Double trouble can arise in words
I shut the door and was about to turn and head for the paddock when I realized what I had just said.
Sheepishly, I opened the door and stuck my head back into the house. "Honey," I said, "would you mind explaining what I just meant." Glancing around to all the raised eyebrows in the room, I chuckled and softly closed the door.
I could hear my spouse explain, "Terry trains horses. She has a horse named Wind. So when she said she was going out to break Wind, what she meant was..." The voice receded into the background as I made my way to the waiting young horse. I was practically in hysterics by the time I got there. I was laughing hard and my assistant asked me what was so funny.
"Never mind", I said, struggling to control myself. "Let's just see if we can get a saddle on this horse 'cause I can't go back into the house until all those people leave."
We all say things we don't mean. Sometimes we catch ourselves, sometimes we don't. It's bad enough when we're speaking to each other. It's worse when we are speaking to our pets. They don't understand double meanings. We confuse them when we use our words in different context.
Take "sit down" for example. To a trained dog, it is impossible to sit down. A dog that has been trained to "sit" and also "down" will have a real tough time trying to figure out "sit down." To the dog, it's an impossible feat. The dog can't do both at once.
Another pet peeve of mine is when people use the word "down" to mean several other commands such as lie down, don't jump on people, get off of the couch and take your paws off of the countertop.
See how confusing it can be?
Be clear. Don't create commands with different meanings. Also, be careful when naming a pet. Don't choose a name that can be confused with a command or another word. A long time ago, I knew a dog named Nomad. The poor dog was well-trained but had some definite issues with the word no. Sometimes, it meant he was in trouble and sometimes it was just his owner shortening his name to one syllable. Was he simply being called or was he in trouble for something? He never really knew.
Although our pets aren't going to laugh at us for some of the things we tell them to do, like "here" (meaning come here), "here" (meaning I'm going to give you something) and "here, here" (meaning stop that right now), they may have a reason to doubt our sincerity when we tell them to do it. To prevent misunderstandings, be careful of the words you use. Try to say only what you really mean.
Terry Jester is a nationally recognized companion animal behaviorist. To learn more about companion animal training, visit www.rockymountainrawhide.com. For questions about your own pet, call Jester at (970) 568-7585 or send e-mail to arriniranch@aol.com.
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