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Zoom notes
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Last week's DPU Zoom delved a lot into dog cognition, and as a result, I referenced some really interesting books as well as abstracts from research, all of which might be of interest to people who were not able to join us. So rather than just send this info to participants, I thought I'd share it with all DPU readers. The books we talked about were: What It's Like To Be A Dog and Other Adventures in Neuroscience by Gregory Berns Gregory Berns is one of the researchers at the forefront of the scientific breakthroughs in our understanding of how dogs and other animals experience the world, and how their feelings are very much like ours. How Dogs Love Us by Gregory Berns Less scholarly and perhaps a bit of an easier read that the first book, delving specifically into the emotional lives of dogs. Playing Possum - How Animals Understand Death by Susana Monsó Susana Monsó is a philosopher who is an expert on animal cognition. This book delves into the science of whether and how different animals understand and experience death. An article in The Journal Of Veterinary Behavior on research about the role The subthalamic nucleus in behavioral disorders in dogs. You don't have to understand all the research to read this stuff. Just reading the abstract at the top of scholarly articles can tell you a lot.
An article on constructive anthropomorphism published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society
For so long it was suggested that people who were 'serious' about animal studies, animal training etc. should avoid being anthropomorphic, and it is with some relief that finally we are able to embrace the idea that there is as much harm, if not more, in anthropectomy (the withholding of human qualities from animals) as from anthropomorphism. This is the over arching message of neurscientists and cognitive research of the 21st century. We must, of course, avoid being anthropocentric, animals do not experience the world the way we do, but we must take into consideration, in our lives with them, in our teaching them, that they have emotions, imaginations, and abilities that are not that different from our own. Lastly, because it came up in the training discussion phase of the meeting, a link to an article I wrote many years ago on teaching puppies the art of self regulation. This is a very abridged version of what I teach in person and online, but a good place to start.
It's entirely possible to not read any of this stuff and still have a keen knowledge of dogs and dog training. But it's also fascinating to expand what we understand about dogs and how they actually think and see the world.
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DOG POTENTIAL UNLEASHED
+top trainer of animal actors (SVU, Sex and the City, Disney, the list goes on!) +have fun with your dog learning cool new tricks +http://subscribe.dogpotentialunleashed.com/ + https://linktr.ee/dogpotentialunleashed
(trigger warning - no one dies, but this has to do with death) Those of us who have lived our lives with dogs and who are no longer young have a certain understanding about dogs dying. We've been through it and we know the ins and outs. But we only know it as well as we know how to live in a home. We understand the rough layout, the touchstones that tell us we are here where we belong, but each place we have lived was different. Each dog steps in and out of our life in a different way, in no...
(WARNING - this is longer than usual and the topic is death, although no one dies) When we bring a dog into our life, we know, although we try not to, that at some point we might be called upon to end their life. It is profoundly important, when having to make these literal life and death decisions, to understand that there is no objective right or wrong. When we couch these choices in terms of ‘doing the right thing’ it can infer that those who make different choices are, by definition,...
The DPU tag line, 'The art is in remembering to play' comes from an essay I wrote a number of years ago. I have printed it in this newsletter before, however, I have gained many subscribers since then, so here it is again: Dog training, we are fond of saying, is as much an art as a science. Of course it is, because we don’t keep our dogs in Skinner boxes, they live with us as family members, privy to our moods and secrets, sharing our lives intimately, in a way that precludes us from keeping...