Im pretty convinced that we might have fewer behavior problems with children, dogs, horses, and others if we gave them more time to gather and process information about the world. When we hurry them along or immediately engage them in teaching/training, we might be cutting off their natural ways of accommodation and assimilation. What brought this to mind tonight was Murrie and my cats. He is fascinated by the cats--lots of sniffing where theyve been, watching them intently, wanting to head to the places he has seen them outdoors... They are indoor-outdoor cats, but in this cold weather, theyve been staying in our laundry room/mudroom. Murrie sometimes goes to that door and sniffs, lying down in front of it. The past few days, Ive opened the door for short periods and just let Murrie watch the cats and the cats watch Murrie. He just lies there and they watch without darting away--perhaps they realize he is not going to approach them or chase them. They are all gathering information, visually and olfactorally (noses are all going a mile a minute). All very calm as they check each other out. No cues needed. Im not suggesting that everyone do this (not all dogs or cats would react the same), but sometimes we dont need to intervene if we allow them to use their natural processes of gathering information and time to make sense of it without human interference.
Posted on: Mon, 12 Jan 2015 01:21:06 +0000