symondneil

Hello all,
Here I'm going to tell about your Dogs in easy ways by understanding their Psychology. I hope you may get some thing new from my post .

The Canine Mind: Dog Psychology
The most common mistake people make in training a dog is to assume that the dog is like a child. Your pet may be small and dependent on you for its needs, but a dog's mind is built differently from a human's. Most pet behavior problems can be prevented by treating your dog like a dog.


The Alpha of a Dog Pack
In the wild, dogs live in packs with a well-understood hierarchy. The pack leader or "alpha dog" eats first, gets his choice of mate, leads when the pack is on the move, and sits or stands higher than the subordinate members of the pack.

It would be completely unacceptable for a member of the pack to refuse to give way for the alpha or to growl when the alpha takes her food.

Because they're built the same way as wolves or other wild dogs, and because dogs can't act any way other than how they feel, these behaviors are equally unacceptable in a family pet.


Teaching the Way Your Dog Learns
If you want your dog to obey you, he or she must first understand that you are the pack leader. Only when your dog believes that you are alpha will you see consistent good behavior.

Cesar Millan, known as "the dog whisperer," says that dogs have three fundamental needs to keep them healthy and well-behaved. From most important to least important, these are:

* Exercise
* Discipline and
* Affection

Many dog owners, especially of small dogs, shower their dogs with affection while ignoring the more important need for exercise – in the wild a dog would be running for most of the day – and discipline, which would be provided in the wild by pack structure.


Teaching Your Dog to Think of You as Alpha
These simple habits will teach your dog that you are the pack leader:

* Always pass through doors and walk up/down stairs before your dog does.
* Teach your dog to walk beside you and follow your lead. Only the alpha leads.
* The dog should be seated lower than you. The alpha takes higher ground.
* The dog should never be allowed on furniture unless invited.
* Feed the dog after human family members have finished eating. (If you feed your dog at a different time than your dinner, get in the habit of munching on a cracker or something small but visible before you feed the dog.)
* Ignore puppy "complaints" such as whining or barking for attention. You decide when to go for a walk, not the dog.
* Your bed and other furniture is off-limits to the dog, but the dog's bed/crate/kennel, toys, and food dish are not off-limits to you. The alpha can take something from any pack member without being challenged.

A well-behaved dog respects not only its own alpha or master, but the entire human household. Children should be taught how to handle the dog so they, too, are respected as being dominant over the dog.

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veterinary hospital

oliwa

Good topic! I think any discussion of dog psychology can be helpful with those that are new dog owners or wonder why their dogs do the things they do.

Couldn't agree with you more! Although I tend to spoil my girl I still realize she's not my daughter.

I have found a lot of research that suggests the idea of the "alpha dog" is more of a myth and that dominating a dog is not necessary to get good behavior.

Pack Leader Myths
What Ever Happened to the Term Alpha Wolf?
Debunking The Dominance Myth
Letting Go of the Dominance Paradigm in Dogs
Moving Beyond the Dominance Myth Towards Training as a Partnership

I think the dog needs to respect you. I think you need to form a good bond with your dog and be the provider of all things good in life (ie. food, treats, affection, walks, belly rubs, etc). Who doesn't love to give belly rubs!?

I am not a fan of Cesar Milan to say the least, but I do agree that dogs need exercise and affection. I would substitute consistency for discipline because I think a lot of the problems that people experience with their dogs can be traced back to inconsistent enforcement of rules. I notice a big difference in Snickers if she doesn't get her daily walks so I make every effort to get her out. A tired dog is a happy dog.

Agree 100%!

I let my dog up on my sofa and bed and I've talked a lot of other dog owners that do the same. I don't believe, this in and of itself, leads to behavior issues.

I agree to ignore puppy complaints, but I find that if I don't exercise Snickers she has much more energy and craves more attention. This is more my fault than hers.

Agree with resource guarding...a very big no no.

I'm not sure about eating first. I feed Snickers first so she has something to occupy her when I'm fixing and eating dinner. I am the provider of food so I'm not sure how me eating first would make me more of a leader when providing food makes me the leader. I guess it depends on the situation.

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My Basset is smarter than your honor student.
YouTube: Snickers Is Smarter Than A 5th Grader
'Dog Whisperer' Training Approach More Harmful Than Helpful

Mikey T

This is completely untrue. wild dogs (canis familiaris) feral wild dogs are not known to form packs. they will form loose tranisient relationships with other dogs in the area, Wild dogs are scanvangers not hunters. the pack is more of hinderance than a help.

What Ever Happened to the Term Alpha MaleSo the human model is not far from reality. all throughout animal behavior model the "pecking order" is coming under fire. Even where the term was first coined in observing chickens and rooster. It is now though much for linear hierarchy theory is more of a projection on the animal by those that observe them than actual ever occuring.

Alpha Status, Dominance, and Division of Labor in Wolf Packs by L. David Mech
* note bold added by me for emphysis.

A Talk with Ray & Lorna Coppinger Authors of Dogs: A Startling New Understanding of Canine Origin, Behavior & Evolution

A Fresh Look at the Wolf-Pack Theory of Companion-Animal Dog Social Behavior
The Social Organization of the Domestic Dog
A Longitudinal Study of Domestic Canine Behavior and the Ontogeny of Canine Social Systems

Mikey T

These techniques are genral know as status reduction exercise. The have been a number of studies on Status reduction exercise and they have all come to the same conclusion they have no effect on reducing aggression in dogs.

Debunking the Dominance Myth
If You're Aggressive, Your Dog Will Be Too, Says Veterinary Study

Using 'Dominance' To Explain Dog Behavior Is Old Hat
This is not to say these exercise are without value. Some are great at controling pet hair if thats your thing, Or help instilling impulse control in a dog which does make it easier to live with. But to infer some convoluted heirarchal , status seeking on the part of dogs is projecting human values onto the dog.

another piece of age olds advice that is simply useless. While dogs are not children their can be useful analogies made. Dogs just like kids do not engage in attention seeking displays simply to amuse themselves. They do so because a basic need is not being met. Babies cry when hungry or have a wet diaper. Would you sugest we should ignore the crying of babies? Studies done on this prove just the opposite, Babies that have more atttentive parents that meet their needs when request in a more timely manner actual cry less than those who have parents that tend to ingnore them. This applies to dogs as well. It is best to anticipate their needs and meet them before they need to ask. but if they do ask meet the needs quickly if only for a breif moment in the long term creates a dog that ask for attention less often not more.

see Understanding The Structure Of Attention Seeking Behaviour

PROTOCOL FOR TREATING AND PREVENTING ATTENTION-SEEKING BEHAVIOR


the premise you can eliminate attention seeking behaviors by ignoring them is simply wrong. The behaviors exist for two reason
1. some need of the dog is not being met.

2. the behavior the dog engages in has been demonstrated to get the humans attention

At best ignoring the behavior will eliminate that particular annoying attention seeking behavior but only after and excuriate extinction burst period, that if the human could not endure ignoring the behavior to begin with how does any sane individual expect them to be able to do so when the behavior becomes exponatential worse? and even if you do all that the basis for the behavior, an un met need exists so that just leaves the dog to find an even more obnoxious behavior to replace it. The only way to solve attention seeking behaviors rationally is to elliminate the cause in the first place.

There is no evidence of multispecies packs in the world. Further more there is no evidence that dogs think they are human or vice versa. They know the difference.
Dogs do what works for them, that is they are in it for their self interest. Therfore it is all about resource and control of resources, Manipulate the dogs access to desired resources and you have them eating out of your hand. What those resources are depends on the individual dog.