So your dog is not listening to you…and I bet you are getting more frustrated by the day! Here are the top 3 reasons your dog does not listen to you:
1. He does not understand what you are asking of him. Imagine travelling to Germany and not speaking a single word of German. You get off the plane and someone starts speaking to you in German. You don’t understand what they are saying. They repeat themselves a few times, obviously getting more frustrated that you are not replying. Now apply that to your dog. Telling your dog to “sit” when he doesn’t know what “sit” means, you might as well be speaking German to him!
2. He understands what you are asking of him but doesn’t think you actually mean it. If you have kids you have probably found them watching TV yet they have a messy room. You ask them to go clean their room. They ignore you and continue watching TV. You ask again. Still they ignore you and continue watching TV. Do you follow through and make them clean their room? If you ask your dog to sit, follow through and make them sit. If you don’t have the means to make them follow through (ie. maybe your dog walks away when you ask him to sit), then put the leash on and have him follow through. Often dogs don’t listen because they don’t take you seriously. If last time you asked him to sit and he didn’t but you never followed through, then your dog doesn’t think you mean it. So if you say sit, mean it!
3. You’re asking more than he can handle at his current level of training. You may have heard me talk about the 3 D’s of training. They are Duration, Distance, and Distraction. In order for your dog to be able to sit and hold the sit with distractions (ie another dog in sight), you need to practice! Once he can handle the commands with little to no distractions then you can slowly add them. You can also layer distance and duration into the equation, but all with PRACTICE!
So now that you know the top 3 reasons your dog does not listen, work on fixing these issues and I bet your dog will start listening to you a lot better!
Happy Training!
Katherine
Canines In Balance
Hamilton, Ontario
