How Dogs See The World

One of the problems with working with dogs, or indeed any other species (cats come to mine), is that we really have no idea how they see the world - we theorize, but we can experience what a dog experiences. Or at least most of us don't, but that's a different post.

We do know they rely on their sense of smell more than we do. While they do communicate verbally, they rely more on body language, and that nebulous concept "energy". While they do remember things from the past, they don't appear to worry too much about the future in the way we often do, they live in the now.

Then there's the question of "intelligence". Most people, and I fall afoul of this thinking frequently myself, measure a dog's intelligence by human standards. However, the comparison is unfair to dogs, and means we miss the areas where dogs are perhaps more intelligent and are perhaps wiser than we.

Of course there are exceptions, and while I laugh till I cry at the adventures of The Simple Dog in Allie Brosh's blog at Hyperbole and a Half, I do hope she's making it all up, or at least exaggerating...

Why is this all important? Because in order to motivate our dogs to do what we would like them to do, we need a basic understanding of how they operate. We need to accept that while they aren't like us, thinking wise, they do have their own innate intelligence. In my opinion, dogs even have a need and a right to enjoy life on their own terms, to a certain extent, if we want them to be happy and fullfilled.

Question of the day: What have you done today, just for your dog's pleasure and happiness?