Author: A. Z. Adams

Dogs learn differently. The biggest mistake I see people make when attempting to train a dog is to impute to the animal their own human feelings, perspective and intelligence. It’s natural for us to think other creatures relate to the world like we do, but they don’t. Admittedly, some of the cutest pictures online seem to show canine behavior that resembles humans. Yet, the truth is, your dog is not a person. Let’s focus for a little bit on how a dog learns a command.

Not like a person… You have a language made up of sounds that comprise words, and those words have meaning in and of themselves. When you hear the word “come,” you know what that word means; you picture that word in action, you may even recall a story or experience that highlights the meaning of that word. Yet, your dog does not have a language; he will never have a vocabulary. The word “come” will simply be a disconnected sound ringing in his ears when his body happens to be moving through space toward you. 

For people, words have intrinsic and theoretical meaning. For dogs, words will only have associative “meaning.” What do I mean by this? If I ask you what the word “come” means, you can describe that word’s meaning, unlike a dog. Yet, you also experience associative meaning. Have you ever encountered a smell that flooded your mind with memories? Or have you ever heard a childhood tune that brought back a time in feeling to you from your past? 

When I smell hey and horses, I remember my childhood in Colorado. This doesn’t mean that the hay and horses have some dictionary meaning spelling out the country’s geographical region called “Colorado.” Instead, a conscious behavior was associated and connected to a subconscious stimulation–a smell, tune, etc.. The other action has no actual connection to the stimuli; nonetheless, one brings back the other because they coincided.

Similarly, your dog is going to learn that pleasing you puts a pleasant taste in his mouth, and he’s going to realize that when he’s running in your direction, an utterly unintelligible sound is echoing in his ears, “come!” “come!” 

Why is this important? If you assume that your dog cognates words as you do, you’re going to use those words to try to force his behavior prematurely. In short, you shouldn’t use a command as a command until your dog has completely habituated the combination of the action with the crazy human sound. In the early stages of training, you should make up your mind to give NO command that you’re not CERTAIN he will obey. You must figure out how to induce the behavior; once the action is in motion, sound out the command. If you do this consistently, the animal will start associating the behavior with the command, followed by a reward. In time, you will be able to use the sound to induce the action, but NOT at the beginning!

The biggest mistake amateurs make is forcefully insisting on commands before the dog has entirely made the association between the behavior and sound. Challenge yourself to figure out how to trigger your dog’s desired behavior. Once he’s doing it, call out that command. And repeat that process over and over and over. Only when you’re sure he’s making the association should you carefully try to issue the order, combined with body language, and expect your dog to respond accordingly. Reward him exuberantly with praise and a treat.