This Is Why Your Dog Doesn’t Listen (And How To Fix That!)

So what is a trained dog?

Here’s my simple definition: A trained dog is a dog that responds reliably to basic commands in all the normal scenarios in which you might need to give those commands during the course of a normal month. 

This allows for the fact that some dogs are highly trained for particular skills. Unlike your dog, a shepherd’s herding dog for example, might never be expected to walk through a town center nicely on a leash, or sit nicely while kids pile off the school bus and pet them. 

I say ‘during the course of a normal month’ because we cannot expect a dog to respond accurately to commands in situations that are totally out of their comfort zone and which you cannot rehearse beforehand. Those are the kinds of situations that may only arise once a year, or once in a blue moon.

No dog could be relied upon to respond accurately to cues during an earthquake for example. Or even on an annual trip to stay with a farmer friend if the dog has never seen a tractor or sheep before. In those scenarios, you need to manage your dog (using a leash) rather than rely on their training. 

Expectations

The shepherd expects that their dog will turn on a whistle at two hundred yards, recall at speed without fail from that distance, and stop in a heartbeat when commanded to do so. Those are reasonable expectations for that dog. 

If your dog is a pet dog, walking through a town center on a leash, and sitting nicely to be petted by children are things you probably expect your dog to do. We all raise our dogs for the environment we inhabit and that is a reasonable thing to do. 

But what if you have already trained your dog to respond in those situations? And they are still not listening?

Still not listening?

If the dog isn’t listening in those normal scenarios we have just talked about. Then we need to recognise that the dog isn’t actually fully trained – yet. Here’s that definition again:

A trained dog is a dog that responds reliably to basic commands in all the normal scenarios in which you might need to give those commands during the course of a normal month. 

So if that’s not happening for you, something has gone amiss along the way. A piece of your training puzzle is missing.

Somehow you have skipped a step in training. And you can either do some detective work to figure out exactly where that step is, or go back to the beginning and give your dog a refresher course. 

If you plan this refresher course properly, you’ll soon identify your weak spot, the place where you didn’t quite complete a training level before moving on to the next one. I’ll explain what I mean by training level below.

Refresher training

I love refresher training. Because you’ve already trained this, you’ll fly through most of the training levels. And be able to focus on fixing your weaknesses while celebrating your successes. 

In refresher training there are lots of wins for you and your dog so I thoroughly recommend this approach. 

Refresher training means making a plan, dividing your training goals into levels, and practicing sufficiently at each level. 

So what are these training levels I am talking about?

The levels of training

Training levels are simply a way of dividing a training journey into sections based on the level of difficulty. How you divide up your levels is up to you. Here’s one way of doing it. 

Level 1: Your dog can respond reliably to your command in a small indoor space that contains absolutely no distractions (No toys, no pets, no people, and no action on your part. Just you, calm, quiet and still, and your dog very close to you.)

Level 2: Your dog can respond reliably to your commands in a small indoor space (no toys, no pets, no people) while you move briefly. This level is essential for commands with duration, such as heel, get in your basket, or lie down. 

Level 3: Your dog can respond reliably to your commands in different parts of your home, with normal household clutter, and toys around them

Level 4: Your dog can respond reliably to your commands in different parts of your home, for longer periods of time (sit-stay, down-stay etc) and while you move around. 

 Level 5: Your dog can respond reliably to your commands in different parts of your home, for longer periods of time (sit-stay, down-stay etc) and while you move around. Or while other people move around them. 

You can see where I am going with this. Some of you might prefer to do some low distraction outdoor training at level 5 and introduce other people at level 6.  We talk quite a bit about how to introduce low level distractions in this article: The Three Ds Of Dog Training

It likely depends on how much you are training alone and on your family situation. 

Higher levels will start to include more distractions including the distance between you and your dog, and the presence of other animals.  

Either way, you need to be clear on your own training levels, have a plan, and make sure you can get a reliable response at each level before moving on to the next one. 

What is a reliable response?

So what do I mean by a reliable response? How am I defining ‘reliably’

Can you give a command 10 times and get a perfect response every time? 

Can you repeat this in different training sessions, on different days of the week. And can you repeat this after a break of a week or so?

If the answer is yes, then you have a reliable response at that level. 

And that last part is important. Because you need to get a good response at each level before beginning to train at the next one. 

How much practise is needed?

Most people underestimate how much practice is required to produce a reliable trained response in their dog. At each level your dog may need to rehearse the correct response twenty, or thirty times in order for that response to begin to become automatic. And many more times before the response is reliable

There are several things you can do that hurry this process up. One is to reduce the opportunity for your dog to give the incorrect response. That means breaking training down into small steps. This is where game-based training comes into its own. 

The second is to remove opportunities for the dog to help themselves to a reward if they do give an incorrect response. So for example, if you are recall training with your dog, and your dog doesn’t come when you call, have you made sure that they can’t go and chase squirrels instead?

Another is to train with food as this is quicker to deliver and consume than most other types of reinforcement. Meaning that you can fit many more repetitions into a training session.

Motivation and reward

The final point I need to make here is one that lies at the heart of many training disappointments. And that is failure to provide enough motivation for the dog being trained. 

It’s critical in dog training that the dog is motivated to learn. If your dog is getting stuck at any of your training levels, there’s a good chance that motivation is involved. Rewards need to be powerful enough to make behavioral change possible. Providing reinforcement is a whole topic but you can read more in that ‘train with food’ link above and in this article: First steps in dog training

You’ve Got This!

So if your dog isn’t listening, even though they have been trained, the answer is to refresh your training by dividing  it into sections or ‘levels’ and creating a reliable response at each level.  This shouldn’t take long!

Practice makes perfect!  The more times your dog rehearses the correct response to your cues, the higher the chance they will give the correct response in the future. 

Rewards matter too, dish out great rewards when the going gets tough and practice until the correct response becomes second nature.