How To Speak Dog

Zen Dog Training
Episode 67: How To Speak Dog

Do you wish you could better communicate with your dog and talk to them in the language they understand? In this episode Gordon Fontaine and Jason Connell discuss how you can learn to speak "dog" and speed up the training process by ensuring you are speaking in the language they understand.

Recorded: 02-12-26
Studio: Just Curious Media
Partner: Zen Dog Training

Hosts:
Jason Connell
Gordon Fontaine

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Just Curious Media. This is Zen Dog Training, a show dedicated to helping people train the dogs they love. I'm Jason Connell. And I'm Gordon Fontaine. Gordon, I'm excited to be back for another episode. And this one's really interesting because it's how to speak dog. And I'm assuming we're not talking about barking, like what? It's got to be more. It's gonna be more than that.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Yes, yes. So I don't think it's as catchy a title to say how to speak to your dog in the language they understand. No, you're right. So how to speak dog is what we're talking about today. How do you speak to your dog? How do you act and do things in a way that helps your dog better understand you?

SPEAKER_00 0:39

Yeah, this is really interesting. I like that you're kind of narrowing it down to the best way to speak to your dog so they can understand us? Absolutely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

And there's this counterintuitive aspects to it. So I want to talk about all those things in today's episode. Great. Well, let's dive in, my friend. So the first thing is whether it's positive reinforcement or whether you want to stop an unwanted behavior, you need the sound to happen before the action. Okay. Sound first, action later. Kind of like the lessons from Pavlov. Yes. And I think we talked about this before. Pavlov rang the bell, and then a second later, then the food would appear. And whether he showed them the bowl of food or whether he rang the bell, they acted the same way. He proved that they can predict something based on that bell sound.

SPEAKER_00 1:27

So same thing here. Noise triggers a response, and then they know action's coming.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

Yeah. So the noise, they can predict that noise means here comes the food. And so that's where your yes marker, that's where the clicker, the positive reinforcement marker comes in. You say yes the second they do the behavior, and then two or three seconds later, they can get that reward, that treat. And then over time, you don't need the treat as much because your dog knows what yes means.

SPEAKER_00 1:58

Got it. And it could also be a noise of stop if they're doing something unwanted. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 2:05

But the thing that I see, and just sticking to positive reinforcement on this side, is that the dog pees or something, and then there's silence from the owner. When he's done peeing, I want to say, yes, yay, good boy. And then I'm going to give him that jackpot of two or three treats in a row. When I'm in the park and I call my dog to me, and she turns and she's running full gate. I'm using that positive reinforcement marker. Yes, yay, good girl, you're so smart. And so she knows that the behavior she's engaged in is the one that I want and I'm acknowledging, just like a good coach would.

SPEAKER_00 2:39

Absolutely. It reminds me of a coach, exactly what you're pointing out here. Like, yeah, more of that. And everyone's in this positive state of euphoria. And it pays off with some treat at the end of it, too.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

For the dogs, yeah. And then as you were saying, for the negatives, same exact thing. Instead of just silently grabbing your dog and, you know, let's say they're countersurfing their paws on the table or they're starting to pee in the wrong spot. I can use a signal, uh-uh, hey, hey, hey, hey, you know, not angry, serious, but not angry. And that sound predicts me coming to stop them. And then they start to understand, oh, when he makes that sound, I'm going to get stopped.

SPEAKER_00 3:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

And a lot of clients will call that like the police siren.

unknown 3:18

Woo!

SPEAKER_01 3:19

Yeah, you make the noise, the dog gets pulled over, and before you know it, all you have to do is say, uh-uh, hey, hey, hey. And they know you're coming next to stop them. So you don't need to actually get off the couch a couple months down the line.

SPEAKER_00 3:31

That's nice. Just a quick uh uh and then they're done. Oh, my bad. Just keep them in line from afar.

SPEAKER_01 3:37

Yeah, they know what's coming next if they keep it up. Wow. And we do this everywhere, Jason. It's with the confidence building. So if I have a dog who's shy and fearful, I take a yoga breath first to tell them I'm cool. I do some jolly talk. Oh man, is that a bus? Oh, it's okay. It's okay. And then I do my all-you-can-eat buffet of treats. So today my client said it was a suitcase with wheels, got their dog. So I jolly talk a yoga breath. I give the dog treats every time he sees a suitcase on wheels. And over time he starts to understand that there's nothing to be worried about.

SPEAKER_00 4:11

Yeah. That reminds me when I used to bathe my dogs. I had big dogs and they did not like to be bathed. They'd rather go swim and not be bathed. But I jolly talk them the whole way through it. Just to, hey, you're okay. It's amazing how effective that is to a dog.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

Yeah, you're letting them know it's calm and to relax. And we do it for the shunishment techniques. You know, it's not just you turn your back when they nip. The second the mouth bites your hand, you go, ah. Then you turn your back and turn away from them because I want the signal to be closely associated with them nipping me. So as soon as a tooth hits my hand, that's when I go, oh, and I can more closely associate that it's the action they were engaged in that caused the shun or the interruption, or indeed the reward.

SPEAKER_00 4:55

Yeah. Is this part of your first visit with clients? How to speak dog?

SPEAKER_01 5:00

Yes, absolutely. And it's one of my best guides. It's in the online packets, it's in everything we do. Sound predicts consequence.

SPEAKER_00 5:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:09

I may have mentioned this before, but I do want to talk about Pavlov again. So he did a different study that doesn't get talked about a lot. And in that study, while the dogs were eating, he rang the same bell. And regardless of how many times he did it, he was never able to get the dogs to associate the bell with food later. So if they're eating and they hear a bell, they're like, uh, whatever, I'm eating. But if they hear the bell and it predicts that delicious food, it has to be predictive.

SPEAKER_00 5:38

That's really interesting. Yeah. I mean, it works on an empty stomach, or maybe if there's a gap, but if they're already in the middle of something, it doesn't trigger it again.

SPEAKER_01 5:45

It doesn't make the same thing. So it's actually scientifically, the term is either called overshadowing or blocking. And the idea is that they can't associate that signal because it's blocked by the fact they're eating this delicious food. They're like, whatever. And so it's the anticipatory response that we're looking for. So to summarize this to my listeners, right? The way you speak your dog's language is you have clear, concise signals. And then your consistency and follow-through helps your dog understand that the signal means X. Yes, good boy means treats, reward, praise, and touch versus uh-uh-uh-uh, get out of there means I'm gonna stop you and pull you away. That's sort of the idea. Sound predicts action.

SPEAKER_00 6:30

Sound predicts action. That's great. And then they're such a creature of habits. If you stick to this plan, it works.

SPEAKER_01 6:39

Absolutely. Absolutely. You want to build that habit of understanding you and then, but I have to say, the thing that has to be said though is that there's this consistency of the sound predicting the action. And so all too often my clients will sit on the couch and say, uh-uh, hey, and not get up off the couch enough. And so their dog doesn't actually understand to stop the behavior because they don't think you're gonna follow through. If you don't follow through enough, they won't believe you, they won't believe what you're saying.

SPEAKER_00 7:08

That is fantastic, Gordon. And this has been a great episode. Talking dog, learning how to speak dog. Anything else we want to leave the listeners with before we wrap up?

SPEAKER_01 7:18

The only thing I can think of is a tangible game. And so we talked about name game in previous episodes. It's one of the core games to then dog training. And so, what you do is have those treats with you on a walk and have them hidden. Randomly call your dog's name, heli. When they look at you, say yes, good girl. I typically walk two or three more steps, four or five steps, as I fish out the treat. And then I give them the treat a little bit later. And so the idea is like I can teach my dog not to say hi or eat gross stuff off the ground. When I I want to distract and refocus them, I use a name game. I call their name Heli. Yes, when they look, I walk quickly past the trouble spot, and then they get the treat later. And so it builds up that the yes is going to predict the treat. It builds up that looking at you and walking with you is rewarded. And so it's definitely a win-win type of game to work on name game with your dog on the walks.

SPEAKER_00 8:14

That's great. I like this prolonged approach that you have as well. You really have the focus, which is great. Fantastic, Gordon. I think listeners are winning from this episode, learning how to speak dog. A fantastic episode. Please visit zendogtraining.net for all the wonderful things on there, training guides, videos. You can even stream this podcast on there. Also, check out just curiousmedia.com for all the other shows we produce. Gordon, wonderful job, my friend. Thank you, Jason. I had a blast.