Talk is Cheap

When it comes to dog training, the actual words you say truly don't matter. "Off," "Out, "Heel," "Down," "Stay," "Ah-ah," and, my personal favorite: "Tsst."

Does. Not. Matter.

This is why you can train dogs in every language. Korean, Japanese, German, Tagalog. Hell, you can train a dog in a made-up language! (I'll always regret not training "out" as "expeliarmus!") Dogs are animals and they don't communicate with verbal language.

Lots of owners will tell me "no" or "off" or "tssst" used to work, but is no longer effective. 

Because your dog is wired to scan the environment for anything that might compromise continued survival, the "tsst," at least at first, holds meaning. It's out of the ordinary. It compels him to pay attention. In the natural world, it could mean an approaching predator, or the hiss of a rattlesnake. The first few times you used that word, it was different enough than your normal speech to INTERRUPT the dog's behavior, but not inhibit it.

Pretty soon, through repetition and experience, your dog figures out that "tsst" is not anything scary or dangerous. It's just something his owners say every once in a while. Since there's no valuable survival information encoded in the word, he has no reason to pay attention. The word stops interrupting the behavior, and the dog goes back to doing whatever was more rewarding in the first place. 

So, how do we make sure our words meaningful?

Pure positive dog training has it half right - make sure that click or "yes" or "good" is followed up with something the dog finds valuable. That can be food, it can be a toy, or it can be a pat on the head. It can even be release of leash pressure or verbal praise. When your dog hears "yes," he should know he is doing something right.

On the flip side, when we want our dog to STOP doing something (like when we use "no" or "tsst"), words have little meaning unless you follow up those words with a consequence. When your dog hears "no," it should signal that he made a bad choice and that a negative consequence is coming. It's the canine equivalent of "wait until your father gets home."

Remember, talk is cheap. Leaders focus on action.