Dog Behavior and Dog Psychology: Control and influence dog behavior and understand dog psychology

By Roland Berger

Are you having trouble with your dog and don't quite know how to deal with it? Maybe you don't understand your pet properly or your dog doesn't know what you want?

The body language of a dog is manifold and not always interpretable for us humans. This guide is primarily intended to teach you the language of the dog and its expressive behavior, so that you can educate your darling well. Because this only works if you understand him and recognize what needs your friend has. Along the way, you will also learn a lot about aggressive behavior, possible causes and solutions to problems.

In addition, you will learn how to influence the general behavior of your dog and you will get an insight into the psychology of the dog, so that you both can spend a relaxed and enjoyable dog life together.

The contents of the book include:
- General psychology of the dog
- Body language of dogs
- Expressive behavior of dogs
- Controlling aggressive behavior
- Impulse control in dogs
- Influence dog behavior

The dog's language consists of sounds, i.e. barking, and especially its body language. This is where the facial expressions on the four-legged friend's face come into play, as well as many gestures performed with the head, tail and the entire body. Here it is helpful to know a little about the psychology of a dog, if you want to train your dog well and want him to become a faithful companion.

Have fun reading and learning.

• Language: English
• Publisher: XinXii
• Release date: Apr 14, 2022
• ISBN: 9783986467821

Book preview

List of Figures

Figure 1: The dog in his favorite everyday activities.

Figure 2: Puppy makes itself very small.

Figure 3: There are many commands and hand signals

Figure 4: Sit visual signal

Figure 5: Place visual signal

Figure 6: Visual signal "Off

General psychology of the dog

You have decided to take a puppy with you, or you already own a dear four-legged friend? Now you face the problem that you do not understand your dog or can not really interpret what he wants to tell you. Or the opposite case occurs: Your dog does not understand you or he cannot interpret what you want to tell him. Above all, remember that a dog has its own language and uses it. The origin lies with the wolf, because from this all dogs descend. In addition, no matter what breed a dog is, it is still a predator. A dog thinks and feels this way. You must always keep this background in mind. The dog's language consists of sounds, i.e. barking, and especially its body language. Here, the facial expressions on the face of the four-legged friend come into play, as well as many gestures performed with the head, the tail and the entire body. Here it is helpful to know a little about the psychology of a dog, if you want to train your dog well and want him to become a faithful companion.

That sounds complicated, you think? Actually, it's not. Simply put, it really just describes what makes your pet tick internally. You should be able to analyze and understand your dog's behavior. This is the only way to learn how to communicate properly with your animal. This is exactly what we want to teach you here, so that you can understand your four-legged friend correctly and use this knowledge to teach him everything he needs to know.

As just mentioned, all dogs are descended from the wolf. The wolf is a predator and the dog is it, despite domestication by humans, just as. Also preserved from the wolf is the fact that the dog also likes to live in the pack and there is a hierarchy. The highest-ranking animal is the alpha wolf. In the dog-human relationship, of course, the human is the alpha animal and the dog should follow his orders. If this is not the case, it can lead to problems with the dog up to aggression. This will be discussed in a later chapter. This is why it is so important to set rules and follow them or have the dog follow them and never change them. However, always remember to treat your dog like a dog and do not humanize him at all. He is and remains a dog and not a child. From the beginning, no matter if you get your four-legged friend as a puppy or adult dog, you should teach him to live in a pack and to accept you as the pack leader. As soon as the dog enters your life, he will either see you as a mother substitute or he will look to you for protection as an alpha animal. You will need a good balance between affection, love, but also discipline to ensure your friend a good start by your side.

For example, you should never allow your dog to try to dominate you. This could be the case with a puppy if he wants to pounce on you during play. This should not happen. If it does, take him off of you and carefully lay him on his back next to you. Lying on your back means submission for the dog. This is how you teach him that you are higher in rank than he is.

Does your puppy take objects from you to play with? Again, he wants to dominate you and you should avert this. Give him suitable toys for dogs to play with. This is the only one he is allowed to use. Should your dog nevertheless grab anything from you to play with, give him a clear No to understand that this is not desired.

Petting and treats are of course welcome to the dog. But do not overdo it with your love and affection. Your darling must learn to understand that there are rewards only when he has earned them. If your dog performs a behavior you want or listens to your commands, then you should reward him with a treat. Your dog will associate the reward with the action he performed and will act the same way again. This is how he learns to obey your commands.

You should take as much time as possible to play or go for a walk with your four-legged friend. Experiences in dog psychology have proven that a dog urgently needs the sociability of his reference human, but also the contact with his conspecifics. If this socialization is missing, behavioral problems and disobedience can occur later.

Your dog, no matter what situation you are both in, will always seek its own advantage. However, you can in turn use this behavior to your advantage. In addition, all dogs are very good actors. When it comes to asserting their own interests, they can slip into completely new roles to get to their goal. You must learn to understand this.

For example, do you think your dog is misbehaving right now? Please reconsider your opinion. Could it also be that your pet has not understood you? Unfortunately, this possibility is the most common cause of alleged misbehavior, because with the lack of understanding and the resulting lack of communication between the human and the dog, misunderstandings are pre-programmed.

Your four-legged friend does not understand the meaning of a particular word or command. He or she is guided primarily by your tone of voice, that is, how you address your dog. In addition, dog owners are willing to humanize their animal far too much. This leads to further misunderstandings and disasters. For example, a dog is not vindictive, at most a brief moment huffy. Quickly, your pet will have forgotten the incident. Assume the following exemplary situation, which has certainly already occurred: You take your animal for a walk on the leash and it pulls very hard on it, so that you have trouble holding it back. Of course, you address your four-legged friend, but probably in a somewhat harsh tone, you are after all indignant about the pulling on the leash. Now your dog stops pulling on the leash, but you have not calmed down right away and still continue to talk a bit indignantly or pass on your displeasure even through your body posture. This is felt by your dog and he will think that it does not matter what he does, it will not be right. So it happens quickly that he does what he wants and you will think that your dog just does not hear or does not want to hear. Now what have you learned from this lesson? That's right, praise your dog immediately when he does something right. Whether you pet him extensively, give him a treat, or talk to him in a friendly voice is relatively irrelevant. Only from this positive experience for your dog he concludes the correctness of his behavior and after a few exercises he will no longer pull on the leash.

There are many other problems where a good knowledge of dog psychology can be very helpful. For example, if your dog simply

[jts6987 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Jumps right into (debunked) dominance theory and perpetuates misinformation about being an "alpha" within the first few pages. This does not align with our current understanding of dogs and what research tells us.