Less Is More. Are You Making Learning More Difficult For Your Dog?

Think back to the good old days, when we enjoyed a meal in a crowded, noisy restaurant with many different conversations, laughter, and raised voices surrounding us.

How did we manage to have a conversation with our friends or family at the table? By eventually tuning out the ambient noise. Sometimes our brain might pick up a conversation or two from nearby or loud tables, but eventually they faded into the background again.

Our brains focused on the people we were with and blocked out all others.

The ability to block out irrelevant noise developed over the course of our lifetime. It’s why we don’t pay attention to every single sound bite in the environment. Our heads would explode.

Think of learning a new language and the type of environment most conducive to learning.

Would it be easier to pay attention and learn amidst a large crowd with lots of activity including movement and sound ? Or might it be easier without ambient noise and a busy environment?

Consider our dogs, who have a totally different language for communication.

If you have ever been a client of mine you know I always say zip it when working on teaching new verbal cues.

The less you say, the better.

If you have a steady stream of chit chat as you work, it’s difficult for your dog to know which of the words are relevant. Dogs are visual learners. Those are the signals they will pay attention to first.

It’s not unlike sitting in the crowded restaurant before your brain adjusts.

Until your dog figures out what is the relevant information, he just hears a buzz of sound.

I’ve mentioned this many times. When you interact with your dog, be aware of how much you talk and how much irrelevant information is given.

When teaching new verbal cues, what is relevant and what is not, is important.  It is more challenging for your dog to learn verbal cues than it is to follow hand signals.

When I am working on “go sniff” and “follow”, those are the only words I say. There is no extra chit chat, other than some praise.

I am very quiet, so when my dog hears my voice, it will be because I am asking him to do something. He won’t have to wade through an abundance of words or gestures trying to guess what is relevant.

This is key in the training phase.

Outside of a training session, by all means, talk as much as you want with your dog! I do. All the time.