Decoding Dog Behaviour: Everything You Should Know About Your Dog

By Daniel Barrile

Decoding Dog Behaviour explores a new-age approach to understanding dog behaviour. It explores the critical phases of puppy development, how dogs communicate using calming signals and how to recognise canine stress. The book will also allow you to make an informed decision about which dog breed to choose by analysing breed-induced motivations. By understanding your dog on a deeper level, you will be more likely to live in harmony with your four-legged companion.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tablo Publishing
• Release date: Aug 19, 2021
• ISBN: 9781649699213

Book preview

PART ONE

1: Where It All Began

The first days of a puppy’s life are fundamental to the correct development of its future life. The most important periods are called ‘sensitive periods,’ which can be broken down into the prenatal period, the neonatal period, the transition period and the socialisation period. Later, I will explain these periods in detail and expound on why they are so important.

Puppies must ‘live’ these periods in the correct way, staying with their mother and siblings until the time of adoption. In the following pages, you will find out the right time to adopt a puppy and why these periods must be respected. While still living with their mother and siblings, puppies can learn bite control, self-control, calmness and the basic skills to live with their own kind and with humans.

According to the most recent studies on the development of dog behaviour, the developmental age can be defined as the period when the dog’s identity is constructed. This process is outlined through precise states of growth during which dogs have great potential, but just as many vulnerabilities and phases of imbalance.

The dog expects to be directed in the right direction where it will encounter the so-called ‘sensitive periods’, a time where positive experiences will need to be appreciated and taken advantage of.

The path of a dog’s evolution has been interpreted in different ways over the years. On one hand, there are the ‘innatists’ who claim that the dog’s evolutionary process is independent of external factors and is only represented by the growth of the system which is influenced by pre-existing genetic elements.

On the other hand, there are environmentalists who strongly believe a dog’s development is like a blank (ontogenetic) sheet of paper that becomes filled with the dog’s personal experiences. These two theories were in opposition to one another with the former believing that learning was only a completion of the genetic strand. Today, these theories have been superseded, and dogs are recognised as individuals where the innate (instinct) diminishes through the learned.

The Sensitive Periods

A sensitive period is a phase of development where learning is easily memorised in the long term. It is, therefore, a very important phase in the development of the puppy since it will affect the way the dog is as an adult.

In these periods, external influences cause fundamental changes in the formation of the character and attitude of a dog. There are four distinct sensitive periods: the prenatal period, the neonatal period, the transition period and the socialisation period.

During the antenatal anatomical and functional evolution (the development phase), the brain is organised in a complex and chaotic network of synaptic connections. Selection (elimination of neurons and excess connections) during this development phase regulates the way in which the main nerve structures begin to form during embryonic life, with the influence of genetic factors. Embryonic development of mammals consists of four stages:

Neuron proliferation: During this phase, cells are created that will give rise to the whole nervous system.

Migration: From their area of origin, nerve cells migrate to other areas of the developing nervous system to reach their final location.

Differentiation: Once migrated to their final position, nerve cells differentiate into various types of neurons.

Growth of nerve extensions: As neurons differentiate, they emit extensions and form connections with other neurons.

Embryonic development of the nervous system is characterised by an initial phase in which both neurons and neuronal connections are formed in large quantities. Selection during development consists of the elimination of neurons and excess connections. The synapses are stabilised through sensory experiences that occur during the sensitive periods.

In the uterus, the puppy lives in a protected but equally stimulating environment. These stimuli can pass directly through the mother’s body, thanks to the amniotic fluid, which amplifies the information coming from outside. Stimuli can also come from the puppy’s siblings as they share hormones and provide the environment for the first examples of interactive competitive behaviours.

Puppies are greatly affected by stimuli transmitted in utero and through the various choices their mother makes. The mother’s heartbeat, along with her chemical characteristics, builds background noise for her offspring. Because development and learning are critical during the sensitive period, this phase is an important part of a puppy‘s growth.

2: The Prenatal Period

This period begins