Dog Signals

08/22/13 • 13 min

We have all kinds of signals for our dogs. Most common are "that's wrong" or "that's right." But do we have other signals for our dogs? There are some we might not even realize we are giving them. They know when it's time for a walk or when we are preparing dinner. Maybe they even know when we're not paying attention to them. If we teach our dogs the signals we would like them to know, think of the possibilities!

Previous Episode

Helping Your Dog Get It Right

Our dogs are going to make mistakes when we train. And we have a choice to make about how we respond to those errors. The fastest way to get the behaviour we want might also discourage our dog from wanting to learn anything else with us. How we tell our dogs they didn't get it right matters. With a little help from marine mammal trainers, there is an interesting way to get our dogs back on track without interrupting the flow of learning. The Least Reinforcing Stimulus or LRS can be just the thing to make the occasional error a non-event and keep your dog eager to learn what you are trying to teach!

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Dogs – The Best Friend We Hardly Know

I talk quite a bit about dogs and science in my articles. But other than reading about it in books, it can be difficult to find real research and science on canine cognition, biology, genetics, or behaviour. I was fortunate to attend a conference recently with some of the leading scientists researching dogs. To say it was amazing would be a huge understatement. It's incredible to see the things we are just now learning about dogs!