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‘What’ instead of ‘why’ – a modern canine collective
(Keef Whiteman, BA – English & Psychology, student Canine Behaviourist and PA to Scotty Valadao)
Recently I was touched by a post shared by our very own Charmaine Du Toit.
It really got me thinking….
The article itself was a re-post and what was said certainly made a lot of sense and had a profound impact on me.
The gist of the article highlighted that generally today when analyzing canine behaviour the predominant question is ‘why’? The writer argued, in my understanding, that this led to a ‘train of thought’ that instead of helping to resolve, would instead lead to more problems.
Let me explain in terms of geophysical aspects of our planet - Knowing why landslides happen, why do rockslides occur? Indeed, these are important questions as they bring us insight and understanding. However, this does not change anything. Knowing why these events happen does not help us reduce the number of landslides. Yes, we might be able to predict and avoid being in the bottom of a few, but does knowing this information help us to reduce the number of landslides? No, it does not.
‘Why is a normally sweet dog sometimes aggressive to people outside our own family’? This is not a question that is easily answered and asking ‘why’ can lead to speculation because really there could be, and probably are a variety of different reasons. Assessing the situation in this way often instead of resolving and helping, leads to more confusion.
The reason for this is because asking ‘why’ makes us close-minded, we already think we have the answers, and this leads to a fixed, non- flexible position oftentimes making us feel helpless or unable to change the situation. ‘Oh if only that had not happened’ some will say, or ‘if only we had not done that but had rather done this’! We’re looking at the past instead of addressing the present and we end up trying solutions that don’t really address the issue.
This fails us as much as it fails our dogs.
Asking the question ‘what is happening’ is way more helpful. What happened just before? What happens just after?
Behaviour as we understand it currently, is more than likely due to a combination of a few different things, and rarely is there just one particular reason.
For example, let’s look at ‘reactive behaviour’.
Now it is often mentioned that fear is the main reason for this manifestation.
Would you be surprised to hear may me say that it’s not??
There are may different reasons for reactive behaviour and each dog’s situation and life experiences and perceptions are unique to them. There is a genetic component that should be looked at as well, but it’s important to treat each dog as an individual during your assessment, and this has been shown to get the best result, based on personal experience and upon researching the experiences of others as well.
Spending time observing the dog, and reserving explanations about causes can help us think more clearly about what we see, and this in turn makes us way more effective in our role as ‘animal behaviourists’.
(Bibliography: Lighten up dog training - 'Why I can't tell you simply what's causing a dog to bark and lunge')
It really got me thinking….
The article itself was a re-post and what was said certainly made a lot of sense and had a profound impact on me.
The gist of the article highlighted that generally today when analyzing canine behaviour the predominant question is ‘why’? The writer argued, in my understanding, that this led to a ‘train of thought’ that instead of helping to resolve, would instead lead to more problems.
Let me explain in terms of geophysical aspects of our planet - Knowing why landslides happen, why do rockslides occur? Indeed, these are important questions as they bring us insight and understanding. However, this does not change anything. Knowing why these events happen does not help us reduce the number of landslides. Yes, we might be able to predict and avoid being in the bottom of a few, but does knowing this information help us to reduce the number of landslides? No, it does not.
‘Why is a normally sweet dog sometimes aggressive to people outside our own family’? This is not a question that is easily answered and asking ‘why’ can lead to speculation because really there could be, and probably are a variety of different reasons. Assessing the situation in this way often instead of resolving and helping, leads to more confusion.
The reason for this is because asking ‘why’ makes us close-minded, we already think we have the answers, and this leads to a fixed, non- flexible position oftentimes making us feel helpless or unable to change the situation. ‘Oh if only that had not happened’ some will say, or ‘if only we had not done that but had rather done this’! We’re looking at the past instead of addressing the present and we end up trying solutions that don’t really address the issue.
This fails us as much as it fails our dogs.
Asking the question ‘what is happening’ is way more helpful. What happened just before? What happens just after?
Behaviour as we understand it currently, is more than likely due to a combination of a few different things, and rarely is there just one particular reason.
For example, let’s look at ‘reactive behaviour’.
Now it is often mentioned that fear is the main reason for this manifestation.
Would you be surprised to hear may me say that it’s not??
There are may different reasons for reactive behaviour and each dog’s situation and life experiences and perceptions are unique to them. There is a genetic component that should be looked at as well, but it’s important to treat each dog as an individual during your assessment, and this has been shown to get the best result, based on personal experience and upon researching the experiences of others as well.
Spending time observing the dog, and reserving explanations about causes can help us think more clearly about what we see, and this in turn makes us way more effective in our role as ‘animal behaviourists’.
(Bibliography: Lighten up dog training - 'Why I can't tell you simply what's causing a dog to bark and lunge')
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