Do you find yourself getting irritated that your dog isn't listening? Here are the most common three reasons...
1. Your dog doesn’t realise you have asked anything from them.
How many times have you been scrolling through your phone or watching TV, and suddenly realise someone has been talking to you… and you haven’t heard a word they’ve said!
This happens to dogs too! Sometimes they’re distracted, and sometimes it’s not clear that you’ve gone from a conversation with someone else to asking your dog to do something.
2. Your dog doesn’t understand.
It could be that the word or phrase isn’t taught well enough, and that they don’t know what it means, or it could be that they do know what it means, however not right now. Why’s that?
It could be one of two reasons.
Either, you have only ever taught your dog that cue in a particular situation (such as the kitchen, or in a one-to-one situation, or in a training session), and then they haven’t generalised the cue: They don’t know it means the same thing in all situations (such as the living room, in a group setting, or as a one-off cue).
Or alternatively, your dog understands the cue well enough, but on this occasion, they don’t understand. Perhaps they misheard, you weren’t clear enough, or maybe they just got confused (it happens to all of us!)
3. Your dog has associated the cue with something negative OR they haven’t learnt that ignoring you is fine.
This is called ‘poisoning’ a cue.
Your dog could have learnt that something unpleasant will happen. This is common when we call our dogs ‘come… come… come’ and they come eventually, so the owners tell them off for taking too long. In the dog’s eyes, they’ve just been told off for coming, so in the future, they learn to not come.
The other way this can happen is if you call the same word over and over again and it goes in one ear and out the other! Your dog is enjoying sniffing the grass or running around, all whilst they hear you shouting them to come. They’re getting rewarded (with sniffs and play) for ignoring you.
Thankfully, there are PLENTY of things you can do to get your dog listening to you again! Feel free to book in for a free discovery call for more info! Use the link below to book:
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