Have you noticed how most of your dog’s communication is non-verbal? The majority of it is physical and carefully done through body language, all while they read our own body language as well.
Yet at the same time, we’re very fortunate that dogs work so hard to learn and understand as many of our verbal cues as possible. Whether it’s through classes or simply from what we teach them at home.
But that said, here’s something you can practice next weekend to better improve your communication skills and understanding of what your dog is saying!
It’s simple: practice a full, non-verbal weekend where you use no words or verbal cues to address or guide your dog.
That’s right! Take a weekend to understand your dog like never before by practicing and enhancing your communication skills with your dog by only using gestures, your hands, signals, and your overall body language to let your dog know what you need and want!
Doing this can result in either a mere and fun weekend where you discover fun ways to express yourself to your dog or you can also develop a more in-depth understanding of what a day in your dog’s life is like, as they communicate with us without any words or sounds (at least in any that come in the form of a language we can translate!). Either way, I can guarantee if you practice this often, you will find your dog will with time more easily understand what you are saying as he or she will have only your body language to focus and feed off of, as opposed to what your body language may be saying, while your words or tonality may be unintentionally saying something else.