The story of man’s best friend begins over 15,000 years ago during the last Ice Age, when man and wolf would have been forced closer together in competition for resources. Exact origins are often heavily debated but it is widely accepted the relationship began with either man first tolerating and then befriending wolves that followed their camps and/or by coming across orphaned cubs that they raised within the tribe as their own. Recent research suggests that this happened in multiple instances across Europe and Asia, meaning there is no one true origin pack or wolf as our dog’s ancestor, but a number of them.
Fast forward to the modern day and while some of our dogs no longer look like wolves, their genetic makeup and much of their psychology remain the same. This is often where we hit a sticking point with our dogs and give way to behavioural issues as we are quick to humanize, project our emotions, and expect intellectual reasoning from them, simply setting us up for failure and frustration.
The most significant difference between us and our dogs is our mentality: we often live between the past and future, jumping from one emotion to the next while trying to use our intellect to understand our experiences, yet they live within the now, driven by instincts and stimuli. While dogs do experience emotions, they are very much within the moment and differ from ours greatly. They do not worry about the past nor fear the future, but assess the here and now and react accordingly. Without acknowledging this, we easily become reluctant to correct our dogs as we fear we will spark negative emotions causing them to resent and/or fear us.
As explained in my previous post, just like wolves, dogs are pack animals that follow a strict hierarchical structure which we must understand and impose for a healthy, happy, and balanced pack. If we follow this protocol 9 times out of 10 and on the 10th time give in to the dog as we feel they are stressed or we lose patience, it only signals to the dog that in this instance they were in charge and it will give way to future push-backs. When we then try to be pack leaders, we are both left frustrated as our views on the relationship we have together do not align. Like wolves, we must be disciplined in upholding the hierarchical structure and quickly correct unbalanced members, so that our dogs clearly understand their position and stay within it.
Ultimately unrealistic expectations, miscommunication and lack of correct structure lead to confusion and anxiety within us, our dog and the pack relationship. If we want a strong bond built on trust and respect, we must set aside our human perspective and emotion and meet our dogs on their instinctual, energetic level and it is only when we do so that we can create a real connection with them, meet their needs and fulfil the role of a true pack leader.