by Evangeline Uriyu

Created on: January 22, 2012   Last Updated: January 23, 2012

How to communicate with your dog

To develop a good method of communication with one’s dog, one first has to understand the dog’s point of view.  Once we understand a dog’s point of view, we can establish a way of communication that brings out their best characteristics to insure a safe, effective, and comfortable method of understanding each other.

Let’s first step back and look at where our domesticated best friend came from. Dogs are predatory animals descended from the wolf. So much of a dog’s actions come from his desire to hunt food.  Though the quest for food is a powerful motivator, other motivations come into play as well. Some are the desire to find a mate, and the need to feel safe. Other factors can include age, previous social interactions with other dogs and people, stage of reproduction and their environment.  Dogs have had to adapt quite a bit to fit into man’s world.  Some have been better at this than others. 

As social beings and pack members, dogs need social interaction.  In the wolf pack, a puppy has his place in the pack. His needs for food, warmth, and safety are met by his mother.  She also delivers punishment for things he does wrong. In his small little world, mother is the leader of the pack, giver of food, safety, warmth, love, and guidance. He learns quickly that if his needs are to be met, he must fit in.  As he grows, no matter what his place is in the pack hierarchy, his nature is to protect the pack’s territory and the members of his pack.  The members of the pack spend their time close to each other. They will nap together, play games and mimic each other’s behavior. They know that cooperative behavior is necessary in the pack to ensure the survival and well being of the pack.

When a dog becomes a member of a human family unit or pack, he has no other dogs to mimic, and no sense of what he is supposed to be in the pack/human family.  It is important that the human takes the dominant role immediately.  All dogs need to have a leader or they will step up to the task which is something that is very undesirable in the family of humans.  While it is not necessary for the leader to bark and act like a dog, there are some cues that behoove the leader to imitate from the world of the canine.  All puppies will test their boundaries of leadership and dominance.  This is the most critical time for the new owner to establish

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