The Post With No Name Continued

Dog Emotions Vs. Human Emotions

Many people have the tendency to treat their dogs like little furry humans; they are unable to see them as anything else. This is detrimental to a dog's psychological well-being. Dogs are perfectly happy being dogs & prefer to be dogs. Also, they know they are dogs, they do not “think they're humans”, like some people say.

Dogs do have emotions, but not the same as humans, as you'll see.

Jealousy: Some owners state that when they bring home a baby or if the owner starts petting/interacting with another dog on a walk, the dog gets “jealous” & starts seeking out or demanding attention or barking at the other dog. Jealousy is really just dominance coming out, the “demanding” or “seeking attention” part is a dominance trait, the barking is a sign that the dog owns this human & doesn't want the other dog near “their” human. In the wild, the pack leader gets a lot of attention & affection from her followers. Your dog may come over to you & begin licking/grooming you in a gentle manner while displaying highly submissive body language, or come up & gently rub against or nuzzle you. That's affection from a follower dog, & this will be different from the nudges & focused, determined licking a dominant dog will give you.

Submission: As you'll know, many owners mistake a submissive dog for a sad dog, due to the dog's curled, low-held body & body language, & the perked up, proud, & “happy” look of a dominant dog. Submission is not sadness, it's quite the opposite.

Pride: Do dogs have a sense of pride? In a sense, yes they do. In the dog world, “pride” is called “calm-assertive”.

Anger: Dogs don't have an emotion like anger, the closest thing is either frustration or aggression.

Happiness: Yes, dogs have an emotion like happiness, we call it calm- or active-submission. Many people think a dog in a dominant state is happy; if you've read this far into the book, you'll know that's not true.

Excitement: No, excitement in a dog isn't happiness. It's usually stress or anxiety.

These are just the tip of the iceberg. We misinterpret dog emotions all the time. Try to remember that your little dog is just that: a little dog, not a little fuzzy human in a dog suit.

Why Humans Fail to Be Good Pack Leaders

If leadership is so necessary for a human-dog relationship, why do so many humans fail to be good leaders? I'll give you a few examples.

I was sitting on a curb with a friend when a girl walked by with a little terrier & some sort of shepherd. As I was petting the shepherd, the little terrier came up & put its paws on my leg. The owner's response: “Looks like she wants some attention, too!”

I offered to take a picture of a girl's dogs for her, as she was struggling to get them to hold still. Upon returning the camera to her, she said, “It's good to get a picture of mommy with the kids. It's usually just the kids. The dogs are my babies.” What do these two examples have to do with pack leadership? Example one: The jumping dog. To us, a jumping dog may look like the dog just wants attention. To a dog, a jump is a dominance check, not a plead for attention. You never see follower dogs jump on their leader, now, do you? Humans tend to misinterpret what a dog's actions mean due to our humanization of our beloved pets. You can't be a good pack leader if you don't understand canine psychology, body language, & behavior. Example two: the babied dogs. Once again, dogs are not humans, they are dogs. A dog is not your baby, she is your dog. You can't keep treating your dog like she's your baby, it's not good for her psychological health. Well, you can if you first treat her like a dog, not a human. 

There are more reasons people fail to be good leaders. It's up to you to try to understand what your dog needs as a canine animal. Fortunately, that's what this book is all about.

Is it True That All Ya Need is Love?

As I mentioned in the introduction, dogs need much, much more than love to be balanced & happy. I normally don't advocate using human examples in dog psychology, but I think it's necessary sometimes. Think about a child. What would happen if you only gave a child love & affection? They would become destructive & unruly, right? A child needs more than love to be well-behaved, they need exercise & discipline, too. It's the same thing with a dog. When I say “discipline”, you may picture spanking or hitting or kicking the dog, or putting her in “time-out”. That's not a dog's definition of discipline. Physical punishment often will scare a dog & make her afraid of you, & in the dog world, time-outs do not exist, corrections must occur at the exact moment or right before the transgression begins to be effective. A dog's definition of discipline will be discussed more in the next chapter.

Do dogs enjoy love & affection? Of course; it's just that love & affection as we think of it are not found as abundantly in a feral dog pack as they are in human society. Dog packs are highly structured, orderly things; that said, that makes leadership, rules, boundaries, & limitations the things a dog craves most. Think about a wolf. If you had a pet wolf, you would be more inclined to give it what it instinctually needs, right? In essence, a dog is not much more than a domesticated, small wolf, yet we seem to forget this fact, throwing instinctual satisfaction out the window & treating our dogs like little fuzzy humans instead of little fuzzy dogs. With all this talk of instincts & satisfying, what do dogs need instinctually & what can you do to fulfill them? That's discussed in the next chapter.

And so we come to the end of chapter two. You have completed a basic crash course in dog psychology. Now it's time to move on to level two: the instincts of the dog.