distractions, you can start to phase out the step where you move to your dog and lead them away and start scattering treats near your feet to get the dog to move to you. 

Here is a cue of Penny adding the cue for Belle

Today’s Video Tip:

Sometimes it can be hard to share our training sessions with our Canine Coach or peers for review because they are too long to send. Most phone messaging systems limit the size of a video that can be sent, often reducing the quality of the video. Uploading to Facebook can sometimes take forever if the video is longer than 90 seconds. Instagram limits reels to 90 seconds or less, with the most frequently watched videos only 20-30 seconds long. YouTube offers easy uploading of short videos and longer videos and sending a link via FB or email to your Canine Coach is fairly easy. Google Photos, Google Drive, and Dropbox are common online storage systems if you do not have lots of videos you want to save. These have limited storage available for free accounts, but sell additional storage if you want it.

This tip is not supposed to tell you what way to store and share your videos but more to tell you the perks and limitations with each option. Start with just one application or social media platform and stick with it until you are used to it. Then you can add in additional formats for specific reasons. All the Canine Coaches have access to all of these methods and are happy to review your videos saved in the format that works best for you!

Today’s Video: 

Record your training session and upload it to one application or cloud based storage system. You can upload directly to this group by creating a post here or upload on your social media account. Or you can upload to a storage based platform that is easily shareable. (Even if you don’t share it with anyone, practice uploading somewhere.)