You Can’t Bond If You Can’t Communicate

This statement ‘You can’t bond if you can’t communicate’ is the biggest dilemma in the dog – human relationship yet, there is little to no awareness about this phenomena. It is an enigma; this dog body language conversation. Why? Because people are not aware that they are not aware.

We, as humans have lost the ability to really listen to each other. Animals have not. Their first and only form of communication is body language and energy. In humans, verbal communication is ‘a’ way of communicating but not ‘the’ way of communicating. This lack of awareness and therefore knowledge of body language has limited our capacity to bond with our dogs.

Learning to read dog body language in the dog training community is relatively new. I know it’s shocking to hear that but it’s true. When I was told that the Dog Decoder app about dog body language is a revolution in the dog community, I fell to my knees.

What I mean by this is that it is not taught in the schools that offer dog training certification. It may be given a spot in the syllabus but not to the extent that it needs to be in order to effectively teach it to others. What this means is that it’s offered as part of a class in a 6-12 week course to become a dog trainer. My god, this is clearly not sufficient time to be even close to being proficient in speaking dog and of course no where near what’s needed to be able to teach it to others. Here’s where the dilemma comes in. Learning technique becomes the key factor in training a dog and I have to say, technique has nothing on learning to read dogs. If you can’t communicate, you can’t teach, therefore you can’t expect to form a healthy bond.

The underlying problem or take away from this lack of education is that it must not be that important. This notion of dog body language being a revolution needs to be in the forefront of the any and all conversation regarding dog training if we want to see happier dogs and happier guardians. Without it, I’m afraid….the dog – human bond will continue to suffer. It’s why people have to keep taking classes, keep hiring different dog trainers, keep trying different techniques or simply give up resigned to the fact that they just have a crazy, stubborn, stupid, hyper, aggressive…or you name it….dog or worse, give her away.

I am not demeaning anyone, any trainer or any certified dog training program. I am however, shedding a big, fat, glaring flood light on the lack of awareness of the importance of learning to read dog body language and incorporating it into training our dogs because it seems to me to be a travesty of justice in relating to our best friends, don’t you think? Trying to speak our language (verbal) only to dogs, while not learning theirs is a mockery to our relationship with dogs.

Now’s the time to get the Dog Decoder smartphone app and learn.

“YOU CAN’T BOND WITH YOUR DOG IF YOU CAN’T COMMUNICATE WITH HER!”