Part 3 - Psychology of Your Dog

To train your dog, you must know exact facts about his psychology and in this chapter I will tell you all important facts about dog’s psychology.

• A wolf descendent
• Wolf instincts in dogs
• Establish an alpha role
• Do not bring in jealousy in dog’s mind
•  Dog’s memory

What’s Up

There are moments when you will think that “OH! MY DOG HAS HIS OWN FRAME OF MIND.” This is obvious and this reaction of your is also understandable and true because almost every dog has his own mind. They can behave very funny at times and they can behave in a very dangerous way sometimes. You need to make their reactions moderate and make sure that they do not over do those strange acts. To do that effectively, you need to learn all the actions of your dog closely and pay very close attention to his actions, reactions and also get to know that which actions trigger which reactions.

A Wolf Descendent

To know the exact psychology and behavior of your dogs, you must know that dogs are descendants of wolves but they have just learned to live with humans. If you observe them closely, then, you will know that they still have those wolves attitude and their traditions alive in them somewhere. Wolves live in packs in the wild and they have a very strong concept of dictatorship in both males and females in which they make one wolf, leader of their pack. All the other wolves of the pack listen and obey that alpha leader which is normally the biggest male wolf in the pack.

Wolf Instincts in Dogs

When you bring your dog home then, he sees the family as a pack and tries to observe the whole family system to determine that who alpha leader of the pack is and he also determines his role in the pack.

He will notice all the behaviors of family members and will note the size of all members. He will also note the voice tone of every member for example when mother speaks in a high tone to his young son then, dog will get an instant impression that mother is high in this pack and she has certain authority over other members. It will not take much time for your dog to figure out the leader of the pack and once he identifies him then, he will treat him with extra respect and as a master mostly.

Establish an Alpha Role

You need to make sure that you establish an alpha role as soon as possible in the mind of your dog because in most of the cases, if the dog does not comes up with a conclusion and when he cannot understand the hierarchal system then, he will create his own system and will put him in charge. This is the scenario where dogs face most of the behavioral problems and their attitude becomes very destructive and unacceptable. You should make him believe that there is a perfect system in place where you or someone else is alphas leader but also try to make sure that your dog is not coming in the end of that system as it will create doubts in dog’s mind and he will try to come up in the system. With proper training, you can make your dog believe that he has a much slid position in the family and he needs to understand that position and act accordingly. Some families ignore their dog too much and treat them even after kids which give the dog an impression that kids are higher than them in this system. This can make them aggressive towards children.

Do Not Bring in Jealousy in Dog’s Mind

Another very common psychological problem with dogs can be jealousy. When a new baby is born or you introduce a new pet in the house then, your dog will obviously go through some jealousy and this jealousy can either lead to an aggressive attitude or it can make your dog silent and quiet. This happens because the dog has a thought that he understood the whole pack and this new addition disturbed that whole understanding. He starts to think that what the place of new addition is and how will he treated with that new addition. It can sometime make him aggressive to that new pet or baby. Proper and healthy training of your dog is the only way out of this situation and if you keep providing him with same kind of time and training then, it will not create any doubts in his mind and he will know that his status in the pack is not disturbed with that addition and he will have no insecurity or jealousy.

Dog’s Memory

Dog’s memory is another very important aspect of his psychology. There has been a long research on this topic but basically there are two types of memories which are associated with digs. One is recall memory and as a result of most researches, it has been known that recall memory of dogs is quiet short and it is not more than 2-3 hours. The second type of memory is the ability to associate and this memory part of dogs is quite substantial and long lasting.