Why You Should Never Treat Your Dog Like a Human

Eazy Dog Training runs puppy preschool in Leichhardt. This is article is written by Anniina who has over 10 years experience in training dogs.

One of the biggest problems I have as a professional dog trainer, is trying to effectively communicate this message to dog owners. We love our dogs like our own children and often call ourselves their parents but dogs are not people. Dogs certainly do not see humans as dogs. Just like giraffes don’t see elephants as giraffes or cats don’t see mice as cats. You know where I’m going with this… They just don’t. Therefore, by bestowing dogs with human attributes are we doing both them and us a disservice or, worse, even harm?

Expecting a dog to do things he simply cannot or has no understanding of is very common.

I run puppy schools in Sydney. And unfortunately, I’ve met many people who think that their dog is not obeying them on purpose or is doing something just to be “naughty”. Many dogs have their personalities labelled as stubborn, jealous, mischievous and sometimes just plain bad. We’ve all heard it and many of us have used it.

Expecting dogs to think as we humans do is common. The reason a dog became a man’s best friend is their amazing ability to adapt their way of life to fit in with ours. It is this amazing skill that is the likely cause for our misunderstanding of their intentions and motives. The problem is, whenever we try to evaluate canine behaviour using human values we are misinterpreting our dog’s emotions and behavioural motives. When training a dog, understanding their emotions and motives is the key aspect of successful training.

Owners should be aware of this issues when it comes to good timing and corrections in training.

For example, some owners correct their dog based on a ‘guilty look’ on the dog’s face, assuming he ‘knows’ he was wrong. The dog doesn’t know, any more than he knows it is his birthday or Christmas. Or, this is one of the most common ones I hear: dog has no idea where you are going when you leave the house. They don’t know when it’s their dog daycare day or when you’re going to the vet unless they see visual cues that might give them a hint of your destination. I am told very often that a dog woke up excited knowing that they were going to go the park or where ever that day. Dogs live in the moment, they have no idea of the future. They have no understanding of what day it is or what we think is right and wrong.

If we truly start to believe dogs think like humans, we have a problem.

To believe a dog thinks like a human is to misunderstand them. To misunderstand a dog can be a serious issue. Leaving a dog alone with a child thinking that a dog would never bite a child because they know a child isn’t a threat. Wrong. Thinking that a jumpy dog understands not to jump on a toddler because they are too small to take it. Wrong. Thinking that your really rough dog who goes to dog parks to cause trouble understands to play nice with a tiny puppy or a timid dog. Wrong. Thinking that a scared and aggressive dog understands that you only want to help them. Wrong, and dangerous.

You see where the problem lies, yes?

If you want to be sure that you understand what your dog is trying to tell you, join my puppy preschool in Leichhardt.