We Humanize Our Dogs

Often times, we as humans, don't realize we humanize our animals. When a human child is scared, we cuddle them, caress them and tell them it will be okay. The human child understands that we are comforting them and promising everything will be okay. When we coddle a dog after something has scared him, the dog does not understand that we are comforting him. The dog understands that we are reacting to his current frame of mind with positive attention. We are reinforcing his scared nature with positive attention.

Not good. That is baaaaddd.

We have to be careful about the messages we send to our dog. The worst thing a human can do is give affection to a dog when it is an elevated state of mind. Maybe the dog is afraid, nervous or acting aggressively. Unless the dog is calm, and at peace with everything around him, then he is in an elevated state of mind. This bad, bad, bad. I mean the dog could bite someone, or worse, take off across a street and get hit by a passing car. Then the scared dog becomes a dead dog. Not good at all.

Dogs are Like Onions

Too many people get dogs without fully understanding what the dog is, in nature. The dog is first an animal, and it has instincts, internal drives that we have only begun to understand in the last 25 years. Second, he is dog. We are two different species sharing a life together. After the animal in him, we must remember he is a dog. This adds another layer to his character. He has been domesticated and bred to live among humans, in their society. We cannot expect him to learn to speak our language. It is genetically impossible. We have to learn to speak dog.

The third layer is his breed. Each breed has traits that are characteristic to that breed. For example, the border collie. A working dog. A dog that had been bred by humans to have genetic memory of a herding instinct. One of the few breeds that instinctively herd a flock when put a pen with them. No training and they just do it on their own. This can cause problems when the family border collie is nipping at the kids feet when they are playing soccer.

The last layer is his personality. No two dogs are the same. In nature, the pack has a hierarchy. This means each has a different level of energy, putting them at a certain order in the chain of conman for a pack. Naturally, each one has a personality unique to him based on the experiences he has had. They may have the same basic instincts as animals, they may both be border collie, with herding instincts and even have the same markings. But they will not act the same. No two dogs are the same.

See? Dogs are like onions. When we peel these layers back, we get a picture of who he is, where he comes from and how he sees our world. We can also see how our actions are translated to his way of thinking. It is fascinating. Enlightening. Empowering. We can avoid creating monster K-9s by learning to speak dog.

Remember, positive attention is only used to tell our dogs that we like their behavior. We only caress and love on the dog when they are calm and being friendly. Never give a dog your positive attention when he is hyper, afraid, acting dominant or aggressive. It is the recipe for a monster.

Later Gaters!

#the-dog-lady