Train your dog to understand scolding
I have read that dogs cannot remember what they did even a few minutes in the past. This means that all consequences have to follow the dog’s behaviour immediately. How soon after a behaviour do you need to act before they forget what they were doing?
Dogs don’t have amnesia. They can clearly remember things. For example, many dogs run into the house and look for a bone they were chewing an hour previously, exactly where they left it.
However, when it comes to efficiently training our dogs, consequences should happen immediately after bad behaviour. This is a grammar issue.
Humans use language in rich, complex and nuanced ways. We can talk about future plans. We can discuss past experiences. It allows us to praise someone for actions that happened yesterday.
Dogs can learn that words and phrases predict outcomes. While there are some exceptions, consequences usually happen right after an event or sequence of events.
Pets learn that “car ride” means an outing. The event usually follows the uttered phrase. We wouldn’t expect a dog to work out the connection if we said “car ride” hours before the trip.
The closer the consequence is to the behaviour, the easier it is for dogs to put two and two together. We have no way of using past tense to explain that what a pet did hours ago is making us happy or upset at the moment.
Some people are convinced that dogs look guilty when chastised. When people point to damaged objects, the dog appears to slink or look remorseful.
We need to take special care in our interpretation of such actions.
In an old but clever study, Alexandra Horowitz put the guilty look to the test. Dogs were told to leave food alone while the owner was out of the room. When the owners returned, the dogs were observed.
However, some of the people were misled into thinking that their obedient dog had in fact disobeyed. Other dogs were disobedient, but owners were told that the dog had been good.
Obedient dogs, with no reason to be guilty, showed the most pronounced guilty looks when admonished.
The researchers concluded that the guilty look was likely more tied to scolding — a reaction to the human. The dog slinked because the human acted angry, not because they felt guilty over some misdeed.
It’s important that we do not assume that our dogs can mentally time travel and connect the deed with scolding.
If we want our dogs to learn quickly and efficiently, keep consequences close to the behaviour in question. It gives clarity. I have taught my dog that they should look to me when I say their name. I find that I am forever repeating myself, almost nagging. How can I get my dog to respond the first time?
By teaching a dog that their name means “look at me,” it turns the dog’s name into a command or cue. With one exception, it’s no different from teaching a dog that the cue “sit” means to sit.
People like to chatter to their dogs with praise and happy dialogue. Our dogs hear their names repeatedly through the day. Their names are not being used as a command. Each time the dog hears their name in passing, it will become an irrelevant noise. The dog starts to pay less attention to their name because they have learned that it usually means nothing important.
The easiest way around this issue is to use a different command. Teach the dog that a word like, “ready” means “look at me.” Chat to the dog freely, using their name without weakening the actual command.