All About Consent!

Grayson is the kind of dog that doesn’t growl when he’s trying to give a warning - his body language cues are a lot more subtle. He tends to go from whale eye straight to a snap. 

 

During a period where we really struggled with understanding his body language and also trying to rebuild trust that had been lost in our relationship, I decided that we needed to follow a strictly consensual interaction. For Grayson, most of his fear of handling is the unknown (from what I can gather). He needed to know the who, what, where, when, and how’s of the interactions to be comfortable with the interaction. As the vet visit that sparked most of these issues were from the surprise and force of being pinned to a table and being forced to go through a certain situation, I understood that consent would be imperative in moving forward. 

 

Consent pets are one of the best and easiest things we taught Grayson. The most important thing to remember is consistency (which includes those that interact with your dog outside of your household). 

 

Training this was pretty easy - every time we walk up to him, we cup our hands with the palm facing down and have our hand by his face. If he nudged it, we would pet him and be overly enthusiastic about the interaction (the overly excitement you would do when house-training). If he didn’t do anything or turned his head away, we would walk away completely - not just not touch him, but completely leave his space. 

 

Eventually he caught on as to what this meant, and today we use this with every interaction we have. We have also asked friends and family to also ask for consent before petting him. It sets expectations and also builds trust that he will not be touched unless he says it’s ok. 

 

As a dog that also sometimes wants to be pet, but than can get uncomfortable, consent petting also is great for “temperature tests.” While we are already petting him or cuddling him, we will cup our hands and ask him to confirm it’s ok to keep going. If he doesn’t nudge our hands, we need to come to a full stop. 

 

Hopefully you found this page helpful! Feel free to join our adventures by following us on Instagram - @graysonthefosterfail