Oh Behave!

In an old Destiny’s Child song a woman singer, suspicious that her boyfriend is cheating on her, asks him on the telephone to say her name. If he says it, it will mean one thing – no other woman’s with him to give him grief about talking to the singer/girlfriend. If he won’t say the singer’s name, it means something else. Without much thought we understand implicitly the context of the singer’s request and that the boyfriend’s utterance of her name (or not) is loaded with meaning. As members of a verbal species, such is the power of language among us.

All of this nuance, context and meaning is lost on dogs.

In training classes and the real world, I frequently hear folks saying their dogs’ names in a disapproving tone when the dogs are doing something the people don’t like. Someone says the dog’s name and only the name without saying a verbal cue, and becomes perplexed and aggravated when the dog doesn’t comply.

Here’s a typical scenario:

Sadie the yellow lab mix is jumping on a visitor. Mary, Sadie’s person says, Sayyyy–deeee, in a long drawn out way. Sadie continues to jump.

Mary (to the visitor): I’m sorry, she knows she knows she’s not supposed to do this.

Mary (again in a long drawn out way): Sayyy-deeee.

Sadie, unphased, keeps jumping.

Now Mary’s frustrated. Sadie, she says, raising her voice. No effect.

Mary’s very annoyed. In an angry sharp voice she shouts, SADIE!

We know what Mary’s tone of voice means. Stop jumping. I don’t like it when you do that. We’re human. Speech and tones of voice are two of our primary means of communication.

But Sadie’s a dog. All she hears is Mary repeating her name in different ways. Mary hasn’t given Sadie any guidance about what to do. Mary hasn’t asked her to sit, lie down, or do anything else.

Sadie, like most dogs, probably does pick up on tones of voice. While she may be aware at some point that Mary is upset, Sadie probably doesn’t know why. It’s a good bet that Sadie doesn’t know what Mary wants her to do or not do. These situations must be awfully confusing to dogs.

Unless you’ve trained your dog to do something in particular when you say her name, your dog’s name by itself isn’t a cue or request to do something. Saying your dog’s name doesn’t communicate anything to your dog. It doesn’t mean sit, or stay, or stop jumping.

Dogs aren’t mind readers. If you’d like your dog to do something particular, give her clear unambiguous cues for behvaiors you’ve trained her to do. Instead of just saying your dog’s name and expecting her to know what you want her to do, say her name and then say the word for a behavior you’ve trained her to do. In Sadie’s case, Mary might say, Sadie sit, or, Sadie go to your mat.

Communicating clearly with your dog will save you a lot of time, avoid frustration on your part and confusion on your dog’s part. You’ll both be a lot happier if you spell things out in a way that the dog can understand.

(Training your dog to look at you when when you say her name is a great foundational behavior. I’ll write soon on the hows and whys of doing that in another post called, “What’s in a Name?”)