Many years ago I was attending a seminar on dog agility. One of the activities involved the instructor talking about how to handle the dog through a section of the course that had a number of sharp turns. As the instructor described their recommended technique for handling that section, they said, “You don’t want the dog choosing when to turn.” Presumably the instructor was suggesting that the human, and not the dog, should define just how wide the dog should turn in order to shorten the path and save time.
Honestly, I can’t say for certain what the instructor meant because after I heard “You don’t want the dog choosing when to turn”, my brain fixated on trying to work out the internal logic of that statement. Of course the dog will choose when to turn! It’s their body. A human may do any number of things to influence that choice but ultimately the dog is the one making the decision. This notion of who gets to choose between dogs and their humans has been one that I have thought about a lot. And I think it is both more simple and more complex than we generally think.
Eyes on the prize
Every choice has an outcome. Sometimes we can predict it and sometimes we just take a chance based on our best guess. I’m sure it must be the same for my dogs. They draw on past experiences and make their best choice for the outcome they would most prefer. It might be choosing to ignore my recall cue to enjoy the thrill of chasing a squirrel or it might be choosing to sit and wait patiently for their dinner to be delivered. In either case, my dog is making a choice to do one thing and abandon other possible choices.
The reasons for my dog’s choice may not always be motivated by what they will gain from their decision. Dogs are, by their nature, a species that prefers to avoid conflict. Open aggression with their own species reduces the chances of reproducing and the survival of the species is put at risk. So, at least some of my dog’s choices are made to avoid conflict or reduce contention in their social circle. In their relationships with humans, dogs are often put in a position to choose to behave in order to avoid unpleasant consequences from their owners.
Lots to choose from and lots of reasons for making choices. But choose they do. Dogs are always making decisions whether we want to acknowledge it or not.
Always an option
One thing that has always amused me with my own dogs is the variety and number of ways they have of telling me “No.” I have heard some trainers say that training with food is coercive because, as a scavenger species, dogs physiologically cannot refuse food. I have offered cheese to a dog who looked at me as if I were offering them a brick. I have seen my dog take a treat in her mouth, roll it around as if making some assessment, and then spit it out. I have even had a dog simply turn and walk away from me after I offered them food. Granted these occasions were rare but they happened. Dogs always have the option to say “No” it seems.
Because of their tendency to avoid conflict, it can appear that our dogs are happy to just go along with whatever we decide. That is, until they decide not to cooperate. The absolute shock I have seen in some dog owners when their dog unexpectedly bares their teeth and snaps at them is remarkable. “She never does that!”, they will exclaim because they may not have seen that behaviour before. And rightly so, especially if the dog has a hidden health problem or other issue that the owners are not aware of. We can be lulled into a false sense that our dogs are content to allow us to make decisions for them. That can lead to us ignoring more subtle forms of “no” until the dog can find no other option than to use their teeth to make their choice clear.
Cooperation and control
The simple biological truth of the matter is that we can’t make our dogs choices for them. But there are some things we can do that make a difference. One critical component that can help us shape our dogs’ choices are the consequences that we provide in response. When my dog chooses to come over to me at the table while I’m eating and lay quietly next to me, I can reward her with a bit of food. That reward will make the choice of laying quietly a better one than standing and nudging me insistently which will get no such reward.
There are lots of ways I manage the consequences of my dog’s choice but they fall into 3 basic categories. I can offer her something she wants (a reward), I can provide an unpleasant consequence (an aversive), or do nothing at all (neutral) in hopes of influencing her future decisions in similar situations. And that’s the key – Influence.
If I want my influence on her decision making process to be effective, I need to be consistent. If my dog decides to greet me calmly when I return home, I can pet her warmly and offer her a treat for her good behaviour. But if I return home the next day and she jumps up on me excitedly, my laughter and affectionate rough-housing might be every bit the reward the previous day’s greeting got her. That’s not being consistent. If I want the calm and I don’t want the jumping, I have to be careful how I present consequences when my dog makes her choices.
Too much of a good thing
When greeting me at the door, my dog has a limited number of choices. That makes it relatively easy for me to manage the consequences I want to provide to help her make good decisions. But being at the park is a different matter. There are a whole lot more choices there to deal with and that might not be a good thing.
Psychologist Barry Schwartz notes in his book “The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less” that more choices do not always make us happier. Two of the important factors Schwartz lists that make us less happy are Opportunity Cost, the things we must give up in order to choose one thing instead of others, and Escalation of Expectations, if we have more choices we expect the thing we choose to be more valuable than if we had fewer choices.
The lesson here for me is that I have some control over the options available to my dog and that is another way to influence her decisions. I have had dog owners tell me that they struggle finding a dog food their dog will eat. Almost invariably they describe a process where they have given their dog one kind of food for a day or two and when they chose not to eat it, replaced it with a different food. This goes on for several iterations with continual trial and error feeding. Somehow these owners always look surprised when I suggest that they may have inadvertently shown their dog how get them to feed them a variety of different foods!
Sometimes many options are too many options. Because we manage so many aspects of our dogs lives, we have some control over what they get to choose from as well as what the results of their choices may be.
Let them choose
“You don’t want the dog choosing when to turn.” I think what bothered me about that statement when I first heard it is that it doesn’t make sense to me. Of course the dog will choose when to turn. I may limit the choices available or I may make one option more attractive than another but my dog WILL choose for themselves what to do. If I decide not to acknowledge that, it’s going to make my relationship with my dog much more complicated.
It’s important to me that I am realistic about my dogs. I know that they can say “no” and that, if pushed, they can make their point in an unpleasant or aggressive way. I don’t need to try to control my dog’s choices. What I need to do is manage their options and to be fair and consistent in providing consequences that influence them to make decisions that we both can enjoy.
My dogs make good choices. That’s not to say that I always like what they choose but I’ve learned to live with the choices I don’t prefer and find ways to influence better choices or limit options to remedy problems. In the end, I think they have a good sense of self-determination. They don’t feel like I force them to do things. It’s a negotiation that makes us both happy. That seems like a good choice to me.
Until next time, have fun with your dogs!
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Photo credits –
No Thanks – Pattie copyright 2005 from Flickr
Not Listening – Sheri copyright 2006 from Flickr
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“When my dog chooses to come over to me at the table while I’m eating and lay quietly next to me, I can reward her with a bit of food. That reward will make the choice of laying quietly a better one than standing and nudging me insistently which will get no such reward.”
Please stop misusing the verb LAY. Lay is a transitive verb — it requires an object: “Lay the book on that table”, “Lay your weapons on the floor”.
TO LIE is not TO LAY.
CORRECT: “When my dog chooses to come over to me at the table while I’m eating and LIE quietly next to me, I can reward her with a bit of food. That reward will make the choice of LYING quietly a better one than standing and nudging me insistently which will get no such reward.”
Please don’t ruin your handy articles with poor grammar — thanks!
It’s always been a struggle for me with those two words. Your input is appreciated Dorothy.
Trust me that it’s no lie that I’m never sure if I should use “lay” when writing. I’ll save your comment as a handy reference. 🙂
Thanks for reading.
Eric