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I think it needs to be said that we and many animals do what works. Even if it's not healthy. There are those anomalies out there that register the unhealthiness and make a conscious decision to make a change to their life to make it more healthy or in some respects more unhealthy. The amazing thing here is that we have the choice to really change our world. To really understand and gauge our emotions, thoughts, and disrupt the habits that either make us happy, sad or wide range of emotions. We are very cognitive and aware of ourselves as individuals. That's why expression is huge for us. This is why I believe we can become depressed or frustrated when we feel suppressed. This can happen in a job, friendship, or even worse intimate relationship. All of these forms of connection will make a positive or negative impact on you and the people around you. We have an understanding to know that how we interact with ourselves and how we see things ends up being the ripple in the water that will spread to unimaginable areas and effect countless number of people. You might be saying well how does this pertain to my four legged BFF. Well it pertains because they don't get those choices you get. They learned a certain behavior do to some type of reinforcement.
Dogs learn about their world around them through cause and effect. Where this can become trouble is if a dog learns to shut down, or use aggression as way of dealing with things it's not comfortable with. This is where it becomes unhealthy and unrealistic to survive. The dog sees everything as a means of survival. They do not interpret any other way. So if you ask yourself why are they doing this? It can be most simply boiled down to, the dog feels like it has to to survive. They were uncertain at first or in a worst case through an unconscious behavior by the owner to sooth the dog made it worse by rewarding that frame of mind the dog had at that moment. Our dogs don't remember much. How they remember is through smells, and through experiences. For example, a leash can considered an experience even though it's an object. This leash gets related to something negative. The worst part is if the dog is aggressive in the presence of the leash it has no idea why. The dog just understands the knowing that if I behave this way it goes away and I survive. That's crazy for us to think that a dog so scared of a leash that it would get aggressive. Because we know there's nothing to be afraid of we often will sooth and try and pet the dog. This will help reinforce what is happening in the dogs mind. You inadvertently agree with him/her. The bad thing that can happen when your dog has found a negative behavior to use to manipulate or get what they want/need is that it can spread.
This is how resource guarding can come up. If the dog shows insecurity while eating, or playing with a bone and we stop doing what is making the dog nervous that behavior will win. If then, we choose to ignore the signs and the first time it worked it can turn to a growl or a snap. Once the dog learns a sure way to get the pressure to stop it will have it learned and may spread like a disease to while eating and eventually not letting you in the kitchen during meal time. This can happen when a dog resource guards people, and other things as well. Point to be made is that these behaviors in simple terms do not just go away without a conscious change in our approach. We must plan to help our dog change their reality of what's happening. Unfortunately they cannot do this without some type of manipulation from us, their people.
I always say one of our super powers is empathy. Empathy can take on many types of forms. One way to have empathy is to look at a situation objectively. Remove your emotions so you can truly help. If your dog is aggressive, how to you make them settle and help them move forward? How do they get a positive association with what's making them aggressive. Coming up with a plan that is different than what is not working is key. Usually us, trainers will try and disrupt the dogs current routine to make the dog think. It then has to adjust. But as it adjusts it will be trying to adjust to what it knows. The dog will try and make it to where it can implement what's kept it alive in a sense. We have the opportunity to teach in these moments. We can choose to give confidence or allow the dog to gain more experience with using a negative behavior to live its life. If you do nothing to improve the behavior or accept and don't try to change it at all chances are you will just maintain the certain behavior. Not making it any worse nor making it better. One thing I believe we all posses or have the ability to posses is patience. We understand time. We understand that time can heal everything. Dogs do not understand this. This is why you can adopt and abused dog and it is always afraid of a man in a hat for 6 years later removed from that situation. A dog will in a sense relive those moments over and over.
In ending, I think dogs help us by reminding us that living in the moment is a good thing. They remind us that we can change our world with one decision. We can change things that happen around us in a matter of an instance. We have the power to change the world with our actions. Our ripple will affect the world in a way that we could not fathom. Patience in helping change your dogs behavior is the biggest most apparent change that you'll see in your world. This happens when you choose to give. To truly help and help them live their best life in return you get the best friend that is trusting. Everything is cause and effect." We are humans, we create." "Good or bad, we create."
Hope you found value in this blog! I absolutely love writing these. I appreciate the people who read these!!
P.S. Happy birthday MOM!!!