Doggy Reasoning- Is your Dog a Genius?
I found an article in the NSW Canine Journal, by Garry Somerville supplied by DOGS NSW, of which we are a current financial member.
This is a snippet of his article, which really made me stop an think for a minute or two about my dogs behaviour, values etc.
I quote:
“In connection with your dog’s power of reasoning I have an old true story that is not only true, but
paints a picture.
Two dogs were great pals for years. Each day they romped together. One day, a car killed one of them. Its mate walked over after seeing the accident and sniffed the corpse. It showed little recognition and after a couple of seconds, trotted off unconcerned. Later that day, it again looked for its mate for their usual frolic.”
I found this little snippet quite true of my experience with dog behaviour. They don’t tend to think of the consequences until it has some impact upon themselves, a bit like teenagers. This isn’t a bad thing- infact I believe it explains that cheeky behaviour we all love in our four legged friends. On a more serious note however this behavior can be utilised in training our companions. For example we have often observed our very well fed animals, becoming quite fussy. Who wouldn’t become fussy- food is available, plenty of it so why not just waste it (leave our friend lying on the road), its now our turn to step in and say okay we’ll now give you much less, so the dog then goes looking for his friend, he’s no longer there: oh no- theres a shortage of food, I better eat it all and look for more!
Great article Mr Somerville.