Basic Principles of Dog Psychology

Silently the dog watches...

WORDS TO LIVE BY

Dogs, just like children, are shaped by the emotions of the parents. Any emotional scene leaves the mark.

When your dog absorbs hostility from his environment he becomes vicious.
When your dog absorbs emotional disapproval he mirrors contempt.
When you live by selfish indecision your dog becomes unruly.
When your dog absorbs pity and concern he develops illnesses and feels very sorry for himself.
When your dog repeatedly feels shame he cowers and becomes guilty in spirit.

Now You Can Have a Dream Dog!

Dog Behavior 101

Have you ever really thought of just WHY we can CONTROL and in so many ways influence a dog?

The Socialization Factor

The earliest dog, Tomarctus, began evolving somewhere around two million years before man. Dogs have evolved from the distant past to the present, surviving by "belonging" because of an innate grouping hierarchy. They need a group. In other words, they are made up of leaders and followers. For this reason they pack and are therefore more tractable and trainable than those animals that do not.

The fact that we can teach these animals is not so much a factor of their intelligence as it is what ethologists call The Socialization Factor.

To expand, this means that a dog innately needs you as a friend. It also means that when excluded, the dog will be stressed, and will most likely relieve the stress in oral, vocal, or somatic ways, usually into what we call unwanted behavior. Social deprivation (solitary confinement) is probably the worst thing you can do to a dog. It creates antagonisms that may make a dog mean. Good dog? On the other hand, a dog who knows he is loved and is part of a group is more likely to be trouble-free and confident.

Allelomimetic Behavior

Allelomimetic Behavior is a psychological mechanism by which all animals learn and are taught. It simply means "the copying effect." Herding animals like elephants, horses, and dogs, are prone to copying the actions found within the group hierarchy. This means that a dog will quite naturally copy our actions even our emotions and attitudes. You see, dogs learn what they see.

The Allelomimetic Behavior mechanism confirms the Opposition Reflex phenomenon even though it views the same thing somewhat differently: You push and the dog copies and pushes back. You pull and the dog learns to pull. Moral: Don't pull or hold him back.

Some of today's dog training methods can be too abusive and painful. Too often they stress only the physical and entirely neglect the mental... and that is what is copied. Rx: DOG-MASTER® LEARNING SYSTEM!

The Opposition Reflex

The opposition Reflex was first discovered as the Freedom Reflex by the 1904 Nobel Prize winner, Ivan P. Pavlov (1849-1936).

If you try to pull a puppy towards you, you will notice he instinctively pulls away. What do you think he thinks? If you push him down, he'll push up. Why? It's not intentional. It's a reflex.

Answer: You are adversely stimulating The Opposition Reflex. By doing these actions, you are communicating to the puppy the very opposite of what you really want him to do. If you keep this up he will learn to oppose you in most other things. The common day use of a leash adversely stimulates this reflex when used in the first and early teaching of the puppy. The DOG-MASTER® instrument completely avoids all opposition in the dog.

The Visual-Oral Reflex

Hitting at the dog stimulates his visual-oral reflex, suggesting the thought to bite by fast movement. This is a highly developed natural reflex in dogs, allowing them to catch a fly right out of the air.

Stimulating this reflex is how professionals teach dogs to attack. In other words, it is because of this close eye-mouth hook-up that most any kind of fast movement can make a dog want to grab or bite at it.

The Barrier-Frustration Syndrome

Understanding this behavior-affecting syndrome can be most useful to the dog owner. In varying degrees it is found to be the basic cause of unwanted behavior. This syndrome has three factors:

The barrier itself frustrates the dog.
The teasing element, is usually some activity, or a simple attraction on the other side of the barrier, and usually stimulates the dog to the point of frustration.
The dog's anxiety behavior is his physical release from the frustration: barking, jumping, chewing, pacing, etc.

You must control this anxiety behavior immediately. Teaching your dog using DOG-MASTER® will start your dog mentalizing and get him off the physical behavior. The principle is nearly the same with people. They often first react and don't think. Unless the dog is educated, and knowledge learned, the more problems the owner will have.

DOG-MASTER LEARNING SYSTEM