Do you say NO to your dogs?

[hopingtobehappiness]

My parents have a new puppy and the last time they had a young dog was 25 years ago, back then I remember going with my Dad to dog training classes. They used the shake the tin of coins to stop unwanted behaviour, although mostly it was praise for good behaviour, treats, pats and talking it that high pitched voices only used for babies/ puppies. I remember doing to awards with their two labs.

They have told me they can't tell the new puppy No or use a sound to prevent unwanted behaviour. I personally use ahaha noise that I say with my dog occasionally and I will also say NO or STOP firmly also to the kids too. They say this is aversion training and I disagree. To me the aversion training is spraying water, air horn zapping / citrus collars ( also very popular back in the day.) What do you think and do?

Dogs don’t understand what ‘no’ means.

Personally I dont.

It is much easier to teach a dog to do something than teach them just to do nothing. Which is what no usually means. eg if they are chewing your sofa and you say no what you actually want them to do is stop chewing the sofa. So in this instance I would recall the dog to me and reward the recall.

A really easy alternative is a postivie interrupter. Make a nose and it could be you aahha noise but initially make the noise and give a treat, do this for a few days. Everytime you make the noise your dog will happily come to you for a treat.

So your dog is chewing the sofa mae the interrupter noise dog comes to you happily stops chewing sofa you can reward and divert the dog to another activity.

Dog is running away with an item they have stolen make the noise dog will come to you for the treat - you get the item back and divert with playing with a toy.

This is a way more effective way of training, it is clearer to the dogs that they know what to do and keeps stress levels down and increases the bond with dog and owner.

On phone with freexing fingers sorry for typos!

A really easy alternative is a postivie interrupter. Make a nose and it could be you aahha noise

Positive interrupter Make a noise!

We just use a sharp 'ah'.
Or a 'look' with dpuppy. She then hides her face with a huge gangly leg!!

My dog knows what no means because I have trained her to stop doing whatever she is going to do when I say no.
It could be any word you use to get the response you want.

My dog understands exactly what “no” means, especially as it will be accompanied with a particularly strict tone of voice. Did the same with my kids. The dog is now adult and the kids are teens, all perfectly well adjusted!

What on earth is wrong with saying 'no'? All my dogs know exactly what it means. They also seem to know 'will you fucking well stop doing that!'

@DinosaurDiana

My dog knows what no means because I have trained her to stop doing whatever she is going to do when I say no. It could be any word you use to get the response you want.

This obviously.

@Sarahlou63

What on earth is wrong with saying 'no'? All my dogs know exactly what it means. They also seem to know 'will you fucking well stop doing that!'

As well as this

I never understand the comment that dogs don't know that no means. Mine does, it means "whatever you're doing, stop it". We always reward good behaviour, never shout etc but if he's doing something particularly stupid then no seems to stop him pretty quickly!

"sofa and you say no what you actually want them to do is stop chewing the sofa. So in this instance I would recall the dog to me and reward the recall.*"
*
Ok I'll pass this on, I suppose in my mind I'd be rewarding sofa chewing, but I see I'm rewarding the recall. I've often wondered why people treat their dogs for barking at people, but I assume they might be rewarding a 'focus on me.'

But honestly my dog does understand NO. Say DD drops some food I say NO and dog doesn't eat it, I might access and then say go on and he'll eat it. I don't reward him with treats ever now because I can't stand smelling like cheese or meat, and I don't have treats on me at all times, but when he was training I did reward him as a puppy.

One disadvantage of using No is that is does increase the stress levels in dogs. They are happily doing something and they are told usually quite forefully (or else it will not work) NO.

The dog is startled and unsure or what they were doing. Look at your dog when you say NO, they will tend to do more than one thing. SO if they are holding food, they may also step back, turn away, or turn towards you, they may run away or may sit.

They are not sure what to do a compliant dog will try many things to calm you down.

If no is used frequently you have a dog that can be on edge and stressed as they are aware the NO will come but have no understanding of why.

What do you use as a reward OP?

Mine knows 'No'. If, for example, he is at a distance and just about to drink from a puddle I can tell him 'No' and he will stop immediately.

Dogs don’t understand no - because people use it to mean a whole load of different things. Mostly with dogs they mean stop doing that thing or don’t do that thing you’re about to do, which are two really different concepts anyway and add in that dogs don’t generalise and pretty much every time you might say it in a day to a dog it means something different.

You might teach them that when you say it you mean stop, or come pay attention to me, but it’s a lot quicker to just teach a stop or come rather than expecting a dog to actually understand no.

Saying no or stop “firmly” is aversive tbh, you’re telling the dog you’re angry and hoping they learn not to anger you.

It’s not up there with the other things mentioned but it is aversive training.

“I've often wondered why people treat their dogs for barking at people, but I assume they might be rewarding a 'focus on me.'”

They might also be doing something completely different - when dogs bark out of fear, a quite common way of counter conditioning the fear is to give them a high value treat every time the thing they’re scared of is about, then you’re trying to break the fear association and replace it with, aha... that thing appears and good stuff happens.

My dogs understand what NO means because I taught them to stop doing something with the word NO. I also say STOP! and they understand that too. I can't see a problem if it works, it works?

Mine understands it. It's used very rarely though, really only when she's about to do something daft and needs to be stopped quickly for her own safety (e.g. drinking from a minging puddle, or picking up discarded food), as it gets her attention immediately. It may be more the tone of voice rather than the word I guess. If I just want her to stop what she's doing for any other reason I use a gentler / positive reward approach.

I do say 'No' or 'Ahahah' when mine is doing something she knows perfectly bloody well she's not allowed to do Not often though.

Yep i trained my dog what no means, load of rubbish to say dogs dont understand no imo. I also taught him leave it and shhhh. 3 of the most useful things around the house i find. He is a confident 11 year old, no sign of nervousness whatsoever, funnily enough our last dog was also taught the same way and she didn't lack confidence either.

My dog understands "NO" in a annoyed voice. She knows it means stop doing that immediately or don't do the stupid/dangerous thing you're about to do. If you've got a dog who gets silly and carried away, the urge to do something stupid often overrides listening to the recall and it's necessary to startle them if they're about to do something dangerous. It's not always possible to eliminate every possible hazard in every environment.

Re the sofa. My mums dog would obey the recall and stop chewing it, but then she'd just chew it if you weren't watching. The only way to get her to leave the sofa alone would be by saying "NO" very harshly every time she tried to do it and then she'd actually realise it's chewing the sofa that's the problem.

Each to their own, but I wonder how you stop unwanted behavior if you don't use 'no' (or whatever other word you choose) My dog understands perfectly what 'no' or 'stop' means. Reward the good behavior, discourage the bad, have boundaries set and be clear, consistent and kind. It's not mean to say no - even though my kids would tell you otherwise :-)

The only way to get her to leave the sofa alone would be by saying "NO" very harshly every time she tried to do it and then she'd actually realise it's chewing the sofa that's the problem.

She wont learn not to chew the sofa - she may learn not to chew it when you are around but she absolutely would still chew it when on her own.

If no was so effective then we would have no lead pulling, no probelm with recall, and perfectly trained dogs.

jump on the sofa, command is DOWN
go to eat something they should command is LEAVE
have got something in mouth they should command is DROP
etc

all with praise after

etc. No is too generic a word and they don't understand if they are supposed to get down, leave or drop something.

“It's not mean to say no”

Of course not - in a normal tone of voice, no is just a word.

It’s just that if what you actually mean is, drop, leave, stop, wait or whatever it is you’re using no to mean that time, it’s quicker and easier to teach those than a vague concept.

And if you’re relying on a stern or angry tone of voice then your dog may or may not learn what you want, it may just learn you’re a bit scary and unpredictable... so again, might as well train the things you want in a way that works better.

I stop dogs from doing things, of course I do, I’m not going to leave my eejit puppy chewing on a cable, I just don’t expect him to learn not to just because I don’t want him to... because that way I’m leaving it up to him to decide if the reward of what he wants to do is worth me getting annoyed.