dogs are learning every moment they are awake

The truth of the matter is that dogs are learning every moment they are awake, whether we intend for them to or not. So the best thing that we can do is be aware of what we are teaching them. Dogs are much more observant of and get more information from body language than verbal communication. This is between dogs and between dogs and humans. Dogs do communicate vocally, however not as much as through body language.

Dogs learn mainly in two ways, by association (classical conditioning) and by consequences (operant conditioning). There is a huge body of scientific proof out there to better explain those concepts, but I am just going to use real world examples here.

Let’s start with association. Dogs and humans learn by association every day, whether it is intentional or not. For example, when they hear your car pull into the driveway, they know their human will soon appear in the house. Another example is if you follow the exact same routine every time you leave the house (put on your shoes, get your coat, get your keys), over time the dog will associate those things with your leaving the house. For some dogs this is not a bad thing, for others it can be traumatic. None of the above associations are intentional, but they happen nevertheless.

However, we can use consequences to change a behavior learned inadvertently by association. We can associate something the dog perceives as “good” with something the dog perceives as “bad”. An example of this is when a dog is initially afraid of people, we have the person offer a treat that the dog likes in order to associate the stranger with something the dog likes. But the important part here is that the dog doesn’t get the treats unless he is not reacting badly toward the stranger. So the dog learns if I act badly I will be ignored, and I won’t get the yummy treat I smell (consequence), but if I act nicely, this scary stranger will give me that yummy treat (consequence). At this point, the dog is allowed to make a choice. Again, these are very basic explanations and can be so much more complicated, but the key takeaway here is that we and our environment inadvertently teach our dogs by association constantly. Sometimes the consequences for us of that teaching result in us needing to intentionally teach our dogs using consequences for them.

NOTE: Consequences should always be good when we have control over them.

Write down some of the things you notice and see if you can get a different perspective of your dog’s behavior in light of your new awareness.

What might you have inadvertently taught your dog with your body language?