JULIE’S THOUGHTS FOR MORE GOOD DOGMA, MARCH 2009

"You say it best when you say nothing at all” ~ a verse from one of my favorite country songs.

We all love to hear ourselves speak. As humans, it is our favorite method of communication. It is constant in our lives. It is the way we can most easily express ourselves in order to get a point across or to communicate our emotions in a variety of different octaves. We even talk to ourselves at times. And yes, we love to talk the ears off of our most beloved family members, our dogs. Most recently, I had to have my tonsils removed. This of course limited me to how much and how well I was able to speak for a couple of weeks. It was frustrating not to be able to just blurt out what was on my mind to who ever was in the room with me with out being in severe pain or sounding like I had a speech impediment. Speaking is a past time that I truly enjoyed all of my life. My mother informed me that I was able to speak very clearly at 8 months of age. As a matter of fact, I must admit public speaking was one of my favorite classes in college. I love teaching group dog classes probably because I had the wonderful opportunity to speak my mind on one of my favorite subjects. I am expressive and love being so. I have no problem telling people how I feel even if it’s negative. My emotions are very important to me and expressing them vocally and communicating verbally to others is a true gift to me. But I started to wonder as I was recovering from my tonsillectomy if my voice would ever return. I took talking for granted. Even in communicating with my own dogs and the dogs of others, I took for granted. Of course the subject that we as human beings talk to our dogs way too much and the fact that verbal communication is far from necessary in the canine world was not a new to me. I have been quite aware over the past few years in my experiences with canine communication and relationship building that verbal language is highly over rated and at times detrimental to the canine human bond. But I must express (of course verbally) that I am quite amazed how well I was still able to communicate with my dogs despite my lack of voice. They still understood me and I didn’t have to say one word to them out loud. Yes, I still mouthed the words, but I was more aware of the body language and other expressive energy I was using to get a message across to them.

A few years ago, around the time I started my agility career with my lab, I recall the most amazing Dog/handler team in our class. It was a young teenage girl about 14 and an Australian Shepherd. The dog was a rescue that happened to be completely deaf. The relationship this team had was a match made in heaven. Never was a word spoken or a sound made when this team stepped into the ring to perform a course or a sequence, yet the communication between these two individuals was perhaps the most beautiful I had ever seen. The silence was emotional. Body language was the key element in this “dance”.

I guess the point I am trying to make about language between dog and handler is that words are actually very superficial if there happens to be a solid relationship and a strong understanding of one another (dog and person). Words are often said too much. We over use them and abuse them. We also blow our vocalizations out of proportion. Words and sounds often hurt especially if we are not able to control our emotions when using them. How often to you yell at your dog? How often to you create an abomination of verbal diarrhea to your dog? Have you ever tried saying less or saying nothing at all? l

Being home sick for 2 weeks with no voice I was able to put this philosophy into practice with my own dogs on a higher level. It was quite fun! My dogs, especially my Golden, tend be quite reactive to the sounds in our six unit apartment building, there is always doors being slammed, voices in the hallway and late night parties. I decide to take this opportunity and use the new “silent” way of communicating to my advantage. Any reaction from her vocally (barking) was reciprocated back to her from me with just a stare. If she did not respond, I stood up. If she stopped I motioned to her to come in my direction and go straight towards the cookie jar where she received ever so gentle verbal praise and of course treats. I also try this tactic in other situations. My dogs tend to get overly excited when it is time to go out. They go “bananas” whenever I get the leashes out. My old tactic was a verbal cue to get into their beds and lie down. Yes this would redirect their behavior but the undesirable behavior kept repeating it self every time. My new” silent” tactic is now getting the leashes, if a reaction occurs I drop the leashes ignore them and walk away. Sudden Silence!! My golden even will take it a step further and go directly to her bed and lie down.

I am not saying that this tactic will change your dog over night. This silent way of communicating must be nurtured and practiced. It is a difficult thing to do especially for humans. A definite relationship and trust must be established between you and your dog before any language or level of communication can be mastered. I’m also not saying not to ever talk to your dogs. I still talk to my dogs a lot and I think they like it some times. I just think that we must respect our dogs as creatures of a non-verbal language first and foremost. Let’s try to learn their language first before we expect them to learn ours. I think one will find that it works much better. The results are amazing. It would be my pleasure to host a seminar on this very subject in the near future. My intention is to research on this subject even further.

“You must be very patient,” replied the fox. “First you’ll sit down at a little distance from me - like that-in the grass. I shall look at you out of the corner of my eye, and you will say nothing. Words are the source of misunderstandings. But you’ll sit a little closer to me, every day” (St. Exupery, 1943, Ch. 21).