The Nose Knows, Part 1

Posted on Dec 22 in Small Dog Behavior, Training A Small Dogby Jeff K.Print

“Finster, come.”

“Finster, come!”

“C’mon Finster!”

“Finster, come here. NOW!”

“I said come! Come Finster! C’mon, that’s right. Good Bo–. . . Holy Mother of . . . Finster! Get over here!!”

The nose knows.

Does this sound familiar? The tendency for dogs to come when called is known as “recall.” Many dogs have great recall inside the house. When outside, your dog’s recall may be, in a word, non-existent. No doubt your dog is distracted when he/she is outside, but by what? Answer: everything. Unless your dog spends the majority of the time outside, the outdoor environment offers rewards and stimulation far greater than your praise or your companionship. I’ll give you a moment to sulk about this. When you are done, meet me at the next paragraph.

Geez, what took you so long? You are one moody person. Let’s press on.

Biologists generally agree, about 60% of a dog’s brain is dedicated to the operation of its nose. Think about that. Almost 2/3′s of a dogs brain works his sense of smell while 1/3 does everything else. In a dog’s world, scent trumps all. Of course, a dog still uses its eyes and ears to navigate its world, but in order of importance, the nose comes first, then the eyes. The ears come in a distant last. Puhleeeze don’t give me any guff about the difference between a sight hound and scent hound; or that a squashed-nose Pug or a Pekingnese has a poor sense of smell. All dogs lead with their nose, look second, and listen third.

And how do we ask any dog to come? With sound, which ranks dead last on a dog’s list of the big three dog senses. Okay, maybe some of us try to enhance the “come” signal by beckoning with our hand. Given most dogs’ weak vision and given sight’s second priority in the big three, a hand signal might be perceived if you are less than 10 yards (8 meters) away, and the dog happens to be looking right at you. I’m not trying to villify people who call their dogs in this way. After all, they are just doing what comes naturally to people.

We humans place the highest priority on sight. If we hear something of interest, we react by turning to look at the sound. Our eyes rank so high in importance, in order to listen better, we have to work to take our eyes out of the equation by closing them or by intentionally de-focusing. We communicate with each other primarily by voice, supplemented by movement. Smell? It does not even rank for us unless we smell something very rank, such as . . . I won’t go there.

To recap:

Dog: “Mmm, rabbit poop.”

Human: “Come!”

Dog: “Ahhhh. Can’t get enough of this smell.”

Human, waving frantically: “Finster, COME!”

Dog, sniffing: “What is that, a male or female rabbit? Can’t tell yet. Maybe if I roll in it. . .”

To put an even finer point on it, look at the problem this way. When your dog finds an interesting aroma on the ground, you might as well strip to your underwear and run around the yard squawking like a chicken for all your dog cares.

So what am I recommending as an alternative to getting your dog’s attention when he is outside? Toss a chunk of reeking Limberger cheese at him? Sort of. You need a two-step method to get and keep your dog’s attention.

First, jar his nose-brain loose from the scent.

Second, make it more worth his while to come see you, rather than stay with the scent on the ground.

I believe you already know how to do the first part. Think about the last time you were completely focused on a task—a time when you were so absorbed that you tuned everything else out. Someone had to come up and tap you on the shoulder to break your trance. You can tap your dog in a similar way to get his attention. Here is how to do it.

Dale Stavroff talks about a reliable method in his wonderful book, Let the Dog Decide: The Revolutionary 15-Minute-a-Day Program to Train Your Dog – Gently and Reliably. Mr. Stavroff says if you have a dog with lousy recall while outside, you can grab his attention using a long line. A long line is literally a long length of lightweight rope—clothesline rope will work–that trails from your dog’s flat collar. The rope should be anywhere from 30 to 60 feet long. He says even though the rope might initially distract your dog as it trails behind, it won’t be long before he/she ignores the rope. When you want your dog to come, but your dog is too distracted to respond, you simply grab the end of the line and give a short, sharp pull that lasts no more than a fraction of a second. The tap from the line will disconnect your dog’s brain from whatever it was focusing on at the time.

Once you have your dog’s attention, you can use your voice to call your dog in. Once your dog comes, Mr. Stavroff recommends rewarding him/her with something extremely savory, such as piece of strong cheese or other top-quality treat. The treat you offer has to be more rewarding than the scents and adventures your dog can find outside. When you think about what your dog has just done—looked up from a completely engrossing stimulus—a chokingly dry and tasteless biscuit is not enough of a reward. Offer your dog a crummy cookie as compensation for pulling away from an exciting aroma, and next time your dog will think “The heck with a lousy biscuit. This smell is much more interesting. I’ll stay right here.”

I’m sure you have thought of the disadvantage of having your dog trail a long line while outside. More than likely, that line is going to get wound up on something as your dog moves about. Hey, no one said training would be easy. You want that rope to be long so you can tap your dog and have him come to you rather than you covering the distance to the dog. You will have to monitor your dog and help out when the line inevitably becomes entangled. It is a small price to pay when you consider that soon, your dog will answer your call reliably and the line can be discarded. One other note. The long line should never be used to reel your dog in. When you pull your dog to you, as many training books recommend, you are teaching your dog to resist coming. When you drag your dog in, he will likely resist the tugging movement. Good luck, and let me know how it goes for you.

P.S. Lest I be accused of anthropomorphizing dogs, let me state that dogs do not speak to themselves with a human inner voice. The thought quotes I attributed to dogs in this article were placed for clarity and humor.

P.S.S. A dog’s nose is a marvel of natural engineering. There is more on the dog’s sense of smell the next article called, “The Nose Knows, Part II.” I stayed up all night to develop the catchy title.

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• The Nose Knows, Part II | A Small Dog says:

  December 30, 2008 at 2:56 pm

  [...] The Nose Knows, Part 1 [...]
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  March 20, 2009 at 1:57 pm

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