That thin red line.

On this occasion, I won’t be the author of this entry to the blog, because I asked to Ángel Mollá, few words. He is a canine educator, who though young, he has took  a lifetime dedicated to understanding our dogs. So I asked him to talk about what he want and, how could be otherwise? he has chosen a very interesting topic: aggression in dogs.

"Hello, could you help me? I have a problem with my dog, it turns out it is very dominant with food. If anybody passes near it while it eats, we can hear grunts. "If we quarrel it, simple bites us"

Unfortunately this is a very common story in many homes that I visit.

I am writing this article for those who want to understand what does go through the mind of your dog when this situation occurs.

Before we begin, I'd like that you can understand what aggressiveness is and why dogs show this behavior in certain situations.

Aggression is a response against attacks that should be offers front a provocation; however, the provocations are subjective since each situation affects every dog in a different way.

A dog that shows aggressive behaviors is indicating that this behavior has success as those used on other occasions to resolve the problem were not successful for it.

What behaviors did it use?

All dogs use a common language in a threatening situation, your first choice to solve the problem is to ignore it and do so by signs of calm.

The signs of calm are gestures that offers dog as turning the head, licking the snout, yawning, sniff the ground, sit, lie "belly up", stretch is or even give back, in order to understand that "they do not want problems".

Why does this dog no longer use them?

If making these behaviors it doesn't get to go away that which is causing so much anxiety, It will seek another option that it can be the escape, but if this doesn’t manage to flee, eventually it will attack.

On many occasions attacking succeeds and banishes the threat. This will make the dog feel reinforced by what you will have learned to use aggression to solve their problems and therefore will not use signs of calm since the attack gives best results.

Let's go back in time and go back to the moment in which our dog we growled first while he ate.

What was our reaction?

The vast majority said that he was surprised and spontaneously walked away from the bowl. This response to the attack was precisely enhancer that badly needed the dog. It is almost as if we had said "very well" and would have given him the best treat we had at home since at that time, and it finally felt peace.

The creation of a possessive behavior is fundamentally based on a mismanagement of resources (value objects) we offer our dog.

It all starts when our puppy is a garment of our on the ground and uses it to play. For us the garment has significant material value by which we try by all means remove it and at the same time to scold him so "understanding" that with the shoes you don't play. At that time our dog is submissive and accepts removed it from the object. Days later returns to have a sock between their jaws and back to act in the same way.

The association we are creating with our presence and objects is competitive, we stole them, and aversive, quarrel it.

Similarly happens when we use the same system for different situations such as: let it rise to the sofa, but when we want to feel we force it to get off, a piece of food falling to the ground while we're cooking, and you approach squealed it so you don't eat it, etc.

This way of resolving these situations causes more interest towards objects dog since it is giving them a value by which the family that lives with him racing.

Finally without being aware of it, we got our dog, in the presence of a resource, to see us as a threat and therefore seek to keep a distance to feel relieved.

What can I do to make this not happen?

If your dog does not display aggressive behaviors but flees whenever you have something in your mouth because you want to take it out, my advice is that you never seek a confrontation with it to get the object, Exchange it for something that it prefers  like a toy or a prize. In this way you will get that you feel comfortable with your presence and avoid appearing possessive behavior.

You have your valuables secure and having available toys that can distract biting.

More info: www.metodoguau.com

What clever is my dog!

I hesitated a little bit about writing this post because it is a quite controversial subject. In fact, part of the beliefs that seen dog as a mere machine to categorize stimulus-response are being reviewed.

This idea is the basis of Behaviorism, a  model of psychology in which part of the idea that individual are  a passive receiver that works as an automaton and what is studied is what you see, i.e., the behavior, not "what happens inside".

Let us take an example:

- My dog is very smart, it knows when we are going to leave by itself at home, so it become sad.-the mechanistic explanation is that there are a series of stimuli or absence of them giving rise to an event or a set of events (for example taking the keys of the house, but not its leash, would be an example).

But there was always something that didn't fit in the mechanistic explanation. In psychology as in any scientific discipline, we have to apply the Ockham´s razor or parsimony principle which says that "In equal conditions, the simplest explanation tends to be the correct". And here we enter into the debate:

- My dog sees something new when I go walking with it. I look, groans,  but if we don’t give it any attention, until it captures my attention toward the new object you're viewing-what happens here?

A teacher and a really good friend told me once:  "any washing machine made by man was smarter than a dog". I know you said it; every day the gap that we thought between humans and other animals is smaller. Dogs give us no room to believe they are nor intelligent, and they make us think we are not as special as we thought, . Thus in the previous example,  can we speak of meanings and shared intentions? If so, we would have to speak of intersubjectivity and therefore of a theory of mind, primitive, but existing what leads us to make the leap from the Behaviorism to the revolution cognitive animal.

This was a good reason to Brian Hare, who founded the Canine Cognition Center at the Duke University and introduced Dognition which is term that mixes the words  cognition and dog. He has written a book "The genius of dogs: How dogs are smarter than you think" and developed an application that allows you to measure the cognitive abilities of dogs. Hare tells us that they can read our gestures and make inferences about what are trying to communicate to them.

I leave a couple of links so that you may know more about the topic: 

https://www.dognition.com/

http://www.latercera.com/noticia/tendencias/2013/02/659-508659-9-estudio-senala-que-los-perros-entienden-el-punto-de-vista-humano.shtml

Dogs like therapists.

There are many benefits that science has rediscovered and even if we knew it since before, about bringing dogs in our lives.

Some of these benefits include the following:

-Enhancer of self-esteem and self-confidence.

-Source of physical contact.

-Source of affection and acceptance without boundaries

-Transitional object.

-Social facilitator.

-Help with our fitness.

-Multi-sensorial stimulation.

-Catalyst for interactions between animal and persons.

-Source of tranquility and attention.

-Not threatening element and game partners.

-Enhancer of learning.

-Model.

-Accomplice.

-Conduct Enhancer.

-Catalyst for emotions.

I won’t talk too much about every one of these points now, since it is not my intention for now, I just wanted to list them.

All this knowledge gives me an example of how much dogs can contribute to my life, so now the question is: Do I know what a dog means at home? What does mean having a dog?, Should I prefer a particular breed? What type should I choose?, what are their needs?...

In the first place and starting from the end, we need to know that a dog is a responsibility of for life. Responsibility is not a bad thing, but yes implies commitment. The dog will need veterinary care, proper nutrition and what almost forgot us always: time. And why is Time so important?,  maybe because the dogs need predictability, i.e. a routine .

If you are not able to give a routine, your dog can l begin to show behavior problems. Conversely if you are able to provide your dog a healthy routine, you will have half of the walked path and with a little help from an educator, your dog will be a great therapist. Remember: Time.

Secondly we will talk about the choice of the specimen and the race. With respect to the size of the sample, is preferable medium/large type, since they resist more incorrect manipulations (for example a Yorkshire is a danger in the hands of a careless child).

Between males and females, I personally have predilection for females, because I consider them more responsive and easy to educate (but this is just a predilection, dogs and therapy dogs often neutered, so if we claim dependent sex aggression problems, are minimized by castration).

If we talk about the temperament of the dog, we need an animal of a medium reactivity that score low on aggression and high in ease to learn. No one wants a dog jumping over chairs and tables, which bite and unable to learn the least or is asleep all day without crave you move the tail.

And now, already involved in the theme, let’s talk about the apple of discord: the race. I've seen dogs therapists of all races; from San Bernardos, through Pit Bulls, a Golden Retriever. Everything I've seen  they would stay with the masters, although other races also make their role to perfection; and it is that nowadays dogs almost are not selected based on a function to develop, so some sources tell us that only 40% of the copies of a race would be within the standard character set for it.

However, everything must be said, is easier to find a good dog shows if we get with an English Setter than if we are with a Spanish mastiff. All the exposed a good place where to find our furry therapist would be within the breed of the Retriever Labradors, as in principle if you are not an experienced "dog catcher" does not give you problems, but do not rule out any race because we always in therapy work with a specific specimen, not with a racial group.

If you want to dig deeper into the subject, or have any questions, you can put in contact with me.

More info:  http://extension.uned.es/actividad/idactividad/4613