Canine Consent: Why It Matters and How To Get It

Consent is crucial communication and one that conveys mutual respect. photo: AdobeStock

Consent is an agreement between two individuals in which one party chooses to voluntarily participate in another’s proposition. It is a crucial communication and one that conveys mutual respect. 

We’ve all heard a lot about consent lately when it comes to human relationships, but it’s also a concept that has been coming into focus in the dog training world over the last decade. While it may take a bit of a leap to wrap your head around consent as it relates to dogs, it should absolutely apply to our relationships and daily interactions with them.

If you’re wondering what consent looks like when it comes to dogs, this video may help you get a better idea. But for now, let’s define consent as an agreement between you and your dog. Under that agreement, the dog needs to clearly understand that there is a choice provided to them, understand what that choice is, and be able to communicate their choice to us. 

You might be thinking this sounds complicated. Dogs don’t speak English after all. But all modern, evidence-based training now includes consent as a centralized part of its practice. Large animals in zoos can be taught to opt into care procedures so we can certainly apply these concepts and techniques to our dog training practices as well.

One way to incorporate the idea of consent into your relationship with your dog is through consensual touching and petting. Many people assume all dogs like to be petted and that petting a dog will help them understand that they did something good. But the reality is it doesn’t always work that way. 

While plenty of dogs often do enjoy being petted, they don’t always want it and some dogs like it more than others or only want it from certain people (I have had to politely coach many clients to see that their dog isn’t actually enjoying the touch they are providing). Focusing on petting consent allows you to more effectively understand and read your dog’s body language.

How do you do this? First, don’t just reach out and touch - that’s rude! Start by offering your open hands out to the dog, inviting them in for pets. The dog is saying “Yes” if they come toward you and move their body into your hands. They are also probably showing you exactly where they want to be petted as well. The dog is saying “No” if they look at you but don’t approach or if they approach but stay back from your hands. If they say “No” that’s okay. Be sure to respect their boundaries. In fact, allowing a dog to say no is the best way to eventually get a yes.

When touching and petting your dog, take your hands off of their body every 3-5 seconds. Remember, consent is something that is voluntarily given and can also be withdrawn at any point. After you take your hands off your dog, you’re looking for signs that they want you to continue. A “Yes” might look like your dog pushing back into your hands, leaning their body into you, or nudging your hand with their nose. A “No” can be something obvious like growling or a more subtle signal like backing or pulling away or turning their head. A “No” can also look like the absence of a “Yes.” If you touch your dog and they don’t change their behavior in any way, that’s a “No.” Respect a dog’s choices when it comes to bodily contact.

Another way to incorporate consent into your relationship with your dog is through grooming and care procedures. This idea, called cooperative care, is well known in the modern dog training world. With cooperative care, the dog is an active and willing participant in the process and is able to opt out and say “No” at any point in the procedure. You’re teaching your dog to be comfortable with a procedure and teaching yourself to listen to your dog. 

A common example of cooperative care in grooming is nail trims. The procedure might look like this: you show your dog the nail clippers and hold your hand out for them to choose to give you a paw. If they place their paw in your hand and keep it there voluntarily without you holding it, they are saying yes, please clip my nails (this can also be a fun treat game). If your dog gets uncomfortable for any reason or communicates that they need help understanding the procedure is safe, they can simply “tap out” by removing their paw from your hand or by not giving it to you in the first place. This tells you that you need to adjust your expectations and begin working with them more regularly to help them feel more comfortable with the procedure.

Similarly, teaching a dog to opt into training exercises is a great way to make sure you’ve chosen exercises at the correct level and intensity for your dog to be successful. Start with simple training exercises in the house and off the leash. If your dog isn’t into it, they are free to leave. That is a sign that you need to change your behavior. 

Here’s an example of what this process might look like. 

Start by teaching the dog to choose to ‘sit’ on their own and let them discover that sitting makes us reward them with a treat. The dog now understands they can get a treat from us by choosing to sit. Once this is understood, follow up with the next thing you want to work on, say, recall training. Start by waiting for your dog to offer some sits, then move to your chosen recall exercise. If the dog is comfortable, happy, and feeling safe with the recall training exercises, you’ll know because they will happily opt into training by volunteering some sits to get the game going. 

If they aren’t enjoying the process or it’s unclear to them, you’ll know because when it’s time for your dog to volunteer their sits, they may instead leave the room, sniff the ground, or go lie down. You can then troubleshoot: why isn’t my dog opting into these fun reward-based exercises? What am I missing?

Consent behaviors or “start button” behaviors are the first step of a behavior chain and another common way we can allow dogs to consent. If the question is “May I inject you with this needle?,” consent may look like putting their two paws on the platform and standing still. This is the consent behavior or a “start button,” the first step of a chain of behaviors and tells me the dog is ready to begin. 

Other examples might be your dog placing their chin in your hand and keeping it there to consent to an ear examination, jumping up on an ottoman to tell you they want you to put their harness on, going to their bed when they want to be left alone - or the ever-popular sitting next to you with their mouth two inches from your face to tell you they want a bite of your pizza. Once you’re aware of the possibilities, there are many opportunities to teach your dog they have choices and to strengthen the communication between you and your pet.

Dogs with bite histories can definitely benefit from learning consent protocols. Often dogs who bite have attempted to say “No” to humans in more subtle ways but were unsuccessful at getting their point across until they used their teeth. One of my clients had a dog who would sometimes bite when handled. While we worked on helping the dog enjoy touch more, we started by teaching the dog to say “No.” The dog would opt into the touching game by putting his two front paws on a small platform. If the handling exercise became too much, the dog would step back off of the platform and we would stop. Soon the dog started backing away and saying “No” in situations where they had previously used teeth to communicate. Even better, the dog started to say “Yes” to touching more frequently after it became clear that they were allowed to say “No thanks” without needing to yell and bite for us to hear them. Imagine going to the dentist and not being able to raise your hand to take a pause during your root canal procedure. You’d probably fight, too.

Some of these consent procedures are easy to begin working on with your own dog, while others are more complicated and would be best taught and practiced under the experienced eye of an evidenced-based and ethically-minded dog trainer. Either way, it’s important to know that all animals, including dogs, are sentient beings who deserve agency in their lives. Being able to give consent is a big part of that.