18 Oct 2016

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Pet-Wise: Your dog’s mind is simpler than you think

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By Bonny King-Taylor, the doggy lama, pet coach

This is one of my favorite topics when dealing with folks who are confused about why their dogs are behaving in certain ways.

I tell people all the time that the canine brain works pretty much the opposite of the primate mind. Truly, the fact that dogs EVER do what we want them to is something of a miracle. We are asking them to live in polite society in ways that are completely counter to their instincts. So, it is up to us to work with, rather than against, those instincts to help your dog understand how to succeed.

Firstly, it is imperative that you accept that the vast majority of the emotional labels we normally project onto our dogs’ behavior are simply not appropriate. Your dog’s mind is much simpler than humanity’s complex expectations and fears would suggest. Emotions like jealousy, anger, prejudice and envy just aren’t part of a dog’s experience.

UntitledThe Basics

  1. As primates, humans stare at trouble. (That’s why soap operas, politics and train wrecks are so fascinating to us.)
  2. Humans project their thoughts and fears into the future and into the past nearly every minute of the day.
  3. Dogs are totally and completely present in every moment…with no concept of past or future…but they DO have amazing pattern recognition, which is very different from cumulative or evaluative memory.
  4. When you resist the urge to make an observation about a particular behavior in terms of emotion, you are MUCH more likely to get what you really want from our dog.

For instance, let’s look at some factual observations, what you might think is going on in your dog’s mind, and then some solution-based conclusions to help you work with your dog to help them understand what you really want.

So, what if you notice that your dog has pooped on the couch? You might assume that he’s done that because he is mad that you left him for the day. Well, your dog pooped on the couch because he might not be completely house trained. Or, separation anxiety might also be contributing to the problem.

These behaviors can be fixed, but the assumption that your dog is mad at you, isn’t something we can really work with.

How about when your dog is pulling on the leash?

You might think he is pulling on the leash because he can’t resist all the smells and noises on the street. But, the truth is, your dog is pulling on the leash because he can!

Let’s train him to walk on a loose leash by helping him to understand that he only gets to move forward when he is calm, and walking in what I call the ‘target position’, which is right by the seam of your trousers.

Or, for instance, your dog has jumped on a stranger in the street. You might think that he’s jumped on her because he smells cats on her. But, the truth is, your dog jumped for attention, or to play.

Let’s train him to jump as a game, so that he knows that ‘No Jump’ means that he should keep his feet on the ground.

And lastly, how about when he puts his head down and looks away after what we consider to be a mistake?

You might think that he feels guilty for acting out, but the truth is, he is moving away and feeling concerned because the expression on your face looks like thunder.

So instead, take a breath…remember that you can’t correct the behaviors that you don’t see…and go back to do some basic training to avoid a repeat.

And please, never punish. It just teaches your dog to be afraid of your hands and voice, and we really don’t want that.

And please know, that I would never suggest that dogs don’t have emotions. Of course they do. They have strong and basic emotions, like fear, joy, contentment…and even anger. And, yes, they DO love, but not in the same, complex ways that humans do.

They especially do NOT feel vanity, pride or shame. There is a lot of conversation these days about whether or not dogs can actually feel guilt. I would submit that the behaviors we assume are based in guilt could mean something else. For instance, years ago, my beloved Bartleby made a big mistake when a friend did not properly crate him after we’d gone to the grocery. When I came back a couple hours later, Bartleby was at the top of the stairs with a miserable expression on his face.

I remember saying out loud, “What did you DO!”

When he stood up, his little belly was poking out on both sides. He had, while I was away, eaten two POUNDS of pita bread.

He was enormous, and I imagine, what looked like a very ‘hang dog, guilty expression was really based in having a pretty bad tummy ache.

I don’t think he put together “Ooh! Access to a food that I really like” and “Oh, my mom is going to be really mad now.”

And, I assume that he saw my scrunchy expression of WHAT’S GOING ON HERE, as something that he needed to appease with submissive behavior.

The truth is, dogs simply do not have the cortical mass…meaning the grey matter of their brains…to draw the sorts of conclusions that we do on a regular basis.

And, frankly, I think that is the good news. Wouldn’t it be nice to not be pushed around by your emotions all day?

So, if we are not going to ascribe human emotions to a dog’s behavior, how SHOULD we look at it?

Well, I advocate for focusing on the instinctive reasons behind behaviors and developing the habits in your home to work with those instincts rather than against them. When you are able to do that, you eliminate a lot of the stress around dog training and behavior modification. And help your dog live a more contented and secure life knowing what behaviors are, and are not acceptable.

If you sometimes struggle with disconnecting your emotional experience from your dog’s behavior, leave a comment below and we’ll talk about some solutions in a future column.

In the meanwhile, take care of yourselves and your pets, and join us next time for more Pet-wise.

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