Dog Behaviors And What They Mean
Growing Past Lady And The Tramp
We love our dogs and see them as, well, Lady and the Tramp; having human emotions and thinking like humans. In reality, although they are smart and great learners; they are not as complex as we are. So let’s give them a break and try to understand dog behaviors and what they mean. This way we can appreciate and connect with them the way they are.
Dogs have done a good job relating to us and working with us over the centuries. After all, we’ve been together for over 40,000 years! However, when we humans think of dogs being able to understand right from wrong, we’re asking way too much. We think that when they chew the sofa, they must know it is wrong, because we’ve had that “talk” before. That’s the way we think, so they must, too. They must understand why they are being punished for chewing the sofa, right?
Dog Behavior Explained
Well, in reality, they do not know that chewing the sofa is unacceptable. What they learn when you yell at them (with the couch stuffing hanging out of their mouth) is this: “Do not chew the sofa in front of Mom.” When we are present, they will pause and just go after it some other time, when we are not. We come home later and fuss at them again, when (surprise!) we see the couch chewed up. Your dog cowers and tries to do something that makes you stop fussing at him. He does not relate your anger to the sofa activity because he chewed on that hours ago.
What we have been doing to our pets is punishing them for not figuring out where they went wrong in the past. Making that connection requires longer term memory. You see, when you punish your dog for failing to make a connection about a “wrong” activity that he does not even remember …he doesn’t get it. At this poing he can only connect the punishment with you, not the activity. That must be pretty confusing for him, and disappointing and/or frustrating for the hapless human.
Understanding Your Dog’s Behavior and Loving Him/Her Anyway!
You see, our canine friends are not like us as much as we thought. And that’s okay! We don’t have to be disappointed about it. We can still enjoy our lives with them and they can be like surrogate children. We can appreciate how wonderful and fascinating they are, just as they are.
That said, how would we describe them? A good description (in part) would be this: Dogs are innocently selfish. You see, dogs are great observers, who move in complex social environments, fraught with emotion. That fits pretty well in our world. However, dogs do not have the ability to move back and forth through time (Remember the sofa incident?) In addition, they do not really understand language per se, though they can learn to discriminate the relevance of certain words we use over and over.
Understanding and appreciating what our canine friends are good at can go a long way to helping them be happier and a terrific part of our lives. AZ Dog Academy can help you gain the skills you need to develop positive behaviors in your dog. We offer tons of different dog training classes for your beloved pooch, and also classes if you are interested in learning how to become a dog trainer. How fun is this? You will even learn to have fun with your dog at the same time!
I am all for respecting our dogs’ behavior and understanding what they mean — plus, appreciating them and all the positivity and unconditional love they bring to our lives. How about you, are you with me?
2016
