Dogs Can’t Learn Our Language So We Have To Learn Theirs

Effective and humane training is based upon clear communication, and because the dog can't understand human language, we have to do our best to communicate in a way that the dog can understand. Our tools for this are voice, touch, and body language (primarily posture and proximity).

Recognizing that dogs don’t experience the world the same way as humans is essential to relationship-based training. While there are significant similarities between dogs and humans in the function of the nervous system, there are some important differences in the way that dogs prioritize and interpret sensory input. They do not decode signals the way humans do, and they do not understand time like humans do.

The primary means of obtaining information for a dog is olfactory; it is obvious that their ability to detect scent is far superior to humans, how much better is a matter of continual amazement for anyone who runs search dogs. We know for sure that dogs can discriminate certain odors in parts per trillion, and there is still plenty of research to be done. What is important for this discussion is that we always give a dog time to asses its surroundings on this basis.

Voice seems to be the default preference for most humans, usually words, which are the most difficult for dogs to decode. Your dog does not understand English or any of the other roughly 6,500 uniquely human languages still in use. While your dog can associate behaviors with sounds and may even enjoy that game, they will never conjugate a verb. The meaning of words is not immediately clear to a dog until they associate the sound with a behavior. But tone, frequency, pitch, volume, are all readily discernible by a dog.

Beginning students often complain. “My dog is not listening to me!” Your dog is listening just fine, she definitely heard you; she can hear a potato chip hitting the carpet in the next room. Dogs can hear to 40KHz at sound pressures that to us are incomprehensibly low, and they can discriminate meaningful sounds from background noise in ways that seem incredible. It’s more likely that the dog doesn’t understand what you are asking for, isn’t able to do what you are asking for, has something else to do that is more interesting, is in a state of conflict, or doesn’t have any reason (from his perspective) to comply.

Do not nag your dog, do not repeat yourself, and do not give commands if the dog is in a position to ignore you. If you repeat yourself, the dog learns that your commands are not meaningful or obligatory. If the dog chooses to not comply and gets away with it, you have taught the dog to ignore you.