Important other
One of the central errors in research on human-dog interaction is not to distinguish between
- owner
- primary caregiver
- important other
“Owner” is a legal term that contains no information about the social relationship between humans and dogs—and is therefore completely unsuitable for researching human-dog interactions.
These three roles often coincide, with the owner simultaneously acting as both the caregiver and the primary attachment figure. But that doesn’t always have to be the case.
Above all, the “primary attachment figure” is often missing, and the dog only has one owner and someone who puts out food and brushes its fur…
but no one to orient it around (orientation facilitates habituation!), with whom it can be a social dog.
Thus, it is and remains a solitary dog.
Nowadays, you can often observe people with dogs walking at the same time, but not together . It’s obvious from afar that there’s no deep relationship between human and dog. The human isn’t the “important other” for the dog.
And this is usually combined with a chest harness and a leash…
But how do I become the “important other” for my dog?
1.) Emotional affection.
Emotional affection should be mentioned first here, as it is often ignored, especially by behaviorists, for example.
But dogs aren’t just stimulus-response machines; they are also highly social and communicative creatures.
And as such, they also need our emotional affection.
Unfortunately, many people are no longer able to build this emotional bond with their dogs. Living together occurs only simultaneously, not together .
” That dogs feel sympathy with man will hardly be questioned by any one who has known the companionship of these four-footed friends. At times they seem instinctively to grasp our moods, to be silent with us when we are busy, to lay their shaggy heads on our knees when we are worried or sad, and to be quickened to fresh life when we are gay and glad—so keen are their perceptions.
Their life with man has implanted in them some of the needs of social beings; and as they are ever ready to sympathize with us, so do they rejoice in our sympathy. To be deprived of that sympathy, to be neglected, to have no attention bestowed on them, is to some dogs a punishment more bitter than direct reproof .”
(Morgan, C. Lloyd 1890)
[Lloyd Morgan is, of course, mistaken in his view that it was only through living with humans that social needs were created in dogs. On the contrary, these needs were a prerequisite for cross-species cooperation.]
2) Predictability:
Dogs live in the here and now, but they can recall past experiences in a given situation. They can also reflect, but not ruminate.
Unpredictability leads to insecurity and helplessness (see, for example, Seligman’s “Learned helplessness”).
Routines and rituals, on the other hand, offer dogs security and predictability.
3.) Clarity and Consistency:
Clear, unambiguous communication about what you want or don’t want. And this should be predictable for the dog, because it is and will always be that way.
If I don’t want a certain behavior from the dog but only communicate this half-heartedly, then I reinforce the undesirable behavior.
If I act differently every time, the dog won’t be able to understand what I actually want from him.
4.) Commonality:
Humans have not domesticated the wolf, but have entered into a cross-species cooperation with it .
This was possible because humans and wolves (dogs) are both compatible and complementary .
Compatible in terms of social structure and communication skills as pack hunters,
complementary in terms of the senses, among other things.
The emphasis is on cooperation, on joint action .
5.) Education
Unlike emotional attention, the necessity of which was and still is simply ignored, education has been labelled as negative (see, for example, Alice Miller’s “In the beginning was training”).
But education in the true and positive sense is the ” imparting of knowledge about the world “!
That is the central advantage of social animals: they can pass on knowledge and the associated behavior from generation to generation.
And in this way they can always adapt to new environments, such as the coastal wolves, which have developed completely new prey patterns and hunting strategies.
As an “important other”, I educate my dog through shared action in the world.
6.) Playing
Playing here means playing together . Namely, fooling around without expectations and largely without resources (except, for example, in tug-of-war games).
Fetching is not a game, even if it gives the dog pleasure, partly because of the “pleasure of functioning.”
7.) Security
The previous points give the dog one thing above all – security.
It’s the relationship between humans and animals that’s crucial. A relationship that some people are more capable of (see below), others less so.
” But there is no doubt that Portielje’s outstanding gifts, amounting indeed to genius, were displayed as Director of the Amsterdam Zoo. He was a man of commanding presence and powerful voice; overall a tremendous personality. He once spent two or three hours taking me round his Zoological Gardens. It was an experience I shall never forget. He seemed to know all the animals personally and their response to him was quite extraordinary. He trumpeted to an elephant right across the gardens and got an inunediate response.
He went into the hippopotamus house, whereupon the hippo surfaced and opened its mouth in order to experience the apparently delicious sensation of having its palate gently scratched.
Similarly a rhinoceros squatted and managed to look sentimental.
We came to the lionhouse where there was a big male sitting closely against the bars. Portielje put his hand through and stroked the lion on the side of the face; …And so it went on. I particularly remember the delight which his appearance caused to a leopard who rolled about in ecstasy on seeing him. Portielje said he often went into the cage and romped with him, but in order to do that he had to put on special clothes or otherwise it became too expensive and messy. ( Thorpe
, WH 1979)