The Concept of Consent

When I go to the dentist she has a system in place that allows me to communicate with her during procedures when I cannot talk.  If I raise my left hand she will stop. It’s a signal I can use to get her to pause if I have to tell her something, or if I just need a break.  Knowing that I have that signal available to me is quite comforting. I’ve even tested it out when I didn’t need it to be sure it would work. And it did!  Knowing that I had that “stop” signal even if I didn’t use often made me feel better.

But what about our dogs?  When they need scary or possibly painful procedures how can they tell us to stop for a second?  This is the function of consent signals. If they could use clear signals to tell us when they’re okay with something that’s happening and when they need a break that would be very useful communication indeed.  

In our cooperative care training we have been working on teaching our dogs that we will respect their consent signals, and the removal of those signals, when we see them.  The first and easiest form of consent is the dog’s choice to stay in our grooming area. If they leave then it’s clear they do not want us to continue with what we are doing, so we allow them to make that choice.  If they stay we continue what we’re doing and reinforce. If they leave there are no unpleasant consequences. Leaving tells us that our dogs are uncomfortable with what we are doing.

We spend a LOT of time making the grooming area a good place to be and we also make sure that our dogs have the ability to safely leave it at any time.  When using a grooming table, for example, I will push it up against a chair so there is easy access. You might think that if you allow your dog to leave he will never come back and stay.  That’s where your skill as a trainer comes into play! If you make the grooming area a great place to be, and you are working within your dog’s comfort level, then he will not only come back to the area, but he will insist on being there.

PIxel often chooses to nap on the grooming table

Another option for a consent signal when we are working with our dogs and need them to lie on one side or the other is a head down position.  We first train our dogs to lie on their sides with their heads down. Then we use the raising of the head as a stop signal. Here’s an example of how that works with Pixel.  

In addition to trained consent signals our dogs are always communicating with us in a variety of ways.  These are called “tells”. They are telling us how they feel and we need to be more aware of that form of signaling.  We simply need to pay attention to their body language. Some dogs are very subtle with their stop signals, possibly ears pinned back just slight or leaning away a bit.  Others are very obvious. If we continue to ignore those signals we are telling our dogs that we don’t care about what they are saying. What should you do when you see your dog’s tells?  Stop what you’re doing and go back to something easier. Make a training plan for moving back to the thing that is causing your dog discomfort. But listen to your dog! Ignoring early tells can lead to an escalation of escape avoidance behaviors.  

Zen is pretty clear on his feelings about the scissors

This is the real world and not everything can be a choice. There will be times when it simply doesn’t matter what your dog wants.  There is a procedure that must be done and it must be done now. We call that non-optional husbandry. When something absolutely has to happen whether our dogs want it to or not I approach that very differently.  I don’t want to pretend they have choices if they really don’t, so I tell them both with a verbal cue and with my approach. I will do my non-optional care away from my dedicated grooming area. If restraint is necessary then I try to be as matter of fact and neutral as possible.  However, I will already have a long history of introducing my dogs to restraint and reinforcing them for allowing it, starting at a mild level and working up. I usually don’t even bother with food in non-optional procedures, I just do the thing as quickly as possible.

Quest was very relaxed and comfortable with restraint

I think that consent is very important when it is possible and realistic.  It’s a powerful way to encourage our dogs to communicate with us. It takes thoughtful training and observation on the part of the trainer to establish those signals, but once in place they are highly valuable.  You might be amazed at how much more comfortable and cooperative your dog will become when you really start seeing and hearing what he’s telling you!

If you’d like to see more examples of dogs working with consent be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel “Cooperative Care with Deb Jones”.  Browse through the video demonstrations and tutorials.  I am always adding new content!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLdrsXsstUUTcTdWS21pZVA?view_as=subscriber

Deborah Jones, Ph.D. is a retired psychology professor who now trains animals full-time.  She has been training for 25+ years and focuses on positive reinforcement based methods. Deb has written 12 books on dog training and has helped developed several DVD series.  She has also trained and shown multiple breeds to high level titles in agility, rally, and obedience. She is currently teaching online training classes and webinars at www.fenzidogsportsacademy.com.  Visit her website at www.k9infocus.com for more information.