Dog's are Not Robots, They're Our Companions

There are a lot of expectations that we put on dog’s when they come into our lives. There is usually an image in our minds of what we want - going away on holiday with the whole family, frolicking through the flowers as you explore life together, enjoying the perfect coffee at your favourite cafe with your dog dozing at your feet…

And yet, when the illusion is broken and behaviour issues arise, we feel a lot of frustration, worry, and we wonder where it all went wrong.

Here’s the thing. Dogs weren’t created in a factory, preprogrammed to live OUR expectations of them, in a very human-centric environment. In fact, their genetics have been honed over hundreds if not thousands of years to serve working purposes at our sides.

People often forget the most basic thing. Dogs will be dogs. They are predator and scavenger animals, they feel fear and excitement, they have instincts of self preservation, and their own likes and dislikes.

We often forget to look at the world from our dog’s perspective, and their understanding of the world. 
How many times do you try to tell your dog off for alerting about the mailman, when in your dog’s eyes the mailman is a potential threat? It’s completely logical that your dog wants to bark and remove the mailman from his home! 
Why not, instead, we thank the dog for letting us know the mail has arrived, and send them nicely to their crate to make sure they don’t keep barking for another 30 minutes.

We also ask our dogs for a significant amount of ‘doing nothing’. There are some people who only want their dog to take up space only when it's convenient for them. From those who get dogs when they work 9 - 5, or that romantic idea of sitting calmly at a coffee shop, we often lack the understanding that our dogs have complex needs that must be met (one can only sleep so much in a day before being bored), and that being around many different stimuli is not what every dog can cope with, respective to each of these scenarios.

Many dogs find it extremely difficult to simply do nothing, and with that comes the struggle for the owners of finding ways to make it worth their while to follow our suggestion of nothingness. You can do that by ensuring their needs are being met (a big training session or adventure before you ask them to be still), paying them for hard work during the exercise (chews, or rewarding with food, or praise) - this is relevant for anything we are asking of our dogs. 

We are constantly trying to label what our dog’s are doing. ‘Good’ or ‘bad’, ‘normal’ or ‘abnormal’, and we are often looking from the wrong perspective. I often like to say, ‘There is no such thing as a naughty dog, just a dog doing a behaviour for a purpose’. 

Sometimes behaviours are inappropriate for certain human situations - but a dog doesn’t know that. Unless they have been taught the right way, they will perform the behaviour they believe is best to achieve what they desire.

If all dogs did exactly as a human wanted, textbook, from a factory setting, the joys of having a dog would be lost. Where would the excitement and wonder come from if they knew what we wanted straight away, and would that even be a true dog owning experience if all their commands were immediately known from puppyhood?

Dog’s are excitingly individual. Puppies from the same litters have different personalities - from extroverted and confident, to sensitive and unsure. Of course, there are some things we can expect if we look at getting a dog of a certain breed, but blueprints can change, and many things affect what we see from our dogs as they grow and mature. 

Each breed, each personality, each individual has different needs and we should put different expectations on them, depending on the dog we have in front of us. And the dog we have in front of us can change from day to day!

Appreciate your dog for not coming with factory settings. Take them as they come, for they do exactly the same for us.

Authored by Sarah Endres
Dog Trainer and Behaviour Advisor