Learning and training is fluid.
Cargo has been on house arrest for about 6 months now. (She had the dog equivalent of two torn rotator cuffs.) In February she was allowed short walks which we did through the neighborhood. At 1pm in Chesapeake, most of the people are either at work or inside the house with the heat on. Not bundled up walking the dog for 10 minutes.
As the weather got nicer, people started doing yard work or walking off the winter weight (“hi, it was me doing that”.) My dog, who has been walking in public since she was 5 weeks old, began to creeper stare at all the people who were suddenly out in her neighborhood. She could not listen to cues, she could not keep walking, she had to just stare into their souls, wondering why they were on her street.
She forgot other people existed and when I asked her to do something she told me she could not. What I was asking was not difficult, or out of the realm of things she knew how to do, it was that she could not draw her attention away from the people who were unexpectedly walking toward her.
I believe that dogs tell us they “can’t” on a regular basis.
Sometimes we ask them to do it anyway because we know they actually can, and we want to show them that they can do hard things. We call this training. We are changing the environment at the moment to allow them to be successful when they say they can’t do something. Good trainers will reward the dogs heavily for putting forth the effort to try.
Sometimes we make our dogs do the thing when they say they can’t. This can be physically manipulating the dog, picking them up and moving them, jerking on the leash or stepping forward and putting pressure on the dog. One has to be careful with these steps since the dog may not be learning in that moment. I call these “or else” moments. Perform the correct behavior “or else” I will make you. Often I find that the dog will learn to wait for you to do the thing for them, and they never actually learn to listen to what you are asking them to do.
Why does this happen?
It is important to also take a look at why your dog said “No.” Do your dogs hips hurt or did they not hear you ask them to sit at the corner? Rarely will your dog tell you “No” for no reason. Take a look at the environment that you are in. Is this too difficult a place for your dog to listen to you? Is your dog too busy focusing on the other things going on around them? When I have these questions I ask my dog how they are feeling with a “consent test”. Can they eat high value food? I always carry something of the highest value when I am out with my dog because I never know what situation might come up. Can they listen to marker words like “get it” or “yes”? If I tell my dogs to “get it” and they don’t immediately look at what direction I am about to toss that food, then I know the environment is too hard for them at the moment.
and the less your dog will tell you “Can’t”