Your dog is probably sending you lots of messages. Are you listening? Does your dog know you’re listening?
If Fido snuggles up beside you, he’s probably saying something like “How about a little ear scratch?” or “how about scratching my head?” If you ignore him, or say something like “not now, Fido,” you discourage Fido’s communication. You make him wonder if you’re listening. But if you respond with an ear scratch, or a head scratch, you reinforce Fido’s effort to “talk” to you. So make a point of always responding to your dog’s messages.
Crate-training presents a wonderful opportunity to establish good communication with your puppy when it is young and impressionable — and to tell your puppy that you are “listening.” Crate training is normally considered a way of house-training a puppy — and it is effective. But it can also help you create the foundation of a strong communication bond. Here’s how:
One of the rules of crate-training is “don’t let your puppy out of the crate when it whines.” You don’t want to let it out just because it’s saying “I’m tired of being cooped up.” But sometimes a whine means “hey, I really need to go pee.” This is good communication on the puppy’s part. With experience, you can figure out which kind of whine you’re hearing. If it’s the “I need to go pee” whine, respond right away by taking your puppy to its pee place. It will be very grateful to you for doing this. But it will also learn (puppies are really smart) that you are listening.
Callie has been crate-trained since she first came home about 2 1/2 months ago. We try to anticipate when she will need to go outside, but sometimes she beats us to the punch. Usually, it’s in the middle of the night, but not always. Because we’re trying to pay attention, Callie’s “whines” are becoming softer and softer. She’s learning that she doesn’t have to “shout” — that a “whisper” will send the message because her people are “listening.”
One of “Jamie’s Rules” (My Doggie Says…) is “Don’t bark if a ‘wuuf’ will do the job.” This is good advice for people too. But if your dog learns this lesson, it’s probably because it knows you are listening to its messages.
