However, both professionals and ourselves, as their caretakers, can end up understanding how dogs think.
Canine thinking
Despite the great advances that have been made in studies on the psychology of the dog, much remains to be clarified. Fortunately, there are basic facts that help us to understand the way dogs think.Dogs are animals that live in herds, that are organized so that a hierarchy exists and after centuries of training this has been translated in house in the capacity to respond to stimuli of socialization.
Within the study of canine thought, the first thing that is clear to us is that dogs are capable of recognizing humans and other animals. Obviously, like other species.
However, a dog is capable of demonstrating a feeling of love, as well as remembering and responding to the tricks we teach him and reacting to words. Not all animals do this.
In addition, thanks to their sense of smell they analyze and understand their environment. Dogs know, with smells, what we have eaten or if we are sad, happy or afraid.
They also distinguish shapes and stare us in the eyes to analyse us. As for the ear, they are able to listen to music and detect changes in the tone of our voice.
For all this and for more studies that have been carried out, it has been possible to determine that dogs are capable of appreciating many more details than we do, but they cannot examine them together. That is, they think, but they cannot analyze those thoughts.
What they are able to do, once they have detected what surrounds them, is to express in their own language an answer: wagging the tail, spinning, pointing with the paw....
All this constitutes the way of proceeding of canine thought.
What is involved in the understanding and development of dog thinking?
While it is true that the intelligence of each dog is determinant (there are races more intelligent than others), dog education will be crucial.Canine instincts are there from birth, but without special training we would not be able to understand dog thinking because they would not know how to communicate with us.
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For a good education it is recommended that you follow some advice:
- Do not use harmful techniques such as punishments or hanging collars.
- Use verbal as well as non-verbal language and make sure that the whole family always uses the same indications.
- Don't forget about their socialization: let them integrate with their environment, with other animals and with people.
- Reward their good behavior.
- And above all: take it easy! Your dog won't learn the directions right away, but that doesn't mean he won't make it.