How To Use Different Vocal Tones To Instruct Your Dog

Just like humans, dogs recognize the various tones that we use in our voices.So unless we are consistent with what tone we use for different circumstances, we are going to end up with one confused dog!

Praise

This vocal tone is quite high pitched, which girls usually find easier to achieve. However, this is not an excuse for the guys to get out of using their high voice. They will just have to work harder get their voice to reach the higher pitch!  This higher pitched voice is similar to that which we use when we’re praising a child. For example:

“Good boy!” or “Good girl!”

So when your dog hears this tone in your voice, their tail will probably start to wag as they are happy that they’ve made you happy.

Command

When you are giving your dog a command, your voice needs to move into the lower vocal range and have an authoritative tone.

Your dog should recognise that with this tone that they must follow the particular commands that you are giving immediately.

If you were to use your ‘praise’ voice whist giving a command, your dog may think that you are commending them for something, even though they are not actually following your commands.The ‘command’ voice is usually short and sharp. For example:

“Sit”, “Drop”, “Stay”

Although you are showing your authority, your dog is just being asked to follow commands and hasn’t done anything wrong at this point in time. Therefore your voice must sound different to when you are correcting your dog when they have done something wrong.

Correction

When your dog has been naughty, your corrective voice should be used. Your voice should sound lower than your command voice, which is now more difficult for the girls to achieve!

With a low resounding “No”, your dog should instantly recognize that you are no longer happy with their behaviour, and stop their activity. You may follow this up by changing to your ‘command’ voice and giving them an instruction eg. sit.

Once again, if you were to use your ‘praise’ voice, your dog will think that you are happy with their bad behaviour and will continue with whatever they are doing.

So as you have now learnt, something as simple as the tone in your voice can affect how well your dog understands and obeys your instructions. You may find this difficult to implement at first as you may not have recognized what tone or tones you have been speaking to your dog with. However, if you continue to use the methods that I’ve explained above, your dog will also learn to understand what you want them to do.