Dogs are dogs. They have their own way of communicating. Learning how to communicate with them takes time and patience. This simple premise was one of the things that they first taught us at D4D. The instructor for this class was Devin. She stood up in front of us and started speaking in a nonsensical language. Her voice got louder and she made exaggerated gestures with her arms. She came up to a few of us, one at a time, and tapped us on the shoulder or stood in front of us and did this. “Donachemou gnominga! Tyringhominit!,” she said with a voice that got louder, the more we just stared and looked at her not understanding what she was trying to tell us. Then she would gesture and say it again. This was a demonstration on how our communication looks to a dog when we get frustrated with them for not doing what we want them to or for something that they did wrong. Getting upset and speaking to them in an angry frustrated voice does not get our point across. She gave the example of having a pet dog and the owner yelling at them and pointing to a mess on the floor. The dog doesn’t understand English or why we are upset. We didn’t understand her nonsensical language and the dog doesn’t understand us. This isn’t effective communication. Dogs in general want to please, but it is a process in learning how to interact with them to get the results that you want.
(continued at http://www.bradleyandme.net/?p=1623)
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