Selective hearing???

Dawn · Guru

Selective hearing???

JENNY · Big Cheese

I think they pick up more on tone and patterns of sound than actual words. Also body language and facial expressions. Maybe you are saying one thing but your body language is saying someting else. Like when you called puppy she didn't come until you turned away which might have caused her to follow. Same with Mac. He's just waiting for you to lead the way.

Suzanne · Guru

very good point Jenny - I just need to give Murphy "that look" & he knows hes been naughty & retires to his bed quick smart, head hung low......dont even need to say a word....sometimes I just point at him & he too knows he'd better stop his naughtyness (like making little sisters cry) or else....

Dawn · Guru

Should have added.........I was out of view at all times...except of course when I put Mac's coat on...so they could only hear me!

JENNY · Big Cheese

Ah

greyluvver · GAL Membership Co-Ordinator

Every time we call "Tyler" or even talk to her and use her name - Max comes running wherever he may be!! He is is just so scared he is missing out on something!!

We can only mention the word 'walk' or 'out' in code if its not time for Max's walkies as he's off like a bullet to the back door

Teresa · Enlightened One

dave and daisy both answer to each other's names, mainly cos we shorten daisy to dais - it sounds very like dave then !!

mind you, if cheese is involved they move like lightening !!

emma · Guru

I know what you mean about only talking about W-a-l-k in code, mine know too. Often I can just go upstairs without saying a word to get changed and they know and are squeeking at the front door waiting for me to take them.

My other half says 'Why did you tell them? Now they are going crazy' yet in reality I have said nothing. Are they psychic?

Em and the mystic Tig and Chad XX

Amber · Master

Dawn wrote:

but if I turn away from her and say "Oh, hello Mac" she appears at my side in 3 seconds flat!

I've just read a really interesting book on canine behaviour (and human behaviour) caled 'The Other End of The Leash' by Patricia B McConnell, in which she explains that most of what our dogs pick up from us is body language, not verbal. She starts off the book telling a true story about seeing 2 loose dogs on a motorway and how she guides them across the road using purely body signals - to stop them, she stood facing them with hand up like a traffic cop, to get them to come when it was safe, she turned her body away from them. She maintains that dogs are more likely to come to you if your body is facing away from them...so maybe that is why she came to you? she perhaps wasn't listening to what you were saying, but was taking the cues from what your body was doing.

For most dogs human language is a hotchpotch that doesn't mean anything much, but they are more in tune with tone and clear verbal cues. Since reading the book I've been trying to be more aware of how I 'talk' to my dogs and realise that I must be very confusing!