Why "no" doesn't work

Do you find yourself shouting "no" at your dog to stop them from doing something and find it works sometimes but fails at others? Let’s have a look at some of the reasons that's happening and alternative (more effective) options.

"No" doesn’t mean anything to your dog.
We are humans. Humans are generally verbal animals. We love words - reading them, writing them, and saying them with our mouths. Gotta love a word. Dogs, on the other hand, do not understand words. Much as I would love the Disney movies to be true to life and have my dog burst into song about how much she hates cats, dogs can’t speak. They do not come with an inbuilt dog-to-human translator. They don’t know what words mean until we pair them with a consequence.

Think back to when you taught your dog "sit." You likely lured your dog's front end up with a tasty piece of food, and when their bum hit the floor, you told them "good" and fed them the food. The dog learned that when the human says "sit," if they put their bum on the floor, they are likely to be given a piece of food.
Word + Action = Consequence

Now think about when you habitually say "no" to your dog.

• Is it when they jump, muddied from a walk, up onto the couch?
  
• Perhaps when they see and lunge at a squirrel?
• Do you shout "no" at them when they are hoofing off across the park after another dog?
• Maybe "NO" reverberates through the woods as you see your dog about to get shoulder-deep in an enormous fox poo?

Each of those "no"s means something different -

• Get down
  
• Don't pull
• Come back here
• Do not roll in that poo!!!
  

So they actually mean nothing to your dog, really.

At best, you will say, shout, or scream the word at a high enough volume that you successfully interrupt your dog, but they haven't learned anything other than that you sound scary sometimes.

What could you do instead of "no"?

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