hey, gilly!
happy to see U here, isn't it GREAT to have a pos-R venue for discussion?
i dunno about U, but i was getting close to
my explosive threshold on some forums, where pos-R posters are mobbed by enthusiastic preachers
from
The Church of Pack-Theory and Dominion, Dominance and Dumb-inance - the folks who think tradition is holy, punishment is mandatory,
and teaching non-humans is impossible.
- lucysnewmum wrote:
- ...it is well documented that humans use their eyes and their hands in the main [to communicate].
eye contact and body posture come a close second.
i think that humans use
body-lingo Mostly UNconciously - which is unfortunate, as it can be a full and astonishingly productive
communication-channel - but i think humans have a powerful
default to verbal communication, which is prejudicial to dogs, who can
learn verbal labels and with time, can even
generalize concepts - but the verbal-channel is limited to labels and cues for dogs; they NEVER become conversant, verbal-speech is one-way; also it takes a lot of repeated,
successful teaching, and it's very difficult for individual dogs to generalize concepts.
body-parl OTOH
is easy for dogs; they have a broad instinctive and learned vocabulary of visual cues and signals, they notice new-signals
and learn visual cues readily, and have an apparently limitless ability to learn NEW visual-signals. this ** is ** the mother-tongue of dogs, around
the world. Chinese dogs, American dogs, and Izbekistan dogs do not need translators; they don't speak English or Spanish, Manchurian or Farsi
or Urdu - they all talk Dog. if a trainer cannot READ dogs fluently, to assess their overall temp, monitor their current state, and know when to step-in and remove
a dog from a situation, they are IMO crippled in their ability to safely handle, train or B-Mod any dog.
if a dog-owner or trainer cannot read their personal dog, a client's dog, or the emotional state and intention of other dogs -
that person, any persons they meet, and any dog they encounter, is at genuine risk, IMO. by learning to read dog-signals we can keep ourselves and our dogs safer, deepen our comprehension of dog-emotions and their roots, prevent needless
trauma and emotional fallout to dogs are humans alike, and teach and handle dogs and humans
mindfully - actually
notice emotions in any species and all individuals, and work with those emotions; rather than ignore, misinterpret, or be ignorant of emotions, or try to suppress
or quash them.
emotions exist - they are undeniable facts; but humans, with our myopic perception of body-language, ignorance of other species, and hyperfocus
on verbal communication, are prejudiced and in many ways, blind - we need to grok emotions fully, acknowledge their primacy, and then
incorporate them into training, communication, and handling -
whether we are teaching dogs or children, guiding clients or grooming horses,
IMO we damage our own effectiveness and injure our fellow-sapients,
when we avoid or ignore those messy, subjective emotions. emotions are not just gooey drek; they enrich and permeate all aspects of every sapient
life, and demand the same respect and attention that any other critical characteristic is given.
a classic example of MISinterpreting dog-body-parl -
http://tinyurl.com/32c8wpka leash as a handle to lift a dog's tail is not 'elevating' that dog's mood, instilling confidence, etc; it only PREVENTS the dog expressing that fearful
response. the anxiety is still there; it's only expressed somewhere other than the tail [eyes, ears, head-down, mouth closed, tongue retracted,
body tight, etc.].
NOTICE when the dog melts-down:
this young-M yellow Lab is terrified exiting the auto -
on a wide tag-collar - but it gets worse...
http://tinyurl.com/334ukaw when does he really lose it?
from 0:58-secs to 1:08, when 'trainer' michelle does 3 bad things:
BODY BLOCKS his forward-movement by standing upright in front of the dog, DRAGS him forcefully toward her - while standing as a barrier! -
AND forcefully punishes him by jerking on his new CHOKE collar! well, that obviously works... NOT!
accommodating and altering emotional-responses:
NOTICE the advice to ** use dog-signals ** - blink frequently, yawn, make other calming signals - and AVOID staring:
sustained eyes-on-eyes contact - with anxious or fearful dogs; these are both important, when working with dogs or pups
who are new to U, or are [b]shy, anxious, under-socialized, highly-stressed [new setting, new people, etc] or similar.
http://tinyurl.com/3yjrtf8 NOTICE right around the 2-min mark, shortly after the scroll of text, TUG - the new pup - does an exaggerated **
duck**
when Kikopup reaches above his head with a flat hand:
she does not touch him, it is an intention movement - but it still scares Tug,
he is obviously highly anxious about any hand-to-his-head contact, even as a prospect or possibility.
right-around 3:30, she is working with a GSD X pitbull pup, a F around 6 to 7-MO; the pup is hesitant to approach, offers appeasing
and ambivalent signals, but is interested and engaged - not shut down or cringing, but pushing her own self-imposed limits.
at 5:30-min mark, the TEXT-scroll and voice-over suggest offering a treat by
tossing it BEYOND the dog - making the dog move
after the treat, thus giving a double reward: increased social-distance AKA decreased social-stress AND the treat.
this is exceptionally powerful for aggressive dogs whose aggro is fear-based; also for undersocialized, globally-fearful, timid
or feral, and formerly-abused or genetically-fearful dogs: it gives the dog CONTROL - how close, when to approach, retreat + reset,
and then re-approach. retreating, re-setting, and re-approaching make a potent series of rehearsals -
they practice going toward the
former trigger: the scary person, over + over; the dog incrementally reduces both their fear and their own social-distance.
JMO + IME; happy training,
- terry