Conversations with dogs
Some of the best conversations in life are the ones you have with your dog. It’s pretty fantastic the way you almost always see eye-to-eye with each other. And the dog’s attention hardly ever veers off when you’re in the middle of a sentence. Unless, of course, “SQUIRREL!”
We saw a meme posted the other day, something to the effect of “Am I the only one who narrates my dog’s thoughts?” Our first thought was “Why is that worth mentioning? Doesn’t everybody?”
All different voices
Aside from having 80 thousand nicknames each, our dogs also each have their own narrative voices. Tango’s a bit gruff - he’s a reformed Cujo and almost 16 years old. Booker’s frenetic - he’s special in a not-so-good way. Torque’s easy-going and cheerful.
And Simon’s abrupt, to the point, and always in charge. Or thinks he is, anyway.
It’s human nature to anthropomorphize. We assign human personality traits to non-humans, like our dogs. And experts say that it’s not a good idea because we really don’t know how dogs feel.
These are the same experts who conduct studies on whether dogs feel love, or happiness, or fear. We understand that science needs to quantify stuff, but no dog person can doubt that their dogs feel emotions.
Cause is another thing
The issue comes when people try to figure out “why” a dog feels a certain way about a person, place, or thing. In our training classes we’ll hear that the dog is afraid of people wearing hats, so someone wearing a hat must have abused the dog.
Made-up stories like that don’t really help, because they perpetuate sympathy, and “poor baby” feelings. We’ll never know what causes a dog to react to certain things the way they do. And indulging them in the behavior, either by avoiding the trigger or coddling them through it, doesn’t help them get over it.
Dogs are adaptable. Whatever bad things happened in their lives can rest in the past. It doesn’t have to be part of their future. If your dog is scared of people wearing hats, introduce them to hats. Let them destroy an old hat from the thrift store. It’s just a thing. Show them a hat, then momentarily put it on. Take it off and give it to the dog. Don’t avoid people with hats. When you meet someone wearing a hat, ask them to toss some treats to your dog. Nullify the fear and the symptom will fade.
Just like us
Dogs are smart, emotional, adaptable beings and we’re lucky to have them in our lives. In all honesty, they’re not really great conversationalists without our help. But they are loyal friends and great companions. And now we’re going to go relax with our dogs and catch up on their very busy day. Tango spent the day in his executive suite, holding high-level meetings with the inside of his eyelids. We can’t wait to hear all about it.