CANINE PSYCOLOGY:
GETTING TO KNOW YOUR DOG BETTER
Dogs have thoughts and feelings just as humans. The only difference is they can’t express themselves like we can. Knowing your dog better will help you build a positive and stronger relationship with your dog better.
Understanding canine psychology is essential as it can help you know what drives your dog better. You can learn to recognize the triggers of your dog’s specific behaviours and develop a safer and more effective strategy to help your pet overcome them.
When it comes to dog psychology, there are three primary theories you need to understand: Rudolph Schenkel’s Pack Mentality, Ivan Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning, and B.F Skinner’s Operant Conditioning and Positive Reinforcement.
Rudolph Schenkel’s Pack Mentality
This theory compares dog behaviour to that of wolves because Schenkel discovered that packs of captive wolves created a social hierarchy through moments of aggression. This theory believes that dogs think the human members of a household belong to their pack just like wolves. Hence, in order to foster harmony, dog owners must establish themselves as the ‘alpha’.
Although the ‘alpha wolf’ theory was backed up by David Mech in the 1970’s, he later retracted his findings when he revisited the theory by studying organic wolf packs in the wild rather than zoo bound animals that was originally studied by Schenkel. Mech found that organic wolf packs interact more in a family dynamic rather than fight for resources. They practice the give and take mechanic, mutual respect, and manners when correcting any conflict between its members and their overall day-to-day interactions.
Ivan Pavlov Classical Conditioning
According to this theory, a learning process takes place through associating a naturally occurring stimulus and an environmental stimulus. For instance, a dog would salivate in response to the food that is placed in front of them. Therefore, any objects that a dog learned to associate with food would give the same response. This has led to ideas such as conditioning dogs to learn through the help of whistles and clickers by pairing its sounds with foods or other things.
B.F Skinner’s Operant Conditioning and Positive Reinforcement
This theory states that by applying positive or negative stimuli, also known as rewards or punishments, the behavior of an animal or person can be trained following specific actions. For instance, a dog will keep doing a particular behaviour if it is always followed by a reward. On the contrary, a dog will refrain from doing a particular action if it is followed by a penalty. This has been used and applied to shape their behaviours.
Understanding Your Dog’s mind
No matter how we tend to humanize dogs, dogs are still different from humans in terms of the way they think and feel. Humanising a dog may cause a miscommunication between human and dogs which can result in various behavioral issues. We cannot expect dogs to do what we can do—hence they must be taught specific actions in specific situations and places. Oftentimes, dogs learn by repeating behaviors with good results.
Understanding Dog drives
Understanding your dog’s drive will help you to be able to effectively communicate with your dog and handle it. Dogs have three primary drives: prey drive, defence drive, and the pack drive.
The prey drive represents a dog’s innate desire to search and capture prey. For instance, when you throw a ball or anything and it falls out of sight, a dog with high prey drive will not stop until he finds it. This kind of dogs are ideal to train for search and rescue. Meanwhile, when a dog is in defence drive, it’s probably because it sees something or someone as a threat and manifest it by biting or barking– this is the dog’s instinct to defend itself. Lastly, the pack drive is a dog’s desire to be part of a group. Hence, if a dog has a low pack drive, this means that the dog is independent. At the other extreme, dogs with high pack drive often experience and suffer from separation anxiety.
Understanding canine psychology through dog play
Usually, dogs are best attentive to their environment when they play so they can also analyse what other dogs are doing. According to a study, dogs exhibit four aspects of basic play: follow the rules, be honest, ask first, and admit when you’re wrong. Dogs believe others want to play and not get into a fight. They understand how other dogs think and use different gestures to invite them to play or to apologise.
Understanding Your Dog’s Loyalty
Just as how humans love bond and interaction, dogs also want to bond with a group. This is the reason why they instinctively show loyalty to those who could be part of their pack. Back when dogs were wild animals, they lived together with other dogs to defend themselves better against threats and capture larger prey when hunting. The packs that formed the strongest bonds were more effective and more likely to raise young. Loyal behavior was passed down and grew stronger as time went by.
Moreover, dogs have also developed better ways of communicating with humans throughout the years. This is the reason why modern dogs today are capable of providing great loyalty and affection. Hence, putting the work in is important to make sure that your dog feels like a full member of your pack or family.
Bottomline
If you want to have a stronger bond with your furry friend, understanding dog behavior by learning theories and concepts would greatly help you foster a harmonious life for your family and pets. If you need professional help in training your dog, you can book one-on-one training sessions with Jay by clicking here and stay updated on the latest blog posts and news articles by subscribing to our newsletter.
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