[Discussion] Do you “consent test” when physically interacting with your dog?

[jozymba]

I’m a psychologist by training, and a dog training (and dog sport!) enthusiast in my spare time. Although my family had dogs when I was a kid, I didn’t get a dog on my own as an adult until my mid-20s. Since then I’ve been on a mission to continue evolving my understanding of dogs, their behavior, and what I can do to improve my relationship with my pups.

Maybe 5 or 6 years ago I came across this video that introduced me to the concept of “consent testing” in dogs... and it totally changed my day-to-day interactions with my animals. My Sheltie has become 1000x more cuddly now that I recognize and respect that he prefers his cuddles to come without pets – he almost never chose to curl up against me or in my lap before I started consent testing, but these days he’s snuggled in against me a good portion of the time we’re hanging out at home.

I’m curious if others here are familiar with the concept of consent testing. If so, do you consistently test for “consent” when petting/touching/interacting with your dog(s) or others' dogs? Did you find implementing this strategy changed how you interact with your dog, and/or how your dog(s) choose to interact with you?

If you've never heard of consent testing... watch the video linked above, then give it a try and report back! Did what you find surprise you, or is it about what you expected?

 

[mutio]

@jozymba Extremely important, resourceful video! Especially useful for those who often overstep their dogs boundaries and wonder why their dog is starting to snap and growl or show undesired behavior.

I also respect my dogs stress signals and he sleeps curled up to my chest every night. My husband is not as in tune with it and he loves to cuddle with our dog and will get sad when the dog escapes from his grasp and leaves him.

 

[theonly1theymake]

@mutio Literally the same!! I try to point out this stress/no signals after the fact when he's wondering why this happens, I think it's sinking in a little bit and is helping him notice

 

[tenderloin]

@jozymba Definitely! Moose likes to provide petting consent with cute little head flips. We could do this for hours His answer is almost always "please, continue" but every once in a while he'll spend some time sniffing or observing before he wants to keep going.

ETA There is a very silly video to teach this concept to children. 10/10

 

[callum7430]

@tenderloin Love that video! Thanks.

 

[tugalox]

@tenderloin I think everyone should watch that video not just kids. If you can stomach the song it has good lessons. Would be a lot less dog bites out there.

 

[backhoebob]

@tenderloin I like that this video also says to pet them on the shoulder. A lot of people go over the top of the head and my dog hates that. She loves being petted and will have you keep going but she has to be in control

 

[jozymba]

@backhoebob My go-to is scratching the underneath of dogs' necks, right where their collar sits, then I scratch my way around their whole collar area with periodic consent checks. My nails are normally long-ish, and I'd say 80% of dogs respond VERY favorably to a good scritch in their under-collar area - IME I definitely see more favorable responses to scratching vs. stroking.

 

[kaykay]

@tenderloin Great video! Thanks.

 

[blandaw]

@jozymba I do for petting, and like you I've noticed an increase in cuddliness!

Though when I tell other people to pause to see if he wants them to keep going, I get a lot of eye rolls haha

 

[jozymba]

@blandaw Honestly it's fascinating that so many people, even people who have had dogs for years and years, are fairly oblivious to dog body language.

Especially in the case of long-time pet owners who have gone years or decades without accurately reading dog social cues, but also without any overtly disastrous incidents (like being badly bitten), it can be challenging to open their mind to the suggestion that there is room to improve their approach to handling or interacting with dogs.

Truly it is a testament to how resilient and wonderful the average dog is!

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@jozymba I have a pretty shy dog who likes to sniff people but doesn't want to be pet. Despite showing a lot of nervous signals, when he does finally walk up to a human at the dog park, like someone who is crouched down petting other dogs, they always whip their hand towards him to pet him right on the head. You'd think people would know to at least try the shoulder first. He always leaves right away.

It was the same way when I worked with horses... People act like they think like PEOPLE and not animals. And it creates a lot of negative experiences.

 

[emjeep]

@jozymba Never realized this was given a specific name.

I’ve been doing this with all of my pets since I was a kid, not just dogs.

Even more, as a rodent researcher, this is often how I ensure that my interactions with the rats are appetitive rather than aversive. It’s cool that it has a name and it makes sense as an effective social bonding tool

 

[sk83n]

@emjeep

I’ve been doing this with all of my pets since I was a kid, not just dogs

Same here. I think growing up with animals, maybe, as in our cases multiple species, is the best way to learn this. We had large farm animals, and if you didn't learn to observe their body language, you were putting yourself in danger of being hurt.

 

[shane19]

@jozymba Consent testing, and the whole concept of consent, plays a massive role in my husbandry and dog sport training. Less of a role in my day to day interactions with my dogs, but that may just be because they’re not cuddly to begin with, so we just don’t have a ton of those interactions.

Having a consent-giving protocol for vet visits has changed my dogs’ entire relationship with vets offices. I also take consent in an agility and any competition setting really really seriously. My toy play has consent layered all throughout (toy play is continued through offered outs, rather than cued). Love the concept and what it’s done for my training!

 

[jozymba]

@shane19 So true! I didn't mention it in my original post, but as a Sarah Stremming fan I definitely use a "start button behavior" for training with my super intense dog.

It has made a night-and-day difference in his overarousal issues during training... taking Sarah's Worked Up class on Fenzi and introducing a start button behavior was really the turning point in our training.

 

[squareone]

@jozymba How does your start button behavior work? Are you cueing the dog that training is about to start? Or do you mean you ask for consent before starting the training?

 

[shane19]

@squareone I’m having my dog cue me that he’s ready for something to start. So I don’t do this for every training session, that’s overkill for my dog. But I do use it in agility. He offers his sit at the start line, and then we go. If he doesn’t offer a sit, we don’t go. So if he’s really unsure in the environment, he simply won’t sit, because he knows that means I won’t run away from him.

 

[squareone]

@shane19 I asked the other poster too, but would like your experience as well.

What if your dog doesn’t sit? You just don’t do the agility course?... do you just ..go home?

I am intrigued by the idea of consent for training, but at the same time I can’t help but compare it to like a six year old kid taking swim classes. If you always leave it up to him, he might never choose to go...or he might go sporadically and end up not learning to swim cuz the lessons are so inconsistently spaced out.

Obviously agility isn’t like a life saving skill like swimming, but if I’m paying for the course or if I’m competing, it would feel sorta sucky to not do it cuz my dog’s not consenting via this start button. What if they’re just being a brat that day? Does it ever teach them they can get out of stuff more easily and just not listen, cuz they always have a way out of training?

 

[shane19]

@squareone

What if your dog doesn’t sit?

Yup! I’m lucky that at the same time I discovered start buttons, I also discovered acclimation routines. My dog has never told me “no” at a trial. But he has during training, and that’s exactly what we do. We happily go back to the crate, he gets his cookies still, and the next dog in class goes. When we were struggling with bad feelings about weave poles, and those were early on the course and he knew that, that’s when he was electing not to sit. And that was crazy valuable information for me!

But I know plenty of people whose dogs opt out in trials and they scratch their run. That’s a very okay thing to do.

What if they’re just being a brat that day?

So, my dogs are properly motivated and compensated for their work. They really don’t have days where they’re “just being a brat”. It’s not how our relationship works. But if they did, I certainly don’t want to play a game like agility with a dog that wasn’t giving me 100%, so that’s the exact scenario I’d want them to opt out.

Does it ever teach them they can get out of stuff more easily and just not listen, cuz they always have a way out of training?

Sure. I want my dogs to always have a way out of training. My training is fun! Why would you want boring cookies in your crate when you can have a fun engaging agility session? It keeps me honest about maintaining a level of engagement in my sessions that makes the dog WANT to continue.