Doggone Etiquette —

Practical Obedience

By Bardi McLennan

A Word to the Dog:           

You went to school and you did so well that everyone – your teacher, your owner, and even your classmates – admired your skill. That made you feel really good, didn’t it? No doubt you put on the same perfect performance every time friends and relatives came to call. That was a while ago, so what smart new things can you and your VIPerson do now?

A Word to the Dog’s Owner:            

Obedience, insofar as our dogs are concerned, comes in two varieties. Specifically, “perfect” is one, and just plain “practical” is the other. Perfection is the realm of the working dogs, those with serious jobs like search and rescue, guiding the blind, helping the disabled, various forms of military, and police service as well as the canine jobs of hunting, guarding property, and herding flocks that date back to the beginning of man’s tie-in with dogs.               

Practical dog obedience is the basic behavior required of the average pet. Most of us think of “obedience training” merely as teaching Rufus to respond quickly and correctly to the standard commands – heel, sit, stay, come, and down. That’s a good start, but dog owners are only human, and not known for speaking in one-word sentences. Due to the way any one of those one-word commands is delivered on a daily basis can totally confuse Rufus and give him every legitimate reason to disobey. No wonder the dog is                                                                     confused when, instead of “Rufus, sit” he hears, “Rufus, I told you to sit. Are you going to come over here and sit for me? Get down off the couch and do a nice sit when I tell you.” Oh, we’ve all heard dog owners do it – and the poor dog is supposed to figure out when, where and how (or if) to comply with any of it!

Practical obedience includes all the things you teach Rufus to do, beyond just being a good dog for a prompt sit. A young boy made the point very clear. As I was about to go into the show ring with my dog, he asked me what the dog could do. I told him to watch. The dog trotted around the ring, let the judge go over him, and won Best of Breed, but when I got out of the ring the young lad patted the dog, looked up at me and said, “He’s nice, but what can he do?”                    

One useful form of practical obedience is to teach Rufus to obey hand signals. This is really great when you’re on the phone and don’t need a doggy interruption. A previously taught hand signal lets Rufus calmly accept your telling him to “wait” without your saying a word. You have acknowledged his presence and at least momentarily, that’s sufficient. The same goes for any hand signals you may have been taught in class to use, plus any others you make up, so long as the dog understands them. Just be sure everyone in the family knows what they are and how they work, or you’ll have more confusion!               

The AKC performance events such as agility, earthdog, and hunt trials fall in between the cracks, since perfection is the person’s aim, but the outcome is not necessarily that of the dogs. They might prefer to run the agility course in a different order. Catching the prey might seem more practical than just chasing it. But do watch these events to pick up ideas for things you could teach Rufus to do using hand signals. All training is as practical for dog owners as it is for the dogs. If someone should ask you what your dog can do, you can always give the simple answer, “Rufus functions as an intelligent member of the family.”

Until next time – BE GOOD!

- Bardi

Bardi McLennan bred, trained and showed Welsh Terriers for 30 years, during which time she wrote a monthly column on canine behavior in Dog Fancy Magazine. In addition to contributing to numerous dog publications, she has written 15 books on dogs, the latest being Rescue Me!, which received the ASPCA Humane Issues Award in 2008.