{"id":4835,"date":"2019-06-19T16:24:55","date_gmt":"2019-06-19T16:24:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wolfdog.co.uk\/den\/?p=4835"},"modified":"2019-06-24T14:26:26","modified_gmt":"2019-06-24T14:26:26","slug":"so-your-dog-is-not-a-wolf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wolfdog.co.uk\/den\/so-your-dog-is-not-a-wolf\/","title":{"rendered":"So Your dog is not a wolf."},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/a>\u201cA dog is most happy when it feels it has a leader, it stems back to their wolf ancestry, didn\u2019t you know?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m going to go out on a limb here and potentially upset a lot of hard nosed dog owners, but I\u2019m actually going to completely oppose that myth. You see, there\u2019s\u00a0a problem with this philosophy that a dog shares it\u2019s behavioral instincts with it\u2019s wild brethren that I believe is directly resulting in a lack of understanding between man and dog. Sure, our dogs most certainly are descended from wild wolves, but our modern dog has been moulded into many shapes and sizes since we first started welcoming them into our lives; and their behaviour has adapted to suit this less survivalist and more comfortable way of life. That\u2019s kind of what happens when you\u2019ve been domesticated for the last 30\u2019000 years.
\nFor me, the issue comes from a case of poor wording that leads to \u201cAlpha syndrome\u201d, which can occasionally cause an owner to be overly harsh with the manner in which they express themselves to their dog. This can be in the form of overly aggressive energy and body language, too much shouting, physical punishment, etc. But what if we swapped the \u201cleader mentality<\/strong><\/em>\u201d with a \u201cparent mentality<\/strong><\/em>\u201c? This would allow you to be firm, in control, and responsible without the ugly parts that can resemble a dictatorship. I like to believe The modern dog (not the type you see on the discovery channel during Wolf Week) desires safety, companionship and routine over a leader, and I like to think that a dog does what we say because they are highly responsive animals that are trained that the best option is always obedience.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Heil<\/p>\n

Heil Human!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

I just finished reading a study by a University in Canada which has had a breakthrough in research. It\u2019s actually groundbreaking. Apparently, when a dog rolls over on to their back, they\u2019re not always \u201csubmitting\u201d like the wolf would in the wild. I really do wish that I had been at the study for this one, as I could have saved them an afternoon by sharing something many forget to consider, common sense based on observation. This article uses lines such as \u201cwe were surprised to find\u201d, as if the world is hell bent on the idea that a dog is limited to a book of commandments written by the Wolf King of Wolverhampton. I believe the punishment for breaking \u201cThou shalt always bark at the postman<\/em>\u201d is genocide. The study does help breakdown this old fashioned way of thinking, and can be read here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you ask me (and I\u2019m very aware no one is), we shouldn\u2019t be researching if rolling over is an act of submission, but if the modern dog even submits at all. In the wild, a submitting wolf would be one that bows to another wolf in an effort to avoid conflict or a power play for hierarchical position; and this is still<\/strong> the way behaviourists apply this term to our furry friends. On the other end of the spectrum you have \u201csubmissive\u201d as to mean \u201cresponsive\u201d. Is \u201csubmissive\u201d behaviour in the vague forms of listening to an owners instruction, or the \u201ceyes down, tail under\u201d posture of a sorry dog even \u201csubmissive\u201d? All-in-all, I think that \u201csubmit\u201d is an ugly word that doesn\u2019t particularly apply to our dogs anymore. Should we remind a dog that we\u2019re the leader of a \u201cpack\u201d that the dog doesn\u2019t understand to the fullest of a wild wolf by meeting aggression with aggression until they \u201cgive up\u201d? Or should we teach the dog that we\u2019re not stealing their food with productive techniques?<\/p>\n

\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A dog submitting to the ocean.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

What about when a my dog approaches another dog in the park, and that dog responds by rolling over and letting them approach? That is pure submissive behaviour, right? That dog is clearly saying \u201cI come in peace! Please take my land and please don\u2019t start any fights!<\/em>\u201d I see this happening very often, all dog owners do. However, I think the dog is saying something very different \u2013 \u201ccome and smell me, I\u2019m a dog and I quite like the attention. Also please don\u2019t start playing and jumping on my face I\u2019m not a spring chicken. Actually, I\u2019m lying down like this so you don\u2019t get the wrong idea\u201d. The key difference is, this is no longer \u201csubmissive<\/em>\u201d in the sense people attribute it to the animal kingdom, it\u2019s defensive and friendly<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I think the philosophy in which a lot of owners take with their pets is detrimental to the relationship between man and dog. There is something majestic about the wolf and I think we romantacise our pets by embracing the biological connection they have with these wonderful animals a little to eagerly. In truth, The wolf is dramatically different in behaviour and instincts in comparison to a domestic dog; differences such as hunting, loneliness, affection, vocal communication, the space they need, their attitude towards man and other animals. Next time you\u2019re comparing the actions of your dog to it\u2019s ancestor, I think it\u2019s wise to ask yourself if their actions or being driven by wild instinct, or a from a place that\u2019s more in line with the world you created for them that they live in.<\/p>\n

As we\u2019re discussing ways of thinking, It would be on topic to shine some light on the manner in which science and research can have an adverse psychological effect on us. We buy into the dog\/wolf theory because we\u2019re told it by people on TV and in books, just as we buy into other theories and products from other sources. I see this a lot with nutritional experts who preach raw feeding like it\u2019s a religious code, when it\u2019s quite clear that the\u00a0ingredients<\/strong> is the most important factor over preparation. On the flip side you have those that preach that \u201cRoyal Canin\u201d is gospel because it\u2019s sold at their veterinary practice (It\u2019s like you or I living off McDonalds), even we<\/strong> can be our own worst source, with many people still thinking their dog would die if they ate raw meat just as they themselves potentially would. We see famous dog trainers on TV teaching you how to \u201calpha roll\u201d your dog when it\u2019s not behaving because that\u2019s \u201cthe wolf way\u201d, when your dog in reality is just getting frightened of the aggressive action. All of these areas need to to appreciate that there\u2019s more involved than what we\u2019re told, by research, by professionals, by the companies that sell us food, by our own projections and most worryingly even our vets.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The post Your dog is not a wolf.<\/a> appeared first on Playgroup Blog Activities<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cA dog is most happy when it feels it has a leader, it stems back to their wolf ancestry, didn\u2019t you know?\u201d I\u2019m going to go out on a limb here and potentially upset a lot of hard nosed dog owners, but I\u2019m actually going to completely oppose that myth. You see, there\u2019s\u00a0a problem with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3602,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,35,18,14],"tags":[37,23,7],"class_list":["post-4835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-animal-news","category-dogs","category-wolf","category-wolfdoguk","tag-dog","tag-wolf","tag-wolfdog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wolfdog.co.uk\/den\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wolfdog.co.uk\/den\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wolfdog.co.uk\/den\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wolfdog.co.uk\/den\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wolfdog.co.uk\/den\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4835"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wolfdog.co.uk\/den\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4878,"href":"https:\/\/wolfdog.co.uk\/den\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4835\/revisions\/4878"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wolfdog.co.uk\/den\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wolfdog.co.uk\/den\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wolfdog.co.uk\/den\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wolfdog.co.uk\/den\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}