Knowing Dog Behavior

As a dog trainer/behaviorist, and more importantly as a person who loves and respects all creatures, I have to be careful that I don’t assume that I KNOW dogs. There is currently a lot being said about the need for humans to be assertive pack leaders. That’s true.

What I’m concerned about is that whenever we decide that we KNOW something, we limit what the truth may be and consequently, we’re not open to other possibilities. The BIG difference – we’re humans and they’re dogs. We can study animals and how they live as a pack, but there’s no way we can understand everything as an absolute.

I met someone who said they had worked with dogs for 35 years. Oh. As she hesitated to pet my loving pup, she said that the glossy-eyed look of my dog was most likely an indicator of aggression. She couldn’t have been more wrong. In this case, it was because of depression (I don’t know what that would be in dog language). People live together for 50 years and never KNOW each other. Why do we expect that there would be just one way to know our dogs?

Dogs may be more predictable than humans, but I have learned to never assume that I KNOW all there is to know about dogs or their humans. There’s always room for learning, growth. . .oh, and love.