Never Play Poker With Your Dog!

Of the many evolutionary changes that turned wolves into dogs, is our companion animal’s unique gift to read and respond to human body language, which they acquired over the thousands of years of cooperative living together. This of course is often shocking to the average humans who are sure that their dog understands only our verbal language, except for those times when it’s just being stubborn!

This gift is so strong that the handlers of professionally trained scent detector dogs, must be extremely careful that during the training process, they are not unwittingly giving clues to the dog by standing too close, shifting their weight or even glancing in the direction of where the hidden scent is placed.

But dogs wouldn’t seem so gifted if humans had any awareness of the many “tells” that we have. This is why, I’m guessing, many humans have been duped by fortune tellers, carnival barkers and professional poker players.

And it is for this reason that we must be mindful of our body language around our dogs or even unfamiliar dogs as they often use clues as tip offs to predict, based on prior history, what your next move will be.

Take for example, the person who reports that their dog becomes anxious before they leave the house. This is an obvious example, as the person likely does the same routine every morning, ending with grabbing the car keys. For the dog, grabbing car keys predicts being left home alone.

Another scene that gets played out in many households is the dog playing the “chase me” game when their person reaches for the harness and leash. For the dog who loves to go on walks, the dog may exhibit unbridled excitement because reaching for the leash predicts a fun walk, however, for the dog who may love walks, but hates being wrangled into its harness, let the games begin!

We’ve all heard the story of how the dog always knows when the owner is taking the dog to the vet, groomer, kennel etc. The “tell” is likely that the dog can discriminate between the casual demeanor of their human before the drive to the park to play vs the hurried movements of a person who has to meet a scheduled appointment.

When I’m coaching a client to train their dog, I always begin with what I call a “neutral stance”. This means standing still and holding both hands on the abdomen. The rationale is simply because I know that the human tendency is to rely on their voice to command the poor dog to do something, all the while the dog is actually focused on the person’s hand and body movements in its attempt to figure out this puzzle, and by the way, the dog is often anxiously moving as well in response to the person. However, by remaining still and quiet, we do not give any “tells”. The dog often stops their own movements and waits for the human to give the cue that shows the dog what to do.

There’s a story I read about a well known dog trainer who was called in to solve the problem for a client whose dog had a rock solid “Come” when called cue during practice, however when the owner took this dog to the obedience show, the dog was dumfounded when the owner called their dog. It turned out that during practice, the dog’s owner had their hair in a pony tail, but at the show, their hair was in a tight bun. The difference was noticeable to the dog, as the dog during practice was not responding to the verbal cue, “Fido, come”, but rather the swish of the owner’s pony tail when the person turned their head. In the show ring there wasn’t a pony tail to swish!

Dogs are remarkable, no doubt, but they have lots of help figuring things out with our many “tells”.

Be mindful when working with your dog. If you have an anxious dog, start working to change up your routine to desensitize Fido, and if the only time you take your dog for a ride is to do something he finds unpleasant, make sure that the majority of rides end up at the park or the drive-through of a fast food restaurant for a juicy burger!

Be thankful dogs do not have opposable thumbs, because they’d be a force to be reckoned  with at the poker table!

 HAPPY TRAINING & ENRICHMENT

© Fran Berry CPDT-KA, UW-AAB all rights reserved 2022