THE ART OF SILENCE

https://www.beacondogtraining.com.au/short-article-power-of-silence

Sit...sit...sit, sit, siiiiittttttt..SIT!  SIT DOWN! SIT!

All too often, I see parents of both the 2 and 4 legged variety spending far too much time and energy trying to get them to do something simple and every day like SIT.  How many times do we see pet owners who ask their dog over and over again to do what should be quite a simple command? Do they not know what it means?  Are they blowing you off?  Actually - you have probably taught them that either the cue is 10 repetitions long or that there is no consistency in the cue and they are confused.

We as human beings are a very verbal society and our preferred method of communication is verbal (and for many of us this is accompanied by quite a few gesturing waves thrown in for good measure).

Dogs primary method of communication is NON-verbal. So for them, the constant stream of information can be frustrating at best and overwhelming at the worst.

There are many times when we don't need to put as much verbal energy into a situation as we do. Deaf dogs can obviously learn just as well as hearing dogs, so the verbal component is NOT the key.  By learning when and how to use your voice in training, you can increase the effectiveness of your training by 60% with just this one adaptation.

Much like the old Santa Claus adage, dogs are watching everything you do, and they read far more off body language then the actual words, you say. It doesn't matter if you train your dog in English, German, Russian or a completely nonsensical language - people train in Harry Potter spells, Elvish and Klingon - the dogs don't care.

They don't know the word until you teach it to them, and they really have no preference for what spoken language you are using, but rather the timing, tone and energy level of it.  There is no standard cue you can use that your dog will recognize and immediately follow.  To them, most of the time, we sound like the Charlie Brown teacher - wah wah waaaah wah - SIT - wah wah - DOWN...

SO WHAT DO YOU DO THEN?

TIMING:  When TEACHING a behavior - acknowledge and mark with the word when they are DOING the behavior - not BEFORE.  Telling a dog that doesn't know DOWN to do so over and over as they stand there and look at you does not connect the word with the behavior you want in their mind at all.

Now if you see them in a DOWN - Capture it!! - That is when you say the word - YES! DOWN! - when they are DOING the behavior.

Once they understand the behavior - then you can start asking for it beforehand but they should be at about 80-85% reliability before this.

TONE:  Cues should be given in a CONVERSATIONAL tone.  If your dog can hear a cheese wrapper crinkle from 3 rooms away - they heard what you said right in front of them.  

Practice WHISPER TRAINING - how quietly can you say the cue and they respond.  This encourages focus and relating to the handler vs what can quickly become avoidance or stress behaviors in your dog and you feeling like you have to be harsh or punitive.  If you have to get loud or aggressive with your dog's cues - including things like Leave It - they do not know the behavior well enough.  It isn't a matter of volume - getting louder, more insistent and frustrated doesn't make behavior happen any faster - it just makes it less consistent.

ENERGY LEVEL - I'm not talking about Cesar Milan "energy" here but actual applied volume and movement energy.  The energy level you put into your words does matter.

When you're training something static like a body position - SIT, DOWN or STAND, impulse control exercises like WATCH, LEAVE and matwork or your dog is doing problem solving brain games - you want to put as little verbal energy into that as possible. When you want a calm behavior from your dog - you must have calm hands, calm mind & a calm mouth.

Now, if you're trying to get an active behavior, such as a fast recall or an excited touch - this is where you are going to direct a high level of energy and excitement.  When you want movement, be animated with your voice and your body - this is the time for praise parties and cheerleading.

Your voice, or lack thereof, should always reflect the energy level you are trying to achieve.

Especially for service dogs, I think it's important that you are able to communicate with them as simply as possible and being able to just give a quick hand signal that they can reliably respond to can go a long way to making things much easier in challenging public situations. If you don't have to stop and address your dog multiple times verbally - but can instead just give a subtle hand signal and keep going, you are likely to be much less stressed and in crowded or loud environments, you don't have to worry about being heard.

In the videos below, you can see the beginnings of hand signal only work with Luna. We want her to respond quickly and correctly, the first time a cue is given and be able to focus on Daishia in public no matter what the distraction.

These are taught as separate components to the behavior.

First we have to teach the behavior itself.  That is what I am doing here.  Introducing the beginnings of the behavior, luring her into position with a modified version of the finished hand signal that we will clean up as she understands and then marking and only telling her the word when she is in the desired position.

Hand signals I recommend but you can of course create your own

Then we will introduce what criteria she needs to meet to get it right - our 4 D's:

• DISTANCE
• DURATION
• Under DISTRACTION
• With DIVERSITY 

Then we want to put it on our reliable cue given in a QUIET, CONVERSATIONAL TONE (or even whisper) or SUBTLE hand signal (of which she will have both verbal and hand signal)

No loud, harsh toned verbals - no exaggerated, large body signals - no repeats. 
Then we can call the behavior complete.

Again, this is just the way that I personally choose to train things. This is not, by any means, the only way.

Sue Ailsby sums it up nicely in her introduction to her TRAINING LEVELS system.

QUIET HANDS, QUIET BODIES, QUIET MOUTHS
When a good dressage rider goes through her routine with her horse, she appears to be doing nothing. Her hands barely move, her body barely moves, and any words she says are whispered. This is the ideal for dog trainers as well – quiet hands, quiet bodies, and quiet mouths. Concentrate on what your hands, body, and voice are saying to the dog. He'll learn faster and easier when he's not distracted by extraneous motion and noise.

Here is Luna learning her SIT on signal.  She is a cheeky monkey in that she will sit if she sees/smells the treat in my hand - otherwise she will bark, back off and carry on.  This is not her misbehaving, she isn't being bossy or demanding - she is simply early enough in the learning process that she doesn't have an understanding of how payroll works yet.  She will learn that she still gets paid - in food, treats, play, praise or affection AFTER she does the behavior as we go but for now the important part is to show her HOW to do the behavior and then we will raise the criteria.

Her DOWN is being taught as a foldback down - meaning she doesn't SIT first. There are many reasons for this including to strengthen the difference between the two so when asked for a STAY in a certain position - she can maintain that position.

A lot of dogs taught DOWN from SIT generalize that it's coming and slide into a DOWN when asked to SIT - predicting you're going to ask for that - and then you have to retrain that. Or you can skip the SIT all together as it has nothing to do with the DOWN anyway.

In both of these videos, you can see I am clicking/marking the correct behavior and save the verbal components for praise and telling her what the behavior is called as we build it.

Try it - you might be surprised at the difference it makes!