Exercising and Enhancing the Senses

If it’s true that dogs are captive animals — because their experience of the world is largely, if not totally, influenced by what we, their caregivers, provide for them — then we can make our dogs’ lives better by improving their environments and interactions in their terms. We can protect them from the stressful aspects of human environments, allow them as much freedom as possible to be themselves, and empower them to make choices and express their preferences.

Let’s see what this means in daily practice.

For all animals, including dogs, one defining aspect of “captivity” is that it is restrictive and separate from the environment in which the species evolved. Thus, many of the stimuli captive animals are exposed to are unnatural or novel (to them), and these unusual stimuli can elicit a fight-or-flight stress response, one the animal may not be able to adequately express because of captivity. To improve your dog’s life, think carefully about any sensory stimuli that cause stress and eliminate them. Enhancing our dogs’ freedom includes protecting them from unwelcome or uncomfortable sensory experiences.

Captive animals also may lack opportunities to engage in evolved behavior patterns typical of their species, ones they are “hardwired” to perform. When captive environments are monotonous and barren, they don’t allow animals to use their exquisitely evolved cognitive and sensory capacities, and this can lead to frustration and stress. For example, birds whose natural food-gathering behavior involves scratching the ground to find seeds will still “need” to scratch the ground, even if the ground is a concrete floor. When these types of evolved behavioral needs go unmet, individuals frequently engage in a wide range of unnatural behaviors, such as stereotyped pacing and self-destructive acts. Since human environments are frequently understimulating for dogs, we can also enhance their freedom by providing dogs with opportunities to exercise all their senses and reduce boredom through what are called “enrichments.”1 There’s a good deal of evidence that even simple enrichments can make animals happier and less stressed out.

To summarize, there are two powerful ways to improve the lives of dogs:

1. Reduce the number of situations or stimuli that cause distress. This includes “aversive stimuli” — unpleasant sounds, smells, and physical sensations, such as feeling trapped — and failing to provide outlets for natural behaviors that dogs are highly motivated to perform. We call these “freedom inhibitors” or “deprivations.”
2. Provide positive enrichments that stimulate the senses and provide opportunities for physical, psychological, and social engagement with the world. We call these “freedom enhancers” or “enhancements.”

If we think of captivity as a disease, one that causes unhealthy physical and emotional symptoms, then increased freedoms would be the antidote or remedy. Many of these are cheap, and none require a veterinarian’s prescription. Mostly, they only require us to proactively help our canine companions by looking for the ways our home environments might be hard on our dogs and addressing them: by offering dogs more choice, more stimulation, more engagement, more freedoms.

The rest of this book is a “field guide” to the five major sensory experiences of dogs: smell, taste, touch, sight, and hearing. For each, we feature the freedom-enhancing “interventions” you can provide for your dog; you might think of these as ways to “free” the canine senses. Obviously, some topics or behavioral issues involve multiple senses. Dogs respond to what ethologists call “composite signals” that contain potential information from several senses. While the book discusses each sense separately, that’s not how dogs use them in the real world.

However, by focusing on each sense, we use the science of how dogs experience and interact with the world to help you understand your dog’s point of view. Understanding the senses individually, and how they work together, helps us understand some of the challenges of being a dog in a human-centered world. Senses are connected to feelings, and if dogs are encouraged to have positive and interesting sensory experiences, they will likely experience an increase in their overall happiness — which is what we want!

Like a field guide, this book is meant to be a reference, one that describes each sense and its characteristics and then provides the most important enhancements we can give dogs. Similar to a field guide to plants, say — which will “key out” specimens, classifying or identifying them by certain characteristics, such as the type of leaf, the color of their flower, the height of the plant, and so forth — this book “keys out” your dog by looking at the different senses. In each section, a short introduction overviews the sense and then provides a list of ways you can enhance this sensory domain for your dog. Skip around and turn to the topics that are most relevant for you and your dog, as you would with any field guide.

Many of the enhancements we propose aren’t new. People who study dog cognition have been talking and writing about them for years. However, ongoing research focusing on canine behavior, cognition, emotions, and sensory physiology is generating a good deal of new information that has practical importance, and new data are constantly emerging. In many instances we integrate this new science into enhancements that may not yet have received much airtime.

We also try to bridge the gap that exists between the theoretical realm of canine cognitive science and the application of this research into the practical realm of dog teaching and training. That such a knowledge translation gap exists is understandable, given how much information is currently being generated by researchers all over the world. Like any field guide, this book captures the state of what we know right now about helping dogs adapt to human environments, but it will eventually need updating as new research expands, clarifies, and confirms what we know about dogs.2

CAVEATS: WHEN THE LEASH IS NEEDED If, while reading this book, you become tempted to throw away your dog’s leash, here are two reminders why a leash is still at times useful and necessary: human etiquette and your canine companion’s safety. Etiquette: Often the rules of human etiquette run counter to what dogs want, and we must curtail their freedom for the sake of maintaining friendly relations, not only with other dogs, but also with other people, whether our neighbors, our houseguests, or strangers on the street. A dog may, for example, really want to pee on the neighbor’s heirloom tomato plant; they may want to run free through the streets of town, greeting every human and dog in sight. Guardians must be attentive to and balance the needs of their dog and the needs of people. It’s counterproductive not to, or else others may experience dogs as troublesome, unwelcome pests and want to curtail their freedoms even further. Responsible dog guardians build community goodwill that benefits dogs and everyone in the long run. Safety: It’s also essential to balance freedom with safety. As with human children, we need to avoid helicopter parenting and allow our dogs opportunities to make their own decisions and take risks, but within the constraints of parental supervision and good sense. Both children and dogs lack the experience and insight to appropriately judge risks or to anticipate what adults might consider obvious dangers, like busy roads. Balancing freedom with safety can surely lead to a better life for dogs and humans alike.

THE IMPORTANCE OF DOG TRAINING AND TEACHING On the surface, it may seem counterintuitive, but one of the most important ways to increase freedom for your dog is to take training very seriously. When approached the right way, training isn’t about controlling your dog’s behavior but about you teaching your dog to function successfully with you in your home and in human environments in general. Training techniques create a method of communication between you and your dog, one you both learn and understand together. This book is not a training manual per se, but throughout we explore how positive training can contribute to a dog’s quality of life. Here are some tips for approaching training in the most effective way: Dog training is as much about teaching yourself as it is about teaching your dog. Educate yourself about dog behavior and training techniques. The minute you bring a dog into your home, the teaching begins, whether the dog is a puppy or an adult. Puppies are eager to soak up information, if it is presented with patience and in ways appropriate to their age and skill set. Training isn’t something you do once and it’s over. Training is a process, like learning, that continues every day and changes to account for the dynamic, changing interactions between dog and human. The goal of training isn’t to create a robot dog who rigidly follows commands. Training provides dogs with a large toolbox of skills, understandings, and communication techniques that allow them to calmly navigate their surroundings with independence, confidence, and flexibility. Don’t underestimate how challenging it is to train a dog well. Some dogs struggle more than others to adapt to life in a human environment, so be patient, consistent, and persistent. And enjoy the challenge, since ultimately it will be a win-win for all. Since one goal of training is to build a relationship with your dog that strengthens the bond between you, don’t outsource training. If you need help, hire experts who are officially certified to practice dog training, but remain closely involved. Choose your dog trainer as carefully as you would a neurosurgeon. Positive or “soft” training techniques are more successful and more humane than fear- or punishment-based techniques. There is never any reason to hurt or scare a dog.

by Marc Bekoff and Jessica Pierce

Note

1. The University of Doglando’s enrichment center is an excellent model for others who want to establish such a program (http://doglando.com/enrichment/our-enrichment-program). Its aim is to provide pet parents with a historical perspective of what dogs were bred to do and to facilitate dogs forming close working, collaborative, and mutually respectful relationships with humans. They provide a lifestyle that allows each dog to have experiences that result in rich mental, emotional, physical, and intuitive growth, while taking into account the unique characteristics of each and every dog.

2. We discuss the knowledge translation gap in detail in our book The Animals’ Agenda (see bibliography). The knowledge translation gap refers to our failure to use what we know on animals’ behalf.