Dog Cognition

It seems these days that just about anyone can write a book, put a picture of a dog on the cover, and it will sell to an eagerly awaiting audience of pet lover and dog trainers.   And of course we can all enjoy hearty laughter with a book like Marley and Me by John Grogan.  Those with years of dog experience just slide along as we watch John lead Marley down a path of ever increasing wildness with "Oh no, John - don't do that!" and "I warned you".

But come now and be honest, we've all had easy dogs that won our hearts, those that rescued us, and if you've had enough dogs sooner or later you will get a difficult dog that just challenges in ways we can't seem to find an answer for --- the dog that's got a screw loose.  So it's back to the drawing board (training plans) for some of us.  Sadly for some folks, it's back to the shelter for the dog.   For me, it's back to the pro's for advice.

For me, pros come in many styles.  There are people with a lifetime of experience who have demonstrated skills beyond what others have achieved.  And I've found they usually have special perception of the animal that they are working with.   Another kind of pros are those academically trained, who may earn a living by some aspect of their behavior studies.  And then there are a lot of people in between, combining the advice of many others.

Monty Roberts is this first kind of pro with horses. In his book with From My Hand to Yours.  Lessons from a Lifetime of Training Championship Horses  he first tells you in Chapter 1 The Nature of Equus about how the horse sees his world.  He build from this to communication: listening to the horse's body language and sending signals to the horse.  No wonder he's known as the Horse Whisperer.  And the amazing and generous way in which he has used his skills to build an International Learning Center.  And watching the students at Flag is Up Farm in Solvang CA work a new horse and achieve the first "join-up" is just as amazing.

Inside of a Dog.  What Dogs See, Smell, and Know by Alexandra Horowitz is just the kind of book we need to understand what the dog perceives and have a common basis for talking about dogs.   A.H. did her graduate studies at UCSanDiego and is now at the Dept. of Psychology at Barnard.  One of the first thing that A.H. warns us is not to anthropomorphize.  As she says, don't assume sad eyes mean depression and therefore give the dog and antidepressant.  Her book helps us to take a look at the "umvelt" of the dog.  That is, to see the world from the "dog's point of nose".  The dog's world has elements of the past in the form of trace scents mixed with the present.  The meaning of objects in the sense of what they are for is very different to a dog.  So we might well expect the dog to respond differently to them tha we do.   A chair leg is a stick and it is good for chewing, and it is not relevant to supporting a place to sit [my doggie umwelt observation].  Only after a good solid dose of dog sensations, does A.H. tell to go ahead and anthropomorphize with umwelt in mind.

So next time you hear "the dog did it because..."   backup and get into a doggie umwelt and try again.