- I am not an animal behaviourist so cannot call myself an expert in this field. I have had years of interacting with dogs as pets, working towards competitions and helping others achieve their goals, coupled with being interested, concerned and enthusiastic.
- All this exposure to dogs and also to humans who are expert in behaviour or biology has led to a gradual change in my understanding of how dogs relate to each other and to humans. Being a trainer and vet nurse I’ve had the opportunity to attend seminars, lectures and conferences; meet behaviourists, biologists, vets; read books; observe my own dogs and the 100s of puppies that’ve passed through Rose’s Puppy School.
- These are a few books that I’ve read that have been influential on this journey of understanding dogs:
Ray Coppinger : Dogs: A New Understanding of Canine Origin, Behaviour and Evolution
John Bradshaw: In Defence of Dogs (apparently now in paperback as “Dog Sense”)
Jean Donaldson: Culture Clash and Dogs are from Neptune
Pat Miller: Power of Positive Dog Training
Karin Pryor: Don’t Shoot the Dog 1985
- Ray Coppinger’s seminar made me sit and up and really start to grapple with understanding the origin of dogs and how that should change what I do and how I view canine behaviour.
- I am concerned that the changes in attitude and understanding are not filtering down to owners and breeders. That’s one reason that I think puppy school can be of great benefit in that we do much more than just give pups an opportunity to interact with others in their species in a controlled environment. In a well run puppy school there should be lots of sharing of information to owners and opportunity for them to ask questions and begin their own journey of understanding.
- John Bradshaw said: “Owners and dogs have been at the mercy of poor quality trickled-down information used by traditional, militaristic training.” That is so true and I am determined to be part of the ongoing learning and conversation around understanding dogs that has begun over the last few years.
- Next blog I’ll write more about these ‘new’ ideas concerning the history of dogs and how they relate to humans.
Wolf?
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