Monday Myth: Dogs will understand us best if we act as if we were dogs towards them. As children, a lot of us were fascinated by Dr Dolittle and his amazing skills of communicating with animals using their own language. Various dog, cat, horse whisperers, who claim to be able to talk to our pets inspire awe and are thought to possess a rare gift. Who would not like to be able to have a chat with their pet dog or cat to finally understand what they mean by all this barking, meowing, purring or growling? Many people, even amongst the pet professionals, claim that in order to communicate successfully with our pets we need to act the way they do towards each other – so if you own a dog, you should yelp like a small pup when they attempt to play bite your arms or hands, growl when your dog comes near your food, or even forcefully roll them on their back to show them who is boss (dogs don’t actually do this to each other, if there is any rolling involved, it is done voluntarily by the individual who decides to flop on the floor and show its belly). However, even if you try your best to mimic your dog’s vocalization or body language, you are not going to succeed in convincing your dog you are of a canine kind. Because you’re not. Humans are primate, not canine, and dogs know very well we’re not dogs – after all it would be highly maladaptive not to be able to distinguish their own kind from others! We don’t have the physical characteristics of a dog, we don’t behave like them, and we don’t smell like them. And while we can achieve successful inter species communication with our canine pals by closely observing their behaviour and learning what they are trying to say by using their body language and vocalisations, our dogs know very well we are not them. Which does not mean that they have no idea what we are trying to communicate to them – indeed they are much better at reading our body language and vocalisations than we are when we try to decipher what they are saying. Dogs watch us all the time and are incredibly skilled at figuring out how we feel (sad? excited? tired? angry? scared?) and respond accordingly. Thousands of years of domestication have ensured dogs and humans have a very special relationship – one based on mutual trust and understanding. Dogs have lived alongside humans serving various roles, from hunting companions to pet dogs, but only recently did people start thinking they could “talk dog” to their dogs in order to communicate with them better. There is, however, no need to pretend, walk on all fours, bark, bare your teeth at your dog, or whatever other method some might suggest in order to control your dog’s behaviour – all you need to do is learn what they communicate and teach them what you want to communicate to them by using human words, hand signals etc. – such communication, if clear and consistent, is extremely successful and does not require anyone to act as if they were someone or something else. Written by the team at Pets in Practise where positivity and determination, work!
Posted on: Mon, 08 Sep 2014 06:45:39 +0000
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