The practical part!
After we talked about how much fun is it to keep a dog, and I told you my background - it's time to learn and perform!
Understanding dog psychology and behavior is the key to successful dog training and therefore developing the best possible relationship with your dog.
For thousands of years there has been a mutually satisfying relationship between humans and their canine friends, one based on loyalty, protection, companionship, and, not the least of which, the ability to in various and effective ways communicate with each other.
Even the most dim-witted of dogs are able to let us know if they are hungry, need to go out, or want to play frisbee. My dog's way of letting me know his water bowl is empty is to drop it in front of me with a loud metallic clang. There is no mistaking what he wants.
Dogs are very intuitive as well and have the amazing ability to interpret and react to human tones of voice and body language. They are capable of learning complicated tricks and procedures, and of course they have enhanced senses of hearing, smell, and low-light vision, thought they perceive colors differently and with less complexity than humans.
Even with all of these abilities and attributes we will still have a hard time understand dog psychology unless we understand that dogs deal with and process their world in a way very unlike that of people.
For Example: My dogs are routinely fed at 7:30 AM and again at 5 PM. They have been conditioned to expect to be fed at those times, and if I forget and let the deadline pass by even a few minutes, they will remind me. In dog psychology terms this is a classical conditioned response.
Always in the past when they reached a certain level of hunger or their "stomach alarm" went off, they got fed. If we are riding in the car at those magic times of the day and have no access to their food, they cannot process the idea that food is not available and they will have to wait until we get home. All they understand is that they are supposed to be fed and it's not happening.
Dogs are very good at learning certain cause and effect relationships, and this understanding of dog behavior psychology can be used extensively and with great success in the training process using positive and/or negative reinforcement. But here again there is an obvious difference in how far this information gets processed by dogs.
Dogs can learn to respond to an amazing number of voice and hand commands and learn to perform complex tricks and service tasks such as guiding the blind, search and rescue, police work, and explosives and arson detection using positive reinforcement.
On the other hand, most if not all dogs will have a hard time understanding the cause and effect relationship of eating garbage and getting sick. They will do it every chance they get and therefore an additional and more immediate negative reinforcement may be needed to manage that behavior.
Understanding dog psychology and behavior is the key to successful dog training and therefore developing the best possible relationship with your dog.
For thousands of years there has been a mutually satisfying relationship between humans and their canine friends, one based on loyalty, protection, companionship, and, not the least of which, the ability to in various and effective ways communicate with each other.
Even the most dim-witted of dogs are able to let us know if they are hungry, need to go out, or want to play frisbee. My dog's way of letting me know his water bowl is empty is to drop it in front of me with a loud metallic clang. There is no mistaking what he wants.
Dogs are very intuitive as well and have the amazing ability to interpret and react to human tones of voice and body language. They are capable of learning complicated tricks and procedures, and of course they have enhanced senses of hearing, smell, and low-light vision, thought they perceive colors differently and with less complexity than humans.
Even with all of these abilities and attributes we will still have a hard time understand dog psychology unless we understand that dogs deal with and process their world in a way very unlike that of people.
For Example: My dogs are routinely fed at 7:30 AM and again at 5 PM. They have been conditioned to expect to be fed at those times, and if I forget and let the deadline pass by even a few minutes, they will remind me. In dog psychology terms this is a classical conditioned response.
Always in the past when they reached a certain level of hunger or their "stomach alarm" went off, they got fed. If we are riding in the car at those magic times of the day and have no access to their food, they cannot process the idea that food is not available and they will have to wait until we get home. All they understand is that they are supposed to be fed and it's not happening.
Dogs are very good at learning certain cause and effect relationships, and this understanding of dog behavior psychology can be used extensively and with great success in the training process using positive and/or negative reinforcement. But here again there is an obvious difference in how far this information gets processed by dogs.
Dogs can learn to respond to an amazing number of voice and hand commands and learn to perform complex tricks and service tasks such as guiding the blind, search and rescue, police work, and explosives and arson detection using positive reinforcement.
On the other hand, most if not all dogs will have a hard time understanding the cause and effect relationship of eating garbage and getting sick. They will do it every chance they get and therefore an additional and more immediate negative reinforcement may be needed to manage that behavior.
Ira Nelson - Ira Nelson - Dog Psychology - The Key to Successful Dog Training
Introduction
A breeders dog story focuses on different areas of dog training and/or dog behavior. This particular article is going to focus on dog psychology, but in particular dog language.
Lets start with the fact that dogs are not human beings so should not be treated the same as humans. By realizing that dogs need to be treated differently, you are on the first step to training your dog and understanding dog psychology. One of the most basic things that humans have is perception. Dogs do not read newspapers, paint pictures and if they do watch telly there perception of TV is different. Seeing things is not the first priority for a dog, consequently they have a different way of getting round in an everyday environment.
How Dogs 'see' with their noses
It really is true that a dog 'sees' with its nose and a mis-conception that a dogs nose is smaller than a humans because it looks smaller. However, if you actually look at the surface of a dog's nose it is in fact not smaller. A dog's nose has more cells than a humans thus making it stronger, some experts estimate as much as 50 times stronger. So it could be quite accurate to say that a dog 'sees' with its nose. They even say that some dogs can even smell salt. All living beings have a certain smell that is peculiar to that person and dogs are particularly good at picking up and also leaving their particular smell or scent.
How Dogs 'see' with their ears.
When it comes to a dog's hearing they are miles a head too. We have all seen the Galton whistle but not heard it. This whistle has been a key success in police crime fighting units where the dog can be called by the silent whistle, but with the criminal none the wiser. Due to the fact that dogs can also move the muscles in their ears they are able to home in on particular noises and cancel out other noises. We have all been in the situation where our dog refuses to come when called. This isn't because the dog can not hear us calling but they simply have channeled their hearing else where.
How good is a dog's sight?
It's always been reported that dogs see in black and white but this is not necessarily the case. However it may be the case that colors do play a lesser role in the lives of dogs. One of the key features with a dog's sight is that a dog's vision focus's on moving objects as opposed to stationary objects. This can be used to the advantage of the dog handler by simply using movement as a way of encouraging your dog to return, rather than simply watching your dog with his/her ears back not listening or pretending not to listen. By raising your hand as you call for your dog you are encouraging your dog to pay more attention.
To communicate with your dog and understand the psychology of your dog you need to take all of these factors into account. To have a good understanding of your dogs behavior and language you need to look at the body language of your dog, how they hold themselves, their body, ears, eyes and even their facial expression. You can see joy, anger, sadness and fear in your pets facial expressions and the way they hold their tails, and even down to how their fur is standing on their backs. By bringing all of this together, it makes understanding you beloved pet a little more easy.
A breeders dog story focuses on different areas of dog training and/or dog behavior. This particular article is going to focus on dog psychology, but in particular dog language.
Lets start with the fact that dogs are not human beings so should not be treated the same as humans. By realizing that dogs need to be treated differently, you are on the first step to training your dog and understanding dog psychology. One of the most basic things that humans have is perception. Dogs do not read newspapers, paint pictures and if they do watch telly there perception of TV is different. Seeing things is not the first priority for a dog, consequently they have a different way of getting round in an everyday environment.
How Dogs 'see' with their noses
It really is true that a dog 'sees' with its nose and a mis-conception that a dogs nose is smaller than a humans because it looks smaller. However, if you actually look at the surface of a dog's nose it is in fact not smaller. A dog's nose has more cells than a humans thus making it stronger, some experts estimate as much as 50 times stronger. So it could be quite accurate to say that a dog 'sees' with its nose. They even say that some dogs can even smell salt. All living beings have a certain smell that is peculiar to that person and dogs are particularly good at picking up and also leaving their particular smell or scent.
How Dogs 'see' with their ears.
When it comes to a dog's hearing they are miles a head too. We have all seen the Galton whistle but not heard it. This whistle has been a key success in police crime fighting units where the dog can be called by the silent whistle, but with the criminal none the wiser. Due to the fact that dogs can also move the muscles in their ears they are able to home in on particular noises and cancel out other noises. We have all been in the situation where our dog refuses to come when called. This isn't because the dog can not hear us calling but they simply have channeled their hearing else where.
How good is a dog's sight?
It's always been reported that dogs see in black and white but this is not necessarily the case. However it may be the case that colors do play a lesser role in the lives of dogs. One of the key features with a dog's sight is that a dog's vision focus's on moving objects as opposed to stationary objects. This can be used to the advantage of the dog handler by simply using movement as a way of encouraging your dog to return, rather than simply watching your dog with his/her ears back not listening or pretending not to listen. By raising your hand as you call for your dog you are encouraging your dog to pay more attention.
To communicate with your dog and understand the psychology of your dog you need to take all of these factors into account. To have a good understanding of your dogs behavior and language you need to look at the body language of your dog, how they hold themselves, their body, ears, eyes and even their facial expression. You can see joy, anger, sadness and fear in your pets facial expressions and the way they hold their tails, and even down to how their fur is standing on their backs. By bringing all of this together, it makes understanding you beloved pet a little more easy.
Dog Obedience Training - Dog Psychology by Tobias Charles
Most of us will have experienced some kind of dog psychology. Dogs have a way of getting us humans to do exactly what they want. The most unintelligent dog you know will be able to beg food off you with that certain look in their eyes that you just can't resist.
Having lived together over generations dogs have learned to communicate with humans and let us know what they want. If your dog thinks it's time for a walk in the park, he'll bring you his leash, if he wants to play fetch, he'll bring you his ball to throw. All actions we take for granted but show that the dog is capable of learning complex behaviour.
Although dogs can understand a surprising amount of verbal and body language, dog psychology and the way they process information is quite different from us humans.
They have better ability to see in low light and are able to pin point accurately both sounds and smells and they translate cause and effect in a completely different way.
Associating a stimulus with a response is much more persistent in dogs but humans have the ability to change an undesired response.
Suppose you pick up his leash, he'll think he's going for a walk. Pick up his ball and he'll probably know he's going for a walk and to play fetch. But if you then pick up his food bowl he'll be completely confused and not know what to do first, mind you so would I.
If you follow a certain pattern of events regularly, your dog will learn what's coming next, but he can't understand if this chain of events is broken. Humans can adjust to these changes, dogs don't process the information in the same way.
Dogs can learn commands by listening to the tone of your voice and interpreting hand gestures that accompany these commands. Sit, stay, come, lie down, are obvious examples but dogs can also be taught more complex behaviour as rescue dogs, dogs for the blind and service dogs show.
Although it's possible to teach dogs all kinds of things, sometimes what seems obvious to us, such as not eating a decaying rabbit, you may never be able to teach your dog. They can't relate the cause of the rabbit, to being the effect of the upset stomach that happens at a later time.
Just remember dog psychology and the way they think is different from how we understand life and although we try to see our dog sometimes as human, to them, we are just another dog.
Having lived together over generations dogs have learned to communicate with humans and let us know what they want. If your dog thinks it's time for a walk in the park, he'll bring you his leash, if he wants to play fetch, he'll bring you his ball to throw. All actions we take for granted but show that the dog is capable of learning complex behaviour.
Although dogs can understand a surprising amount of verbal and body language, dog psychology and the way they process information is quite different from us humans.
They have better ability to see in low light and are able to pin point accurately both sounds and smells and they translate cause and effect in a completely different way.
Associating a stimulus with a response is much more persistent in dogs but humans have the ability to change an undesired response.
Suppose you pick up his leash, he'll think he's going for a walk. Pick up his ball and he'll probably know he's going for a walk and to play fetch. But if you then pick up his food bowl he'll be completely confused and not know what to do first, mind you so would I.
If you follow a certain pattern of events regularly, your dog will learn what's coming next, but he can't understand if this chain of events is broken. Humans can adjust to these changes, dogs don't process the information in the same way.
Dogs can learn commands by listening to the tone of your voice and interpreting hand gestures that accompany these commands. Sit, stay, come, lie down, are obvious examples but dogs can also be taught more complex behaviour as rescue dogs, dogs for the blind and service dogs show.
Although it's possible to teach dogs all kinds of things, sometimes what seems obvious to us, such as not eating a decaying rabbit, you may never be able to teach your dog. They can't relate the cause of the rabbit, to being the effect of the upset stomach that happens at a later time.
Just remember dog psychology and the way they think is different from how we understand life and although we try to see our dog sometimes as human, to them, we are just another dog.
Understanding Dog Psychology by John Thompson