Pup Psychology

Victoria Stilwell is a world renowned dog trainer and expert. Her show on Animal Planet, It’s Me or the Dog, focuses on helping dog owners create a home where both man and his best friend are happy, healthy, and safe. This can involve helping the owner train his dog to modify behavior – and helping train the owner to provide better care, such as by taking more frequent walks or by providing more healthful food.

On a recent show, she made an interesting point: people run into problems with their dogs when they begin treating them like people. We love our dogs; they are parts of our families, but she is right. They are not people. Thank God! They’re dogs, they’re wonderful – but we’re the ones training them, not vice versa.

To some dog owners, it may seem almost cruel not to treat their dogs like people. But you need to remember that dogs are dogs. They have thought processes and natural instincts that are very much different than ours. One example of this is the pack mentality. They have historically lived in groups, and this behavior is ingrained in them. They seek out the strongest member of the pack and follow his lead. You need to be the alpha dog in order to create a safe and healthy home. And it also creates a secure and happy dog. He likes having structure and rules to follow.

Another thing to be aware of is that dogs do not have emotions like we do. This is hard for many people to accept because your dog loves you! Right? Right. But he shows it in nonhuman ways. We tend to think of dogs leaning on us, putting their paws on us, etc., as signs of affection. In fact, they are more often signs of dominance. If your dog loves you, he feels comfortable and confident giving you space. This doesn’t mean he doesn’t love to curl up in bed with you – but remember that he probably likes this mostly because of the warmth.

The website, Dog Breeder Info, brings up an important point. We offer dogs comfort in human ways. If they see something that scares them, for instance, our first instinct is to reach out and comfort them with a touch. According to this site, this actually reinforces the fear. Next time they encounter whatever has made him scared, we comfort him. This is our nature. This is what we would do with a child, and this is what would help a child overcome his fear.

But in dogs, it is seen as weakness from their human. And when there is weakness from their human, there is indeed something to fear. Instead, simply allowing your dog to process the fear and work it out in his own mind is far more effective. If your dog starts at a clap of thunder, for instance, you go on about your business. Don’t look at him, even if you think he’s scared. Just be nonchalant. Your dog will look to you, the pack leader, to see if he should be afraid. You’re not concerned? He’s not concerned. The fear is not reinforced.

These are just a few ways in which we can see how our dogs think and act differently than we do. We can create a better home for our dogs and ourselves when we understand a little pup psychology.