What is Dog Psychology & How Does it Relate to Dog Behavior, Training, and Living a Happy Life Together

Dog Psychology is a holistic way to look at dog behavior 

There are 5 main elements we  consider 

Dog Development from birth to adulthood 

Dogs go through 6 developmental stages between when they are first born and reach full adulthood at 18+ months. During the first 3, neonatal, transition, and socialization stages, through 12 weeks old, puppies’ nervous systems are like sponges and absorb all of the energy and activity occurring around them, & depending on how those experiences were whether highly excited, fearful, nervous etc, impacts how our dog’s perceive the world around them and how secure & confident they feel existing in it.

Furthermore, this is a critical period where a dog learns if it must fend for itself or if it's needs are being cared for by it's mother and surrounding pack. If it is not, a puppy will begin prioritizing self-fulfillment of their basic biological needs.

Associations vs Memories & Trauma

Dogs learn & think through associations. The feelings that a dog has about a particular experience, is processed in a dog’s mind as mutually exclusive. Dogs do not have episodic memories where they can think about the past or ruminate on what has occurred prior to the moment they are in. 

"Trauma" for a dog is processed in the form of stored associations and patterns of behavior. This trauma builds in the dog's body and gets stored in their nervous system as their baseline operating system.

Behavior Patterns & Nervous System 

These associations are caused by the dog’s nervous system. Dogs have the same 4 Nervous System Responses we have (fight, flight, freeze, fidget), and the purpose, like ours, serves as the dog’s survival mode to keep them safe. 

When a dog is triggered, their nervous system response is dictated based on if a dog feels fear, happy/joy, anger, sad, or nervous and subsequently what behavior they should practice in responses to that experience/feeling. After dogs are out of their early socialization periods and mature, they begin to pattern these feelings + behaviors as their default nervous system responses to "x/y/z" stress.

Dogs continue to practice the same behavior and responses to stress as they age, only doing what works to access/escape things they want/hate, based on things that have worked quickly in the past, to meet their overall basic hierarchy of needs.

This could be anything from seeking food and water, a place to potty, a safe place to sleep, protecting their territory, controlling resources, etc.

By 6months old a dog has developed a semi-permanent world-view and behavior patterns that they will carry for the rest of their lives if not addressed through some direct intervention to build new neurological pathways and responses in the dogs brain so they have higher stress tolerance, healthier responses to triggers, and begin to perceive the world around them with a more relaxed mindset as they increasingly feel more confident and secure in their environment where all their needs are met.

How Dogs Communicate Naturally

Dogs communicate extra clearly with each other and they don’t have the ability to consider the other dog’s “feelings”, they can only interpret behavior based on body language and energy that the other dog is projecting. 

Balanced dogs will have a stable energy and flow between warm and affectionate energy to neutral/aloof energy all the way to firm and fair. They ebb and flow on this range. Dogs are clear with their No’s and everything else is considered a Yes. Balanced dogs can read and respond to social cues and a dog’s body language + energy its projecting.

Dogs naturally use pressure and release to communicate, applying gentle pressure early, audibly (growling/barking/whining) then escalating to using spatial pressure and using physical space to increase the amount of pressure applied, finally ending with body contact, as appropriate and necessary to correct one another. This is often referred to in the Dog Psychology space as Sound > Space > Touch.

Dogs also perceive direct eye contact as a very direct communication - how it is perceived is based on the dog's life experiences and whether it's been followed by negative or positive activity. A dog in a negative state of mind will likely perceive eye contact as threatening or angering, while a dog with a happy go lucky state of mind will tend to look at eye contact as rewarding and inviting.

Social Psychology and How Dogs Operate in Balanced Packs

Dogs are pack animals and within that pack, there are some dynamics in play that keep it functional and fun for everyone. A strong and clear pack leader is the most important. When dogs are born, their mother serves as the clear and distinguished pack leader and fulfills its biological, emotional, and social needs. The mother dog + her mate controls resources and makes sure that the pup is provided for, and teaches them how to think and feel about the world around them, and gives them a job to do in the pack. The pack leader(s) and the elder dogs provide and protect the young, so they can grow up in a safe space and this is critical for early puppy development.

When humans remove a puppy from its mother and original pack, it needs to be effectively integrated into its new pack and environment in order to identify with the new pack to feel the same level of security, having their hierarchy of needs fulfilled at the same basic levels. This is a process but is required for the dog to have the same psychological associations necessary to feel an instinctive pack connection with the humans in their home, leading dogs to recognizing humans as the pack leaders they can trust and respect.

Since being a part of a balanced pack is fundamental to the psychological safety of a dog as it develops, in the absence of this deep meaningful pack connection or taking the time to form it, a dog will instinctively start to fend for itself and it's nervous system will get stuck in the sympathetic state of survival. effectively bumping them into a pack leader position so they can provide and protect for themselves. In the absence of a strong pack leader, a dog must become one.

Positive Reinforcement & Rewards-based Training... Why You're Still Struggling:

Where these training models fail is in only focusing on communication and one side of it - how to say Yes or No, and teach a dog to learn human cues but failing to address any of the psychological areas described above or learning how to read a dog's cues

Wrapping Up Now --Dog Psychology Is Much Deeper than Rewards-Based, Balanced Training, or Obedience:

Dog Psychology focuses on how humans can think, speak, and act like dogs so we can simplify the learning process on both sides, enabling dogs to reasonably believe and perceive their humans as their new parents because they are acting in alignment and communicating in alignment with how dogs do. and therefore trust and respect them the same way they would in their original pack, so start yielding to them much sooner.

Once dogs learn to surrender their survival state, their nervous system will move into parasympathetic rest and decompress state. In parasympathetic, dogs turn off their alertness & stimuli sensitivity - functions that ultimately serve a dog to protect or guard itself & it's territory/resources - trusting and yielding that job to you and/or the other humans in the pack..

Although we cannot change our dog's early life experiences, we can re-write their stories and help them pattern new behavioral responses to stress which allow for them to effectively form new emotional responses over time. Through methods that promote co-regulation and connection with the pack, progressive overload, and by using techniques like breath-work for dogs to support a their ability to think clearly, stay calm, and make healthier choices around their worst triggers, we help dogs desensitize over time entirely to the point where they don't care.

This places a critical focus on integration a dog’s natural instincts and hierarchy of needs into our lives sustainably. Forcing us to learn how to communicate without cues or constant obedience and using implied expectations instead, so your dog starts to make better choices on their own + perceive you as a consistent, strong pack leader that provides and protects.

If you're ready to get started with integrating these principles and practices into your life, stopping your dog's problem behaviors, and getting a fresh start so you can get it done right and move onto more advanced level goals quickly, checkout the Foundations Training Experience here! A new session kicks off every month but seats are limited! Available fully online or hybrid in Raleigh and Cary, NC.