Many of you know, I have three scrappy dogs here. I’m home with them all day. They’re used to me.
I’m a thoughtful dog owner. I understand the older female dog has to pee all the time, so I let her out every few hours. The dogs trust and rely on me.
We have two house guests right now, they’re both men. My husband is around two, so three men. All the sudden, my dogs won’t give me the time of day. I call them to come in and…uh, nothing. By instinct, I yelled in the house, “One of you call these dogs in a man’s voice.”
The men called and every single dog, hop to! You’ve got to be kidding me!
So as of today, I let the dogs out. I call them in; the female dog comes near the door but will go no further. The two male dogs lie in the grass, acting deaf.
Then one of the men call for them; all three come rushing in, keen to show what great compliant dogs they are.
What the hell is this? You tell me!
A sandwich bag of bacon in someone’s pants pocket??? 🙂
Maybe they smelled sausage? ?
I read somewhere that it’s the pitch of your voice. Higher pitch of female voice sounds like dogs’ prey, so they won’t always respect authority of a woman’s voice. Males tend to have lower frequency that dogs are more hardwired to listen to. Sometimes I’ll try a deeper voice when I’m trying to command my dog.
When I was training my dog, I also read about voice. So I drop my voice and never lift it at the end (as in a question). Not saying you’re doing this. I just thought it was interesting and effective for me. For kids, too!
Oh yes I also try not to speak my commands as questions… Except when I ask him to please come with me and ask him things like what he would like to eat and where he wants to go! He’s such a good boy 🙂 Spoiled ?
Elsa that’s how kids act with siblings & babysitters! I’ve experienced this and my daughter said the same regarding her little brothers. The kids are Angels when they’re alone with you but they turn into traders & often times little demons when the parents come home,, only thing I could suggest is to be the only one to feed them,,, on the other hand~ cats don’t care who’s the boss.
With three men sitting, calming talking amongst each other the dogs consider the men to be the alpha pack of the house. It’s just nature. 🙂
I think this too, just struck by how animals don’t care about political correctness, lol. I was told privately, my dogs are sexist. 🙂
It’s just the organization of their species I guess
Years ago, I spent a summer babysitting a friend’s German Shepherd. I took Rama (the dog) to the park. We were playing “fetch.” I met up with a male friend of mine – we were chatting. Rama returns with the ball and deposits it politely at Gary’s feet. I don’t know how he learned it, but he did know that the lower-voiced humans can throw further (as a general rule), which makes fetch more fun.
This is about how my kids listened to me!
Our little dog use to follow me everywhere and always wanted to be snuggled next to me, but he always looked nervous and sort of guilty … maybe it was because my husband would look at him snuggled close to me call him a traitor 🙂 funny thing is he was really our son’s dog. Every dog we have ever had alway seems to recognize me as the Mommy. They respect and respond to my husband he is the Alpha I am the Mommy LOL
I always use a guys voice crazy I know but thats me good thing cause I live alone with this bunch of dogs cat a rabbit outside in a cage.. enclosed type so yeah I deepen my voice when I mean hurry thats all its all voice level animals respect big Big Plus my two (one passed) each came from a male based home.. they remember puppyhood training good and bad
While reading the blog I had been listening to music from our online collection. I started whipping back and forth between male and female singers. Definitely each voice resonated to the listeners head or chest depending on timber. A couple of the female singers, when using their lower register, were “felt” in the chest cavity. Proximity to the recipient’s solar plexus perhaps?