Aimee recently wrote an article about how to speak cat. I couldn’t help but think of it when I watched the Elvis episode of “The Greatest American Dog.”
The Tangled Leash Challenge
In this “Greatest American Dog” challenge, the dogs and their owners were paired up. They had to attach their dogs to leashes that wound around various obstacles and intertwined with one another. Then, without touching their dogs, using verbal commands only, they had to navigate their dogs through the course.
There were several obstacle sections to work through. Once they were free of one, they unhooked the dog from the previous section and attached him to a new leash in the next section. But since they were working in teams and the leashes were “tangled” and they couldn’t touch the dogs, often the owners had to call their teammate’s dog to get through the obstacle.
“What words does your dog know?”
Preston’s mom Laura asked her partner (who I believe was Ron, Tillman’s dad) what I thought was a genius question: “What words does Tillman know for everything?”
She went on to say that Preston knew go around, over, under, and up, among others.
In one respect there is a universal dog training language: sit, stay, come, lay down, leave it. But when it comes to doing things in everyday life, most dogs have a different vocabulary.
For instance, Murph knows “come around” means he’s about to walk on the wrong side of a tree, mailbox, or pole and get his leash goofed up. “Go quick like a bunny” means we’ve got to hustle our butts across the road so we don’t get smooshed like the bunnies around here often do.
But who would know that? He couldn’t tell someone else walking him that those are the words he knows when I want him to do certain things.
Other Ways to Communicate
Other than words, the dog owners used three other means of communicating with their dogs: voices (tone and pitch), gestures, and goodies (either a favorite toy or treat).
Ron, Tillman’s dad, was at loss for working with Laura’s Preston.
“The voice that is needed with Preston doesn’t exist in this body.” ~-Ron about the Tangled Leash Challenge-~
He was right. Laura had a high-pitched, baby talking way of getting Preston to respond. If you’ve watched the show, you know that wouldn’t be Ron’s style.
Brandy, Beacon’s mom, used a squeaky hot dog to get him to respond. David, Elvis’s dog, used food. Star’s dad Bill would often pat a surface or motion to her to move a certain way.
Some methods were similar, but the neat thing was they were still all unique. They showcased the bond between the dog and owner and demonstrated what I think is the most endearing part of the dog/person relationship: the fact that we may be different species, but we find ways to communicate with each other nonetheless.
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