Who hasn’t had the following conversations with their dog?
“Do you have to go out? C’mon, let’s go outside. That’s a good dog. Do your business. Hurry up.”
“Who’s here? Is mommy coming home? Is that your mommy? Where’s mommy?
“Okay, enough barking. Stop it. Stop it. Stop already. Enough! Shut up!”
“Time for me to go to work. I’ll be back soon. Be a good girl. I love you. Kiss, kiss.”
“Walkies! Time for walkies! Stand still for your leash. Okay, okay. Stay still. Alright, wait…wait…wait….let’s go!”
Now non-dog owners will be thinking, why talk to your dog if he can’t understand what you’re saying? And he’s not going to talk back to you, so what’s the point?
And all of you dog lovers reading this blog right now are saying, what, are you kidding?? Of course my dog knows exactly what I’m saying. And yes, he most certainly does talk back.
Your dog may not “get” every word you say, but the inflection of your voice, and the context in which you are saying the words, make your meaning crystal clear to him.
For example, before you leave, you turn out the lights, put on your coat, pick up your car keys, and voila! Your dog knows precisely what words come next: “Time for me to go…..etc.”
And if you think dogs don’t talk, what is barking, whining, crying, yipping, howling, and other doggie vocalizations, if not their way of saying exactly what they think?
One of the priorities for many people who hire an in-home dog trainer like me is to get their dogs to stop barking. They are fed up with the constant noise, and often, their neighbors are, too. One of the first things I ask clients whose dogs are incessant barkers, is if they – the humans – engage their dogs in conversations like the ones mentioned above. More often than not, they do.
PLEASE NOTE:
If you have a conversation with your dog, your dog will hold up his end of it.
We love to talk to our dogs. If we live alone, our dogs becomes the recipients of much vocal unloading of emotions, ruminations on decisions to be made, discussions of what to eat and where to go and what to do. Its no wonder our dogs make so much noise. Their human family members are pretty noisy companions.
Before you get angry at your dog for barking or whining or howling, think back a minute or two to what you were doing – or saying – before he started to vocalize. Inadvertently, you may be encouraging him to “talk.”
That might be one conversation to consider cutting short, or eliminating altogether, if you want your dog to be quiet.
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