Showing posts with label Communication. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Communication. Show all posts

Friday, June 5, 2015

How Your Dog Communicates With You

There is more to a man’s relationship with dog than just affection and sincerity. Dogs connect and communicate with humans on a more spiritual level. They not only use physical actions to communicate but they also send messages through non-verbal signals, postures, and body language. Dogs are known as a man’s best friend. This saying can’t be truer as the bond that a dog and a human share is superior than the bond that a dog shares with other creatures. It can be said that the bond between humans and dogs is on another level, a level which is complex and controversial. 

As humans, we accept only one form of communication i.e. verbal. As the most superior creatures, we believe that dogs do not have the capability to feel and think like us. That’s the reason we fail to form a spiritual or a deeper bond with them. However, it is true that dogs are extremely intelligent and capable of communicating to us on a deeper level. It is not just simple actions and tricks that helps you interact with the dog but there is more meaning behind every action the dog makes, and every signal that it sends. To be able to understand the bond between humans and dogs, let’s take a look at the different ways dogs communicate with us since the time they are young pups.

The Truest Form of Communication

To understand a dog’s reaction to human expressions and actions, we need to consider a few examples. Just like a little child, a puppy follows its owners/guardians. When you pick up a ball from the ground, you will notice that your puppy will pick it up after you. Every move you make the puppy copies. 
This happens because the puppy is interested in the things that its owners are doing. It gets involved in practices that it observes around itself. When you show interest in anything, your dog will too. This is the purest form of communication that happens without any verbal signals. The dog shows interest in things that its owner is interested in. This is a great revelation that tells us that a dog is capable of following our commands to our will.

How Dogs Help Detect Threats

When you closely observe a dog’s behavior, you will come to know dogs can be trained to follow certain desirable actions. The dogs that are part of the military squads and help detect drugs, explosives, and weapons; they develop these skills upon receiving training from humans. If you start training a dog to detect drugs and explosives, you might be intimidated to use toys and treats as a way to bribe the dog to perform in a certain way. However, the thing that you are missing is that your dog will only take interest in things that you are interested in. You might find positive reinforcement training techniques helpful but if you believe that the dog is able to understand your expressions and feelings on a deeper level, you would not use such techniques while training the dog to detect explosive and drugs. 
The dog will be interested in the toys more and will be distracted from the actual detection task. Therefore, it is important to understand that a dog will show interest in detection if you communicate with it in a more effective way. Dogs often make use of verbal actions to point out things to their owners. When the dog sees a stranger walking into the door, it barks to communicate with you using verbal signals. Signals like these are extremely helpful as they help keep the homeowners aware of intruders and thieves.

Focusing Your Interest

The best way to make your dog learn detection tricks is to focus your attention towards it. Do not add distractions to the training process and understand that your dog will show interest in the things you focus on. To be able to train your dog to detect drugs and explosive, you need to connect with your dog on a more spiritual level. However, many people fail to believe that dogs and humans can communicate spiritually. 
When you focus on something that you want your dog’s attention at, you will witness that your dog will also put its focus on that thing. There is no need to use toys and treats to bring the dog’s attention to a desired thing because your dog will sense your signals and will put its focus on the same thing without needing any distraction. 

Developing Trust

When we talk about military dogs, we need to know that these dogs are trained to detect drugs and explosives. The great thing about these dogs is that they perform their task without alarming the people in the surrounding. To train a dog to detect explosive and drugs is a complicated task. However, with the help of trust, the desired results can be achieved rather easily.
The handler and its dog should have a bond of trust. The handler should be able to trust the dog’s every action and similarly, the dog should trust the handler for every action that they command it to perform. This bond of trust can only be formed if the trainer and the dog are connected spiritually. 
During detection training, the handler should be able to trust the dog’s instincts. It is not a good practice to discourage the dog for its judgment. To be able to benefit from the dog’s detection skills, you need to trust it. 

Teaching the Dog to Communicate in an Improved Way

Dogs are super active and possessive about their owners. Moreover, they protect their owners from harm and threats. We often find our dogs barking at strangers on the road. However, instead of considering the dog’s behavior or trying to understand the message that it is trying to communicate, we correct it for barking loudly at someone. We need to consider the signals that our dogs send us. Instead of trying to teach it a better way of communicating, we correct its behavior by making it wear a collar or by scolding it. 
You need to train your dog to communicate in a way that is acceptable for you and everyone else. However, to do so you need to understand that a dog is capable of communicating in several other ways including non-verbal signals. Therefore, train your dog to silently communicate with you without making everyone aware. The dogs in military are trained to send silent signals to their handlers. They do so because they are responsible for detecting threats that may cause panic in others. Dogs can also be trained to detect bed bugs, other animals, weapons, and molds. However, the key is to understand that they can be trained to detect things in a subtle way. 

Communication through Sound, Scent, Thought, and Intent


A dog communicates with humans in a variety of ways including scent, sound, thought, and intent. Therefore, as dog handlers, owners, guardians, and trainers, we need to understand that a dog’s communication skills are beyond the physical realm. If we just believe in our dogs and their capability of connecting with us, we will come to know that there are several ways to stay in touch with the dog and the signals that it is trying to send to us. Read more www.ccprotectiondogs.com

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

The Bark Exercise

Introduction

Real Protection Training is not the same as Sport Training. The sporting world has given birth to a grave misconception, which has found its way into training dogs for law enforcement. It is called the Bark and Hold; we prefer to give it a more ominous yet accurate name,  ‘Bark and Die!’ It is not the only one of its variety; there are others, however, this is one really unwise practice to bring to the street. You might ask how you will protect an unsuspecting passerby or a child from getting bitten without this training. Read on to find out how. 

Programming vs. Training

An armed suspect’s body would be pumped full of adrenaline. A dog trained with the Bark and Hold method will approach the suspect, sit down and bark to tell the officer to approach. It could end in both the officer and the dog getting shot and it has, in several cases! Hence, my name, Bark and Die seems apt. Since that dog is programmed and does not think to distinguish between an armed assailant and an unarmed one, it will do exactly as it was taught. 

When we train a dog, through open communication, it can make conscious decisions. Some trainers might scoff at this idea and believe canines cannot function without programming. They use the sleeve, the ball and the towel tug to stop an intelligent creature from thinking and praise it for being goofy. Diminishing a dog’s desire to think has caused many of the problems that we see on the streets today. 

Think like a Dog

Imagine chasing a suspect with your human partner. When your partner runs ahead to a corner where he/she is not visible to you, the suspect is pointing his/her weapon at you, waiting. Meanwhile your partner just keeps reminding you by yelling, "Here he/she is” continuously. How would you respond? By coming around the corner, in response to his/her yells! Do you see that there is a flaw in the communication lines? 

We all want “sharp” and “driven” dogs but we overlook the problem in our training – the dog is never taught to solve a problem, if one arises. Instead of depending on a cue, the canine must team up with the handler. Down with Bark and Die, won’t you say? To read more visit, www.ccprotectiondogs.com

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

To Motivate Your Dog to work

More than one dog owner has had trouble motivating their canine companions to work. Here are some of my thoughts on the subject:

Using Food or a Toy

Some dog trainers use this method to communicate or motivate a dog. They start to associate the command being given with the exercise. It is all well when being taught in play or prey; however, it might be easy to predict the dog’s reaction in a serious situation. Dogs trained this way will wait for the clicker to click or the toy to make a sound, rather than retreat! It is easy to deduce that while the dog was in communication with the accessory, it made no connection with its handler.

Communication Barriers

Is there ever a reason to raise communication barriers between yourself and the dog? When training a dog on what to do when in danger or under stress, being open and honest will take you farther than bribery ever could. 

You might complain that your dog is not taking it seriously; however, understand that serious work requires serious motivation and communication. You can only motivate the canine through your own motivation.

As explained previously, maintain a working attitude while working with your dog to let it realize the gravity of the training. Another important thing to take under consideration is the breed your dog belongs to, which has an impact on how it gets trained. Training a sled dog or a Shitzu to Search and Rescue would be pretty useless. Select a breed that will suit the “work” because someone’s life may be depending on your training!

Honesty and attentiveness when training your dog will serve you well in the field. Bribery will not. To learn
more visit, www.ccprotectiondogs.com