27 August 2015
Dogs and their Owners
by Serena Sinclair
It has long been noted that people often buy dogs which reflect aspects of their appearance or personality. The cartoonists have had great fun with the images of lanky, long-haired models with look-alike Afghan hounds or the primped poodles with similarly beribboned owners. We tend to attribute to dogs emotions which are in fact ours rather than theirs, anthropomorphising their behaviour and likening it to our own.. Two of the ‘non-news’ items in the press this week relate to the relationships between dogs and humans.
How many times have we, or our dog-owning friends, been convinced that our dog has grinned at us or that they look ‘guilty’ when caught out having eaten half the cake left on the table? Well as far as the latter is concerned, three scientists, Ljerka Ostojic and Nicola Clayton of Cambridge University and their colleague, Mldanka Tkalcic of the University of Rijeka, Croatia have concluded that there is little or no substance in this belief. The research was carried out with nearly one hundred dogs and their owners. The owners trained their dogs not to eat a treat, then left the area so that they were out of sight, at which point someone else either removed the treat or encouraged the dog to eat it. The owner’s response, regarding whether they thought the dog had eaten the treat or it had been removed, was recorded on their return. Apparently, based on the way their pets greeted them, owners did not accurately assess whether their dog had eaten the ‘forbidden’ food more than would be expected by chance. The dogs’ behaviour, as perceived by the owners, did not differ between the different conditions, suggesting that the ‘guilty look’ was not triggered by the dog’s own actions. Of course, like all experiments, there are caveats and provisos, (e.g. experimenters’ presence could affect the dogs actions), but in general it would seem that it is our own reactions, such as scolding, which trigger the dogs’ reactions rather than their own analysis of their behaviour.
Louise Glazebrook has just published her book ‘Dog about Town: how to raise a Happy Dog in the City’ after her experiences of working with wealthy and celebrity dog owners made her realise how so much of people’s pets’ behaviour was down to the behaviour of the owners (rather like children really). Vets, of course, are well aware of this problem and frequently despair at the way the actions and conduct of dogs can be traced back to the treatment of them by their owners, who are usually totally oblivious to their role in the misdemeanours of their pets. One of the biggest problems is how little time people spend researching the breed of dog to suit their lifestyle. Collie puppies are adorable, but it is no good choosing a working dog if you are going to leave it alone in the house for eight or nine hours a day; it will become neurotic and miserable. Likewise, should you want to take your new pet running with you in the park each morning there is little point in choosing a Chihuahua – you probably need something with longer legs! Battersea Dogs home has apparently revealed that the number of pugs and Chihuahuas ending up in its care has doubled in the last three years, as people have bought dogs as fashion accessories and then realised that they require more attention than the new handbag which they purchased to put them in. What self-respecting dog would want to live in a handbag anyway? Unless that is it had been led to believe that’s what its owner expected of it.
