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Dog Behaviour: Stubborn Disobedience or Communication?

10/7/2014

13 Comments

 
Picture
I really appreciate my dog. Her funny wee behaviours have challenged my preconceived ideas of how a dog might see the world. I wanted to share my ponderings on what often happens on our walks together.

We go for walks in our neighbourhood and I often take her lead off in the quiet areas. Being the dog trainer I am, it has become natural for me to combine teaching with just about anything we do together. Walks are no exception. I have a treat pouch pretty much growing out of my hip. Which is not such a bad thing because many times I never use it. That fact alone has meant it hasn’t become the motivator for getting behaviour. Just because I’m wearing a treat pouch doesn’t mean what we are doing is any more special or urgent than when I am not wearing one. It’s not even a guarantee of treats. It means I don’t have a dog who goes nuts every time they see the treat pouch going on. Zuri doesn’t go into “train me” mode at the sight of a treat pouch. It’s a neat thing.

So, our walks are usually meandering investigations of the streets, parks and beaches of our local area with little requests of certain behaviours thrown in from me. One of my favourites is the “wait” at every roadside curb. It started with planned training and has now progressed to a point where I don’t ask her to “wait”, she does it automatically without clicker or food reinforcement. The continuing walk has become the reinforcement. Here’s how we started.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4qgQabhYKs

I let her know it’s time to cross by saying “OK”. I like to fool around and mix it up a bit by waiting different lengths of time before saying “OK”. I say random words like “red”, “blue”, or numbers just so she doesn’t cross at the first word I say or at the sound of my voice. I sometimes stop and say “OK”, I sometimes keep walking and say it. Sometimes I face her, sometimes my back is to her. It keeps me thinking creatively and it teaches her a really, really solid “wait” no matter what until she hears that one word.

Then something unusual began happening on our walks. She would wait at the roadside while I crossed but when I said “OK”, she wouldn’t cross. She just stood there looking at me. It even happened when I called her into a park. She loves zoomies in the park. What on earth was going on? I tried to prompt her, made it look really exciting. Nothing.

Now this is where perception – that is, how we view our dog’s behaviour – can have a huge impact on our behaviour and our relationship with our dog.

I don’t know what’s going on in Zuri’s head. I can only see her behaviour and make assumptions on what may or may not be going on inside. There are many ways I could view this behaviour of not coming across the road when I say “OK”. Here’s a few (you could probably come up with others);

*    She’s being wilfully disobedient. She knows what I want and is deliberately disobeying me. If I believe this, what do you think my subsequent behaviour will be? I would probably give her a few more chances to come, then go back and put her lead on and force her to come across the road.

*    She’s asserting her dominance and testing me to see if she can rank higher. Well, she’s not going to get away with that! If I thought that, I’d probably force her to do what I asked.

*    She doesn’t want to go to the park. She wants to walk somewhere different today. I guess I can choose whether what she wants trumps what I want and behave accordingly.

*    She’s being cheeky. She is getting a bit a giggle out of seeing how long she can just stare at me before I come back. I guess I could chuckle along with her or get a bit annoyed.

What I think is going on in her head really could be what is going on in my head, not necessarily what is going on in hers. It can change the way I feel about her, whether I feel closer to her or annoyed. It’s actually not very helpful to try and get too far into a dog’s thoughts.

This behaviour made me curious. What would she do if I walked back over to her and walked in a different direction. So I did it. She trotted happily along when I started moving in the direction she had previously looked a few times. I tried crossing the road again to the park and she wouldn't come. When I returned to her, she was happy to continue along the footpath.

Most times, she comes. Sometimes she doesn't. When I go back to her she is happy to go another way. Could it be that dogs have likes and dislikes? Could they have preferences on different days as to whether they’d like a zoomie in the park or a sniff of the side-walk? Could all the training she has been given have opened up a way to have a dialogue with me that I might understand, so that she can convey these preferences at certain times? (Yes, it sounds like I'm getting into her head, but stick with me here).

Interestingly, she is off lead, so if she wanted to go a different way, she could just….well….go. She doesn't have a history of punishment for running off, so there’s nothing to be scared of if she just blew me off and walked where ever she wanted. The worst that would happen is that I’d follow and put the lead on – well, I guess technically that is punishing! She looks at me, waits for me and then follows when I step off in a certain direction. Now you can have a bit of insight into my head, because I feel she is communicating with me. I think she is letting me know what is reinforcing for her on particular walks.

The other interesting thing is that if I don’t back down, she will come where I have indicated without any force required.

Here’s what one of our recent walks looked like.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LK2cKI3zVyc


What I do know is that I appreciate this behaviour very much. I appreciate that she doesn’t run away without me if she doesn’t want to follow. I appreciate that she will seem to put in her veto of the direction I am travelling, yet still acquiese to my desire in the end if I persist. I only need to persist gently. I don’t have to drag her or get angry. She simply responds to my voice. I appreciate that this behaviour reminds me that we’re on this walk mainly for her, not just for me to drag her around where ever I want.

Back to perception. I feel closer to her, I appreciate her and I even feel that she likes my company because of the way I perceive this behaviour as communication rather than disobedience. I enjoy trying to figure out what she is attempting to convey. If I felt she was being stubborn or status seeking, I wouldn’t have such feelings. I might even feel annoyed and a sense of disliking her on these occasions. I may feel the need to compete with her for leadership rather than the sense of being a partnership.

It may seem like I’m contradicting myself by saying don’t try and get into a dog’s head and then I seem to get into my own dog’s head by talking about her preferences on walks. If it causes no harm and has the potential to enhance the human-dog bond, I’m not as pendantic as those instances where the dog may suffer as a result. If the dog suffers, the relationship usually suffers.

I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s walk. I wonder where Zuri would like us to go.
13 Comments
Bill
25/7/2014 01:09:16 pm

Same with my Roxie, but I figure it's her walk and not mine. Its probably no different to the days when I hurry her, or take her on a shorter walk because I have things to do. She sees herself as part of me, and I guess she is learning to express her own opinions. Frustrating, but I am sure it is for her as well.

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Sonya link
26/7/2014 10:27:53 am

Thanks for the comment Bill. I'm glad I'm not the only one who figures the walk is for the dog more than the human :-)

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Dave
31/8/2014 12:33:30 am

This is the story that I first read on your site and compelled me to read all of your blog posts. I loved your thought process you described and the videos just reinforced (positively! - pun intended :-) why it's important to take a step back and see the situation from her perspective. If you look at it from Zuri trying to express her feelings it becomes quite a different and even more enjoyable experience for all. The way you lead up to the final few paragraphs where you talk about the relationship as being a partnership is quite compelling.

Oh, for us non Aussies, what's a zoomie? :-)

Zuri is a wonderful dog and it's easy to see why from your posts and videos.

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Sonya Bevan link
31/8/2014 09:50:21 am

I think you totally "get it"! thanks so much for popping into my blog world and giving such positive feedback. What's a zoomie? It's that running with abandonment around and around that dogs do sometimes (Zuri was doing it at the beach at the end of the video) Here'a a great example of a dog who's supposed to being doing agility suddenly breaking out into a serious case of the "zoomies". Enjoy. http://dogagilityvideos.com/siberian-husky-contracts-a-severe-case-of-dog-agility-zoomies/

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Dave
2/9/2014 06:50:27 pm

lol! Thanks for the example of a zoomie! Now, if only we were all doing zoomies like Zuri and Shiva, what a fun place and time this would be! Thanks!

Betsy Kiplinger link
9/12/2014 12:00:03 am

Wow, your blog post really reminded me of my dog (passed away a few years ago). I would let him choose our direction at street corners (with some limits). For a long time, I thought that he must be picking up on some signal of mine (like Mr. Ed), but eventually a few incidents clearly demonstrated that he was choosing his path. He once led me by back streets to a park that we had only previously reached by car from a totally different direction. Another time, I told him to take us home, and he chose to go down the street next to ours. At one house he proceeded to traipse across the yard towards the back yard. And, that's when I realized that he had actually led me to the house behind ours (the houses were all similar so I had never figured it out). Sadly, I had to take him back around the block, as I didn't think it was polite to traipse across the neighbor's property just because my dog wanted to take a short-cut. I loved having him make his own choices on walks. He took me so many places that I would never have thought of going. Then, again, his favorite destination was the park with "squirrel hill" which he would ask to go to 90% of the time. I was always insisting that he skip that turn.

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Sonya Bevan link
9/12/2014 12:42:18 am

Hi Betsy, Thanks for your comment. It sounds like you and your dog had a good thing going :-) It's nice to feel like a team and be on the walk together, isn't it? Bet you miss him.

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Celia Ruiz Escobar
19/8/2019 11:46:06 pm

What about if he doesn't want to walk at all? if he wants to go back home? I have a greyhound called Jupiter, he is 5 months old and a very strong personality.
He can spend the sleeping and never wants to go for a walk. We need to drag him, literally.
He does his neccessities outside and then turn direcction back home.
In our walks, he enjoys when playing with other dogs and people, but at first he always wants to go home. In every single oportunity, he turns to go back home.

Reply
Sonya Bevan link
22/8/2019 08:10:26 pm

Hi Celia,
This is such a pertinent question. Thanks so much for asking. Without actually seeing Jupiter's behaviour in this scenario, it is difficult for me to give you an answer that would be accurate for his specific behaviour. There could be many reasons that Jupiter doesn't seem to want to go for a walk: from pain/discomfort (which he can override if he's doing something he enjoys like playing with other dogs), to needing more time to get used to the environment with sniffing and looking around before going on the walk, to him having some concerns with the environment (loud noises, fast moving objects, strange smells etc). I'm just throwing those reasons out there. They may or may not relate to Jupiter. A really thorough assessment of what might be causing him to turn around at every single opportunity to go back home would be advisable in this case. Once you get an idea of that reason, you will be in a better position to help him. And the beauty of a good assessment is that you will be able to help him in a way that doesn't involve the need to drag him. Once you find out what may be motivating his behaviour of turning around to go home, you can put strategies in place to change his behaviour. I hope that helps.

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    Sonya Bevan is an avid dog lover with a Bachelor of Science degree in physiotherapy. This combination lead to seeking science based information on how to teach dogs and she commenced further study to complete a Diploma of Canine Behaviour Science and Technology. Dog training is both a science and an art. When based on solid principles of behavioural science,  teaching also allows creativity when applied to each unique dog. Most of all, it should be fun for both participants and a way to bond with these special animals we love so much.

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