Speaking Dog: Ignoring

As a dog, there's a technique that we use when we want to avoid someone or to avoid conflict and that is ignoring. Anytime we feel someone or something is threatening we will turn our head, our body, do something else, basically, pretend they're not there. For example, when you try to take a picture of us you will squat down in front of us with that weird gadget in our hand that we don't understand and as soon as you push the little button for the picture we turn our heads. That is because the camera is weird to us and we see it as conflict, therefore, we're going to ignore it until it goes away. I, on the other hand love the camera and will always look to get my picture taken.

Another example is when someone is coming up to us in a confrontational way we will turn our head or body to make the person calm down, even if they're giving the "sweet dog talk" to us. Or when we're out in the yard and you start calling us to come but we don't necessarily understand the "come" command and so we don't and you start getting mad and your voice gets deeper and harsher, all that does is makes us do something else and ignore you until you calm down, I mean, who really wants to come to someone who's screaming like that? Get a clue humans!

Mama Nikki teaches owners how to use this valuable tool in training. She teaches them that when their dog jumps to turn away and ignore. It's amazing how hard this is for people. They will not pet but they'll stare at the dog or they'll push the dog off of them and that my friends is NOT ignoring. Ignoring is pretending like the dog isn't even there. It is a powerful tool because dogs understand it so well. Once the dog stops jumping on you and has had their feet on the floor for at least three seconds then you can tell them how good they are and pet on them. If they jump during that, stop petting and ignore. And remember, jumping doesn't just mean on you, it may be two feet on the couch or chair, two feet up on the fence or baby gate, jumping up and down to get you to throw the ball, etc. Jumping is when two feet are off the ground whether they're touching something or not. Humans just need to think. If you give us something that we want while we're doing a behavior then we're more than likely going too repeat that behavior. If we have two feet on the fence trying to see you and walk through the gate, you're rewarding us, even if you're ignoring us because we wanted YOU.

Okay, so, the next time your dog jumps on you, barks at you, paws at your leg, whines, sticks his nose under your hand to pet him or whatever annoying thing he does to get your attention, IGNORE him. If you're consistent, the behavior you don't like will go away. And I mean be consistent. There's a thing about dogs, we will try a behavior many times to see if it's going to get a reward, whether its a behavior you like or not, and if it gets rewarded one time, we will assume it's one that works and keep it. So be tough and consistent and ignore all those things you don't like. I'll write later about self-rewarding behaviors that you can't ignore and how you can handle that.

Have a great day!
Tbaa