How Does Your Dog Think?

 How Does Your Dog Think?
Ever wonder what your dog thinks about? or how he thinks?
Maybe his thoughts are like Polaroids -separate
pictures of important events both positive and negative. But
your dog isn't as good as you are at linking the pictures together
in cause and effect. That's because he's not human. He's a different
species. Duh!!Sometimes dogs focus on the wrong variable in a
sequence of events. Here's an example.

I train dogs for a living and during a meeting of trainers last year
one trainer told a story of a dog who responded to commands wonderfully
one week and would cower in fear the next week. Why? What was going
through little Momos' mind? One of the trainers had an idea. Let's
examine the person training the dog. Was everything the same week
to week? Well not exactly. When Momo trained well,the trainer was
wearing White tennis shoes. The next week when Momo was afraid, the
trainer was wearing different shoes-Black ones. A little investigation
of Momo found he was a rescue dog who had been regularly beaten by
his former owner with a newspaper. And what did Momo take a picture
of while he was being beaten? BLACK SHOES. End of Story. You
want to train Momo? It's easy,use good techniques and don't wear
Black Shoes. Being a canine and not a human being little Momo
didn't realize that what he should have been afraid of was the
human jerk with the newspaper and not the shoes he was wearing.
But for Momo the White shoes were right in front of his face and
that's what he took a picture of. If you want to train a dog
or change his behavior you first have to know a little bit about
how this critters mind works. As always I'm here to help you
enjoy sharing your life and home with that wonderful creature-
your dog.

About the Author

I am a dog trainer for a pet retail chain in Denver, Colorado.

 Cathy Chiara

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