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Dogs are born essentially def and blind. But they can smell. Smelling is how dogs know who their mom is. They can smell other members of this litter and can learn who is who. Once their eyes fully open they then can translate that smell to sight furthering their bond with each other. By week 3 their ears are fully operational. "I say that like the death star is ready to shoot lol". Star Wars humor. I say full operational because they're not really def at birth. The ear canals just have not opened yet. During my sessions with people, I will often refer to what is making the dog unsure or unusually anti social
When a dog was blind a def, they relied on their nose to find food, and warmth. They figured out identities in their litter with only using the nose. So this is how dogs first learned to be social. Making the dog from day one use their nose first to investigate and be social. The nose is dogs gather information about the world. Teaches them how to act with particular pieces of the their environment. If the smell has a negative association they will usually stay away or try and get away from it. Obviously if the smell is positive they will want to be right up in there. To win a dogs heart you have to first become positive in their nose.
Once they can see, they then lock on through site as they never lose the smell neither will the site. I think it is to be said that their eyes are only used to track moving things. They are color blind and have what is called landscape vision. Dogs eyes are colorblind. Us, as humans have binocular vision which allows us to focus on a particular thing at distances and gauge proper distance. Let me give you and example of a dogs vision. Have you ever thrown the tennis ball far and it stops moving way before the dog gets there? Have you noticed that the dog will go back to trying to track it with its nose even though it could be right in-front of them? We often laugh and say it's right there buddy. Our sight is way better than a dogs. Our eyes are about 6 times better than that of a canine. Dogs do not have fovea. This is true for seeing in direct light. But during a canines most productive times in dusk and dawn they can see a little better do to having about 5 times as many rods that can detect light.
When a dog opens its ears now they can add the third part of being social together. This is allows the sounds to be related to the smell and site. This allows the dog or wolf to now hunt completely. First they track and learn about the specific animal, then they lock on through the site and smell. Once they can hear the animal or what they're gaining knowledge about move, then they will never lose track. Working each one of their senses in sync to hunt or in this case dog. They get to know you, and everyone in the home. This allows them to have a great association.
Association for a dog is something that needs to be nurtured and rewarded for. When I see people and their dog is having problems with allowing people in the house it is often that the dog has forgotten in a way of how to be social. You get different varieties of this. Sometimes the knock of the door spins the dog into an barking and sometimes aggressive state. When you open the door the dog is hyped already using its ears. Then it sees what's coming in. After that it never has used its nose. Just bypassed the one thing that'll give it lasting information. You see when the nose is in use it cannot be aggressive. At that point the dog is processing information. We believe that we should wait and see how the dog will react. In most cases that is okay. If your dog has trouble with encounters with other dogs or people then it's best not to wait, in my opinion. You don't want to wait for your dog to growl or snip. That raises the anxiety of the situation. Makes it to where the dog may have a more intense association as people and dogs may be bad.
Instead, if your dog chooses to smell first. Only let him/her smell for a couple seconds then try and get your dogs attention and reward and play. Usually before we practice this I would have a strong ability to get my dogs attention without tension on the leash. My goal with the door, if you've had negative experiences is that, you teach them that people are playful and are positive. I'm sure some of you would like to know how to handle the situation if the dog completely does not use its nose and only is visual. Well this time you have to block him from moving to the person or object. I would suggest having a leash on the dog. I would then have the dog sit behind me and allow myself to take the lead. Position is important when completing the exercise. You want to be able to communicate with the dog directly. You want to try and calm it this is done by sometimes pushing them back to break the eye contact with the person or object. As soon as the dog comes back to you praise the dog. Mark the behavior and reward if it'll take treats great if not just pet and praise. Once you see him/ her start to use its nose. Mark and reward with some playful play. If the dogs repeats and you start to see a change in its demeanor then it's working. Once you feel comfortable allow him/her to sniff then mark and if the dog knows or understands that word should know it did something right and want its reward and as soon as he/ she comes back to you pet and praise, be playful.
Not understanding the switch in your dog can be confusing to us. We say that they've always been friendly and now we are not sure. Truth be told the dog may have forgotten or always was a little unsure of that situation. It is our job to spot these behaviors and encourage the right ones. We should never be upset or embarrassed by our dogs actions as this could make things worse. The dog won't realize it's them. Instead it will thing of the thing that gets add to you and the dogs environment. No, we must not take things personal but instead we should look at things as a teaching opportunity and opportunity to gain trust and respect.
I'm talking in generalities with these examples. It is by no means saying this is how to handle every case. For help please make sure you reach out to someone.
Please enjoy your 4th of July!
