Inside a Dog's Mind: Part 5

But there’s more to it than meets the eye.  In fact, much of our training is in an unseen realm.  Let me explain: Have you ever wondered how your dog reflects, or mimics, your moods? This is not your imagination.

Let's say you're cruising down the highway in your vehicle when a truck cuts you off, forcing you to slow down and take it off the cruise control. 

While your blood begins to boil over such a rude maneuver by the pickup truck driver, your little pooch starts to get fidgety and seemingly upset as well. Although this scenario may seem a little ridiculous, after all, such minor inconveniences ought not bother us; my point is that even the slightest negative mood shift can impact our dogs.

According to scientific studies, dogs can smell changes in human hormones, including those related to emotions like stress, happiness, sadness, and anger, because their sense of smell is extremely sensitive to shifts in our body chemistry, including fluctuations in cortisol, adrenaline, and other volatile organic compounds.

Here’s something I often see, which confirms how dogs react to each other’s emotions and humans' emotions as well.

My kennel has around 40 malamutes, and they are truly a happy-go-lucky bunch. It’s like they are all one family, with their own little society within the kennel, and they “feed” off each other’s moods and emotions.

 It’s like they keep an eye on each other, and if anyone gets too rambunctious while playing with another, the entire kennel of dogs starts carrying on, like they’re trying to get my attention, and if they're saying, " Hey, Dad, look, Bear is jumping on Brooks! It’s not fair! We want to join the fun too! 

Dogs mimic each other's energy, enthusiasm, good moods, and bad moods, just like they mimic our emotions.

Here’s another example in which I really enjoy seeing and hearing, let’s say Junior is chilling on a cool fall day, reminiscing about winter days, and lifts his muzzle to sing to the heavens for snow to fall.  Then, the entire kennel cuts loose and sings the most harmonious chorus you’ve ever heard.

However, the energy that we give off seems to affect dogs more directly than the energy they emit to each other. Now, let’s suppose I have guests who want to pet everyone, which is a common scenario.

 Either the dogs will go berserk, competing for attention, or they will wait calmly and patiently for their turn.  It totally depends on the energy that the “petter” is projecting.  Either they have calm energy about them, or anxious, unsettled energy.

Before the scientific findings were published, I always advised everyone to be happy around their dogs, and then they would have a happy dog. But you can’t fake it. If you're not feeling it, dig deep down inside yourself and pull out your happiest, best self!

Aside from our hormones, we have an energy that can be either a good vibe or a bad vibe, as the old hippies used to call it - things like love, fear, and dislike.

I believe empaths feel this most strongly, but if you’re tuned into your dog, you’ll feel it too.

 Now, I’m waiting for someone to tell me that this energy I’m talking about is a scientifically proven fact and old news. Nonetheless, it's another good resource to be aware of when training your pooch.

However, don’t we see many connections between what dogs teach us and the virtues that we ought to have as human beings? Who is really training whom?  Our Good Lord knew we’d be in a fix without a creature like a dog to help show us how to behave.