More questions!! Do dogs understand consequence?

[Louise Perry]

Me again....

Took reuben for a walk this morning and off lead (very early into walk) he chased a whippet dog who he knows down an alley and into a cul de sac trampling over all the gardens and completely ignored my whistle. Nothing would have got him back, so I corned him, stayed calm and when got him I put him on his lead and took him staright home.

I did not get all frustrated etc but am home and am being very aloof with reuben who is looking at me in complete confusion!

Now was this the right thing to do ie, end his walk abruptly as a consequence of ignoring me? Do dogs have the capability of understanding this?

[danielle rowles]

I agree compleatly, they do understand and you did exactly the right thing, but you need to find the right time to stop the cold sholder and be friends again, besides, they are too bloody cute to ignor for too long!!

For example my eldest girl used to be terriable at going through the bins when she was younger and I would come home to rubbish all over the kitchen floor and a wagging tail "hey mum, look what I did for you" she would say!!! To this I would give her "the look" and change my tone of voice and tell her she was a naughty girl, no shouting or smacking ( i hate people who smack dogs) and then I would clean up and ignor her, after a couple of times of this she would still do the bin when I nipped out but I could tell straight away when I got home if she'd done it as she would be somewhere else in the house and be all sorry for what she had done!! These were the only words I said to her... "oh dear Elise, what have you done" all said in the right tone!!! A couple more times and she never did it again!!!!
Funnily enough though, none of my others have ever done this, perhaps this means they only reck the homes they move to as pups and not the ones they were born in!!!! lol

[Louise Perry]

thank you and I will make this rule of thumb as before I use to just put him on lead for a few mins and then let him off again, so he probably got wise to this. I will keep up the consistency of training constantly at the same time too. The main thing is I didnt get stressed and then do lots of wrong things ie , shouting & smacking etc.
we are off to training in a minute so will be friends again and mentally wear him out (hopefully). Reuben has been getting on sofa all morning and is deliberately testing me and when I say 'Off" he glares at me and I stare at him until he gives up and gets off. he is obviously in one of those moods. Luckily I am a Taurean and probably more stubborn and willful than he is and that is saying something!!!!
I did have the long line on him but he sped off too quickly, the little monkey!

[Ilona & Gina]

Do exactly the same when Gina doesn't listen (fortunately it doesn't happen too often anymore). The trick is consistency. Same behaviour, same consequence.
However, I often thought that, when the consequence of bad behaviour is to be put on the lead, dogs could see the lead as a punishment, which is not what we want!

Any ideas?

[Louise Perry]

oh gosh now i am confused, i think??? so in my scenario I put him on the lead to walk him home and hence the punishment home. would Reuben have thought the punishment was lead then? I mean I didnt want to treat or play with him as i wanted to ignore him. so do you mean at other times randomly put him on the lead and play/treat etc?

[Louise Perry]

Thank you Finn, i understand now and that makes sense. I do do the same with Reuben also so I can put the lead on without him scarpering off when he sees me reach for it. I also walk him on the lead on the grass/fields so he never knows to anticipate when the lead will go on at the end of a walk. And also that he doesnt just think grass is always going to be his area of freedom especially as I sometimes take him to watch my son's footie matches and he remains on the lead there.

By the way at training earlier today (after whippet) the trainer let out her pack of dogs to walk off lead with ours and there must have been 10 dogs and when I whistled reuben to return he came back immediately 3 times in total, so that was good!

[Louise Perry]

oh naughty Fergus, they certainly are cheeky monkeys. Reuben often takes our shoes in to the garden and I am always a shoe missing it seems. He doesnt chew them but takes them out sits by it and waits for me to come and get it, now i can ignore this (as not best cushion) and his little habit is lessening.

[Louise Perry]

completely agree sue and I really dont think his recall was good at training today because of our earlier incident, I think he was just having a good moment. But I am looking at the long term picture of consequence training and more of the fact that we ended the walk abruptly as opposed to being ignored. After all they are dogs and do not function like humans.