Welcome to my page about human-dog interaction.
Dogs are gifts from the gods.
Unfortunately, this has been largely overlooked due to many problems in our Western culture.
They can only be gifts from the gods, e.g. over-the-counter antidepressants on four paws , if we understand dogs properly, communicate with them correctly, and meet their needs.
However, a number of dogmas have stood in the way of understanding the interaction between humans and dogs.
Many supposed necessities have been touted and sold in recent decades…
And all this despite the fact that humans and dogs have lived together successfully and without dogmas and problems for more than 30,000 years.
I have described the problems that stand in the way of understanding in detail at www.b-j-schmidt.net .
I. The problems with dogs are problems of our Western culture!
1.) The family wolf and the animal human
For one thing, the “canis lupus familiaris ,” the family wolf , still contains the whole wolf. However, the wolf does not contain the whole dog.
And the human, although this was denied in Western culture for centuries, contains the whole animal.
Furthermore, the wolf came to humans when they didn’t yet have houses (domus).
Humans only became sedentary about 10,000 years ago!
2.) Psychological primitivism
Western culture is shaped by the dogmas of Catholicism , by the dogmas of the separation of body and spirit, of heaven and hell, of reward and punishment. These dogmas have shaped both Western philosophy and the psychology that has emerged from it.
But dogs are not primitive stimulus-response machines ; they are ” world-open, curious creatures ” who have far more motivation than treats. And above all, they are highly social beings , capable of ratiomorphic (rationality-like) performance .
Dogs can be trained (just like people, by the way), but above all they have to be educated!
Here, education is synonymous with “imparting knowledge about the world .” This occurs through shared action in the world, not through avoidance strategies .
See my book “DOGmatism. New Perspectives on Humans, Dogs and Culture”
II. The new perspectives
The new perspectives I have developed that make a deeper understanding of the interaction between humans and dogs possible are the following:
1. ) The emergence of ever-new species throughout Earth’s history necessitates the development of ever-improving information processing, for example, to distinguish between prey and predator. First, through sensory organs and brains, and then, above all, through the social transmission of knowledge .
2. ) Humans did not domesticate wolves, but rather entered into a cross-species cooperation with them , as is often found in nature. From this cooperation, the dog evolved. The task of socially transmitting knowledge about the world (= upbringing ), which the pack assumes in the case of wolves, is now the responsibility of dog owners.
3. ) Shifting the perspective to cross-species cooperation immediately brings into focus the importance of joint action ! Dogs are social creatures that need contact and interaction with other dogs and humans! The much-vaunted “fenced-in garden” is far from sufficient for a dog and its needs!
Both the Animal Welfare Act and the Animal Shelter Regulations of the German Animal Welfare Association rightly prohibit the prolonged keeping of dogs in kennels, which unfortunately remains the norm in many animal shelters and often causes behavioral problems.
4 .) The dog has three different ways of being: the solitary dog, the social dog and the play dog .
- the solitary dog who does not orientate himself towards (his) people
- the social dog , which is well oriented and therefore more easily habituated (orientation facilitates habituation!)
- and the play dog , which is, so to speak, the back door for access to the dog.
5. ) There is no reward and/or punishment , but rather meaning is negotiated through shared action , based on the four cardinal virtues of “prudence, justice, courage, and temperance . “
6 .) Functional pleasure (Karl Bühler) and curiosity (Harry Harlow and others) are much stronger motivators than treats!
7. ) Dogs ALWAYS learn , even when we don’t want to teach or train them anything. And unfortunately, if we communicate with them incorrectly, they also learn what we don’t actually want to teach them.
8 .) Learning always occurs, but not always with consistent success. Sometimes it occurs through a sudden “aha moment”, the so-called gestalt perception . Dogs try to distinguish the essential from the unimportant from the available information, to “get a picture”. This way you don’t have to repeat everything 200 times with dogs, as is often said. The number of repetitions necessary depends essentially on the quality of the information . For example, on clarity, continuity, consistency, freedom from interference…
If 200 repetitions are needed, then that’s the fault of the human – not the dog!
9. ) Dogs can also learn to learn! Through shared interactions in the world and the resulting ” latent learning .” That is, the gathering of information about the world, even though this information is not currently relevant and is not rewarded.
III. Basic misconceptions in dog education
1.) Only I teach the dog.
Quite the opposite! No other animal is as successful at conditioning humans!
2.) The dog only learns what I teach him.
No, the dog ALWAYS learns!
3.) Teaching basic commands and a few tricks is sufficient for a harmonious relationship and for education of the dog.
No, sufficient cooperation and joint action are necessary.
4.) The dog can only do what I teach it.
No, for one thing, the behavior is largely instinctual, and for another, the dog learns beyond what it has been taught. The dog tries to make sense of the available information. And can draw conclusions about new, unfamiliar situations based on previous experiences.
5.) The learning success of my teaching experiments is independent of the human-dog relationship.
No, the dog learns more easily and faster when guided by an ” important other ,” a person who is highly valued and respected by the dog .
My book ” Der natürliche Weg zum souveränen Hund ” explains how, through natural training, a dog can develop that is largely free of anxieties and compulsive behavior, that is well-trained on a leash, and that is people-oriented. Only in this way can a dog become a sovereign dog and be and remain a “world-open, curious creature.”
