Playful Paws — Dog Training

Hi! I’m Megs from Playful Paws. I have a background in dog behaviour and training and believe in order for us to have a better relationship with our best friend we need to have an understanding of how they communicate.  

80% of how dogs learn is through our body language and our tone of voice. So how can we be better communicators with our dogs? The first four things we can focus on to help strengthen our relationship with our dogs are: 

CALM – our dogs can pick up on the physical changes in our body, before we even know how we are feeling! So when you come home grumpy from work, your dog can mirror this and be more ‘cheeky’. Take a deep breath and leave your day at the door. Or if you want to interact with your dog, go and do something stress free and fun – like run through some tricks, go on a sniffari or have an exploration in the yard.  

CLEAR – setting up clear expectations and boundaries is a must! It’s so easy (particularly in multiple people households) to send mixed messages to your dog. For example being allowed to jump up to say hello on one person, but not another. The best thing to do is write down some ‘house rules’ that you are working on so everyone is on the same page.  

CONSISTENT – When you have your rules, stick to them! Initially dogs don’t understand different rules for different circumstances (this can come later with experience). For example, if one day your dog is allowed on the couch, and the next day they are not allowed to, they can get confused and then make up their own rules!  

CONFIDENT – As dogs can mirror our emotions, if you are feeling anxious, stressed or worried about a situation, this can change your dogs behaviour. For example if you are worried about walking past another dog, our inclination is to hold our breath, tense up and pull on the lead – your dog can then be worried about the situation (because you are) before they have even seen a dog!  

So before you work with your dog (in any capacity) take a deep breath, shake off your daily stress, set a clear goal and most importantly have fun!