Sit! What’s the point?
Today I had to take my mum to the GP surgery for a vaccination. While I was waiting in the car, of course I started people watching 😁
I saw a man with a beautiful German Shepherd walking with a lady and a Westie-type dog. As they paused at the road, the Shepherd stood next to him and the Westie stood next to the lady. The man told his dog to sit. His was ignored. He repeated it. The dog still wasn’t listening. The man pushed down on the dog’s rear to force him/her to sit. He then turned to the white dog. Told him/her to sit twice. It didn’t happen. He loomed over the dog and gave it a tap on the nose. The dog sat. And then they all crossed the road.
At no point were the dogs straining to get across the road, they were stood waiting. This seemed to be a lot of drama for no one’s benefit. We’ll put to one side the question of ‘What is the point of asking for a sit before crossing the road?’, other than it being a throwback to the days of Barbara Woodhouse (yup, I’m that old!)’ Perhaps, sometimes, there is a safety need, but not in this instance.
So, let’s think about why the dogs didn’t sit immediately:
The dogs don’t understand the cue (which was more of a command coming from this guy)
The dogs don’t understand the cue in that environment (dogs don’t always generalise well from one environment to another, so what might work at home might need to be re-taught in a new environment)
The dog’s arousal was high (stress/anxiety/excitement etc.) so they were unable to process what was being demanded of them
There’s nothing in it for them. There’s still an ‘old school’ belief that dogs should behave in a certain way ‘out of respect for their master’. This often causes frustration for both ends of the lead
The little dog certainly had an uncomfortable looking sit – perhaps their hips or knees were painful
How about an alternative?
We’re mindful of the distractions and how difficult a cue or behaviour may be in different environments
We reward our dogs when they give us their attention
We reward our dogs when they respond to a cue
We don’t do half-arsed training and then expect the dog to perform perfectly in a scenario that sets them up to fail (apologies, this one is a bit ranty!)
If a dog doesn’t do something, we ask ourselves why and work on that, rather than using force or intimidation to bully them into the behaviour we want
This whole interaction looked punishing for both ends of the lead and was unpleasant to watch. Of course, I could have leapt out of the car and given the gentleman the benefit of my experience. But, of course, that would likely have had a negative effect. So instead, I choose to write about it and possibly plant the seed that there are so many better ways of working with our canine companions,