Speed bumps on the training journey

I posted a few weeks back about how fabulous Thor has been with Stay. Well, since then, his Stays have gotten very shaky, particularly if they are outside.

Every time we go to the park, I take his leash off, put him in a Sit/Stay, and then walk away from him for some pre-determined amount of time, generally about 90 seconds. Recently, Thor has not only been getting up, but when I use my verbal correction ("ah ah ah!"), he has the nerve to scamper towards me. I then pick him up, take him back over to where I had him before, and start the exercise over again. He doesn't just break the Stay. He blatantly flouts it by running towards me when I clearly signal him to stay in place. What a naughty dog!

Except that I realized today that I also use that verbal correction ("ah ah ah!") to tell him that he is running too far ahead of me. To him, "ah ah ah" does not mean "you're doing something wrong." It means "come to Mommy!" Oops.

I've had also noticed that sometimes he'll Stay even after I've released him with the word Okay. Another ritual of ours is I put him in a Sit/Stay while I prepare his food bowl. Then I tell him Okay when he can go eat. Except that he keeps sitting there, staring at me expectantly. I say Okay authoritively. No action. I say Okay in a happy, excited tone. Nada. I wave my hands at him in a go-about-your-business type way. Nothing moves, not even a whisker.

And again, when I think about it more, I see a pattern. When I release Thor from Sit/Stay in the park, I don't just say Okay! I bend forward and put my hands on my knees as a general sign of encouragement and praise. I don't even think about it. So now, when I give him his food, instead of just saying Okay, I bend over and put my hands on my knees. Bam! Thor's at his food dish.

In training terms, this is technically called "overshadowing", where the animal is given multiple cues, and decides only one is relevant. This is very common if you give both a verbal and a hand signal at once (which I usually do). You may find that your dog knows the hand commands backwards and forwards, but has not picked up on your verbal commands at all. Dogs are most likely to notice your body language. They will probably pick up on your tone of voice. They pay the least attention to actual words. Humans tend to prioritize in the opposite order, which can lead to confusion.

So I guess this is a reminder to us to take a second look when our dog is blissfully disobedient. Maybe he's doing exactly what you told him to do - you just didn't understand the directions you gave.