The meaning of life may be too ambitious a concept for our dogs. But most of us think that the meaning of “sit” should be well within their mental capacity to grasp. For our dogs, living in a very human world means discovering the meaning of a dazzling array of items and experiences. From what it means to get into a car and go somewhere to learning where to comfortably relieve themselves, dogs are learning about how to go about life with us from the moment they arrive in our homes. This is the association of dogs – the process of attaching meaning to a variety of cues, signals, environments, and experiences in order to fit comfortably into their life with us.

That process of association can be fast or slow, complicated or simple, frustrating or satisfying for our dogs. A lot of it depends on us, the humans, and how we choose to introduce our dogs to various things. Our dogs will encounter things that they know nothing about. Then they have to decide if these things are good or bad, if they are an indicator for something they already know about, or if they don’t have any relevant meaning at all. Science would call this introducing our dogs to an “unconditioned stimulus.”

Cues and Commands

Probably the most easily recognized form of association our dogs do with us is learning a cue or command for a behaviour. We look at our dog and say “Down!” or raise an arm above our head and they should lie down. But we have to teach them that response. The word “Down” has no more meaning to a dog than if I looked at you and said “Flimbledonk.” The training process gives me an opportunity to help my dog associate a cue or command with a particular behaviour that I teach her.

But here is one very important point about all associations that our dogs make including cues and commands. WE don’t get to decide what those associations are – the dog does! Don’t get me wrong, we work very hard to influence their decisions and very often they get what were trying to teach them. But sometimes those associations (or cues) don’t go exactly right.

Let me give you an example. Stand in front of any random dog that is a house pet. Bend slightly over them at the waist. 9 out of 10 dogs will sit when you do that. Why? Because very often, in the process of teaching a sit, we bend over to reward them with a food treat or a pat on the head and a kind word. The act of bending at the waist has been associated with “sitting” in the mind of the dog! While we work hard to establish cues and commands with our dogs, they are the ones with the final say about what associations they make. And that’s an important thing to remember as we will see.

Antecedents, avoidance, and excitement

Dogs notice things. They notice and make decisions about what those things mean. If we are not observant and don’t try to guide the associations our dogs make, we can end up with some confusing behaviours. For example, let’s say I have a favorite apron that I like to wear when I barbecue. When my dog comes near the barbecue, I may yell at her to get away so she doesn’t get burned. After this happens a few times, it’s possible that my dog won’t want to come near me while I’m wearing that apron. Why? Because she has made the association that the apron means that I’m going to yell at her.

In this example, the apron is what behaviourists call an “antecedent.” It’s a simple word meaning “that which comes before.” In this case, the presence of the apron comes before my dog choosing to avoid me. It’s an association that she has made. The apron predicts that I will be mean and yell at her. Whether or not that is a reasonable thing to believe is not up to me. My dog has made that connection in her mind and I have to live with that.

The same can also be true if I always wear the same pair of running shoes when I take her to the park. When my dogs sees me sit down to put them on, she will get all excited anticipating a fun outing to the park. Each night around dinner time, my dogs begin to hover around me and follow my every move. It’s as if they know what time it is. This particular time of day seems to be an antecedent for being fed. So the associations my dogs make can be positive ones that they are excited about or negative ones that they will try to avoid.

Social learning

Our dogs are always watching and, apparently, they are also learning from what they see. Whether it is the cues we try to teach them or things in the environment that become signals for good and bad things in their lives, they definitely making decisions about what it all means to them. One aspect of this kind of observational learning was described in 1971 by psychologist Dr. Albert Bandura as Social Learning theory.

Bandura’s theory was that learning did not require direct experience. Behaviourists such as B.F. Skinner had already shown that an animal’s behaviour will be influenced by the outcome of their actions. A good result would make the behaviour more likely while an unpleasant outcome would make the behaviour less likely. Bandura’s proposal was that the act of witnessing the behaviour of another and seeing the outcome of their behaviour can also influence whether the observer is more or less likely to repeat that behaviour.

But the question remains whether or not dogs have the ability to watch the behaviour of others and apply it to themselves. It’s a question that is currently being explored by Dr. Adam Miklosi and a team of researchers at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary. Their results look promising. The ability of our dogs to observe and learn from what they see may be more extensive than we had previously thought. It may be possible that our dogs can and do mimic the actions of other dogs and perhaps even humans!

The Observant Dog

I find the science of dogs fascinating. But I’m also a dog trainer and I live with dogs as well. One of the things that we have a always said in our house is that “the dog is always watching.” This serves as a reminder to the humans in the house that our dogs are always observing and making connections whether we intend them or not. So we try, as far as possible, to make sure we are leaving the right impressions with our dogs no matter what activity we may be doing with them.

For us, dog training doesn’t stop when we put the cue on the behaviour and we can say “Sit” and our dog sits. In addition to the work we do to make sure we practice that behaviour in many different environments, we also take care not to use carefully trained cues as punishment, for example saying “Sit!” in a stern tone as punishment for doing something we didn’t like. Sending this kind of mixed message just makes it hard for the dog to understand their world and leads to frustration and acting out.

Whether we are paying attention or not, our dogs are making associations. By watching our dogs and seeing their reactions to the things around them, we get a window into the associations that they make. We learn what they like, what they don’t like, what the are afraid of, and what gives them comfort. It’s information we can use to help us train and to help us manage our lives with them.

Our dogs are always watching. We should be watching them too.

Until next time, have fun with your dogs!

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Photo credits –

Observer – Daryl Brown copyright 2012 from Flickr

Watcher – Paul Moody copyright 2007 from Flickr

Looking – Tony Alter copyright 2013 from Flickr

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