How to Speak Dog

We typically take for granted that people and dogs can manage to communicate in spite of the fact that we come from two different species. But when a dog spent his first four years in a cage and then finds freedom, how do you help him free himself from his inner cage? That is our current challenge with JakeE, a four-year-old cairn terrier that just joined the Col Potter Cairn Terrier Rescue Network.

JakeE is a sweet boy who molds himself to me when I hold him. After two months of freedom he knows his name, likes his food, and sometimes bursts out of his crate to play ball with the resident cairns. But other times he huddles in the back of his crate afraid to approach my extended hand. Or he might circle the kitchen table in a wider dance than he was allowed in his lifelong cage, but still evidencing the now invisible cage walls.

I started clicker training with him today, a technique that helps communicate to JakeE that he has done something good by immediately clicking and then giving a treat. I wanted to wait until he was comfortable with me because in the beginning he would just cower and shake with any new noise. Now he will sit where I place him and wait to see what will happen next. It is almost silent communication, this clicker "talk". No words to confuse the message. I wait until he gives me a secretive glance. CLICK. Then a small piece of sting cheese. Another glance. CLICK. more cheese. I wait quietly, not moving much so as not to spook him. Another glance, click, cheese. Then a full wide-eyed look!! Hurray! More clicks and cheese. And so we begin to understand each other. It is a slow process. Over time the communicate is two ways..."Hey, I'm lookin' at you...where is my cheese???" But at the moment, I do most of the talking!