Dog Training and Your Dog's Emotions
For me, it’s very difficult to think about training a dog without thinking about their emotions.
If your dog is excited, stressed or frustrated, their training will be limited. So it’s crucial we consider this when training our dogs, especially when we start applying that training to the real world.
Understanding Your Dog’s Emotions
I like to picture a thermometer when thinking about emotions.
- Green Zone= your dog is nice and calm, they will listen to you and follow direction with no problems. For example, when training at home.
- Orange Zone= your dog is a bit aroused, they can listen to you and follow direction but it is trickier for them and might take them longer to respond. For example, when there is another dog in the distance.
- Red Zone= your dog is very aroused and cannot listen to you, it’s not that they don’t want to listen to you, physical systems have kicked in that mean they are unable to listen to you. For example, when your dog is excited to meet another dog walking towards them.
Dog Emotions and Dog Training
When working with our dogs, we want to try to prevent them from reaching that red zone as much as possible.
Watch your dog’s body language and help them calm down before they get into that red zone. Use naturally calming behaviours (such as sniffing, licking and chewing) to bring your dog back down.
My favourite game for calming dogs down is called ‘find it’. All you do is sprinkle some treats on the ground and say ‘find it’. Not only does it help calm your dog down by getting them sniffing, it also works as a distraction technique you can use when needed.
Afraid to Feel?
Sometimes I meet people who are worried about their dog being frustrated or aroused. It’s ok for our dogs to feel these things- we all get frustrated sometimes! But we need to teach them coping skills so they are able to calm themselves down again instead of getting stuck there.
Focus on introducing calm pauses when playing with your dog to teach them these skills.
For example, when playing fetch with your dog, do a find it between ball throws. Or hide the ball for them to sniff instead of always chasing it.
Need Help With Your Dog’s Big Feelings?
Find out more about my training packages:
1-2-1 Dog Training in Edinburgh
