Interaction with other dogs

One of the strongest tools that dog trainer like Segall use to connect with a dog, is the pack walk. If a new dog comes into the pack, he falls naturally into place, by seeing how the other dogs and the pack leader (i.e. the dog walker/trainer) interact. Establishing this kind of pack mentality is the key to everything, learning to share their needs as an animal. They need exercise and to be with other dogs, to be in a pack. This takes them back to being wolves. Dogs are in fact share 99% of their DNA with wolves. Dogs need a calm leader, someone who tells them what to do and not be frantic. From a psychological perspective, dogs always follow a stable leader, it is that simple. Segal is convinced, that finding a dog's inner balance is everything a dog needs to be happy. He trained many dogs, who finally overcame their issues after a certain amount of time, he was spending in a pack. 

After Sir Chester spent a few days with pack walks and in company of Hendrix and Captain, he not only overcame his scare to interact with other dogs, to walk with them in pack, he learnt a few very important commands. He even learnt to us a porch potty after staying over night with Hendrix.

The experiment

A very clear example of this great ability can be seen in their ability to differentiate between a human’s front and back side. 

After looking into numerous experiments conducted by famed researches, I decided to test them out myself to see if they really are successful.

In one experiment with different dogs, a dog was tested to see whether they could interpret eye contact. Many might find this impossible to imagine, but all the dogs were successful at tracking the direction of their master’s view: when their owner was reading a book while still being faced at them, they were far more likely to disobey his rules then if his head was up and he was looking directly at them (1).

After testing This experiments out myself with Chester, I was surprised to find how accurate they were. Although in the second experiment, it took Chester about 4 minutes to eat his treats, he did eventually disobey my original command.

Without doubt, one of the most famous experiments in the field of dog congnition is that of pavlov and his dog learning to drool whenever he heared the ringing of the bell. the same thing is true for both of my dogs, only with different things: Pluto drooled at the sound of someone opening a can and chester at the sound of a platic wraper being opened.

even though both of my dogs were stimulated by different things, it is amazing to observe these scientific achievements personally and to learn about your dog's interactions to their environment,

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Facts:

Dogs are very intelligent animals. This intelligence is not only seen in their ability to develop their knowledge and understanding in a similar way to small children, but also in how they perceive their natural surroundings.

As I mentioned earlier Alexandra Horowitz designed the concept of a “smell walk”. A dog’s freedom during a walk is very important and letting your dog stare down invisible prey or retrieving ball after ball after ball, is them only exemplifying their very good ability to perform their natural tasks (2).

Allowing them to do so, does not only give them a purpose but can also help you understand how your dog perceives things, acts and most importantly what motivates him/ her. Very often people will jump to treats as a motivational tool and even though they do the trick, there are also many other options for motivation - it all comes down to knowing what fulfills your dog.

Eye contact really is important when interacting with your dog.

I remember when I walked Chester  off leash for the first time and how I had a constantly nagging feeling of anxiety as I had to put my full trust on him to stay with me and to abide by rules. To be quite honest, occasional eye contact throughout the walk not only made me calmer, but also Chester, who wasn't used to this new "freedom" and who was a bit unsure as well in the beginning. Searching each other eye contact every other minter seemingly made the walk natural as if it had always been this way. 

    DOG  WHISPERING

                  How  your dog interacts