Dog Training - A Dogs Nature

Dogs are surprisingly complicated creatures. Some authoritative estimates of the number of breeds goes as large as 800 in Western countries alone. Even given that distinguishing one breed from another can be taken to ridiculous extremes, the variety is amazing from a human viewpoint, who have, possibly, only a dozen 'breeds'.

Complicating the picture still further is the well-known fact that dogs have descended from wolves but started domestic interaction with humans over 10,000 years ago. As a consequence, there are behaviors that evolve in spite of the chain of events and some that are as unique as the human being the dog is coupled with.

Nevertheless, some commonplace traits stand out and it's a big help in recognizing these so as to help us to train them more effectively.

Dogs are predators.
That doesn't mean they inevitably hunt and attack every passing cat or rat, but the inclination is constantly with them. With sharp hearing and head muscles that allow exact orientation of their ears, dogs can pick up a range of sounds and pinpoint the origin quickly and with high precision.

A dogs field of vision is greater than that of humans. Their field of view has been estimated from 180-270 degrees, by contrast to a human's mere 100-150 degrees, allowing them to track events more completely.

And, of course, there's that renowned sense of smell. Citing figures such as having 25 times as many scent-receptor cells or being capable to sense concentrations 100 million times tinier than humans conveys the fact another way.

Another is to report behavior. Golden Retrievers, for instance, can smell gophers through two feet of packed snow and a foot of frozen earth. And, they'll dig through it to get to the gopher. That's predatory behavior.

Dogs are social animals.
That's everyday knowledge, of course. But, though known, it's frequently ignored. People not thinking, will regularly lock a lone dog away in a garage or pen, or on a chain in the yard for long periods.

This isolation from companionship with humans and other animals regularly leads to timidity and/or hostility and other forms of maladjustment. Dogs require companionship in order to develop flourishing behavior. Though isolating a dog for short periods can be a useful training technique.

Dread of banishment from the pack can incent overly assertive, alpha-status seeking dogs into alignment with the trainer's goals. In any human-dog pair, the human must be the alpha (leader).

The alternative is property ruin, human frustration and unsafe circumstances for people and dogs. But excessive time devoid of social interaction with another dog, a human, or even a friendly cat harms the dog's psychology and leads to unwanted behavior.

Even guard dogs have to be capable to decide between external 'threats' and members of its own 'pack'.

Dogs are exploratory.
Like the two-year-old humans at roughly their same mental level, dogs learn by exploring their surroundings. And like those humans, they can embark in just the same destructive behavior.

Dogs are no respecters of property. Training and a suitably chosen set of objects and appropriate area can channel that behavior into something acceptable to humans and also be healthy for the dog.

Providing toys with characteristics really different from human possessions, such as rawhide bones instead of rubber balls that are difficult to tell from children's, leads to less confusion and misbehavior. In many cases, however, the predicament is solved by scent. The dog's toys may look like the child's, but smell really different.

Some amount of digging may be unavoidable as part of the dog's investigation. Be ready to patch holes in the lawn if the dog is unsupervised for long periods. Plants can customarily be protected with cayenne pepper paste, bitter apple and other concoctions.

Dogs are scavengers
Dogs will eat deer droppings, even when they have entirely sound and ample diets. They'll chew on dead rats, eat grass and eat an extensive variety of things that their own experience shows causes upset stomachs. And they'll repeat the behavior day after day.

Acknowledging their restricted capacity to unite cause and effect is a must because when those are separated they will keep them healthy and safe.

Recognizing a dog's nature, and working with it rather than against it leads to less frustration for both the human and the dog. Enjoying the favourable aspects, such as spontaneous dog hugs (leaning into a leg), paw giving and a head laid on the lap are only a few of the rewards.

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