Incongruent Ways
While studying a book on reading human body language, it began my internal wheels turning. This book brings to the forefront of the mind that what people say is often in conflict of their true opinions or feelings on a subject. It is interesting to read what body language signals say about the inner feelings of the human. Crossed arms, fake smiles, words that appear to be friendly while the rest of the body language says: get lost loser. It is a part of the fabric of being a human being. It must be quite difficult to navigate Humansville, if you're an animal. We humans are a most complicated. To be smiling and telling our dogs 'it's okay' to go onto an obstacle all the while inside we feel panic & nothing is okay it so be incongruent. We feel one thing but trying to convince the world we feel something different. We smile & nod all the while thinking the man before us speaking is a loser. We are incongruent.
Dogs live in the natural world. If the dog sees a need to become aggressive, they send all the signals to the target that they are, indeed, aggressive. There is the hard eye, the wrinkle of the forehead, the curl of the lip, the growl, the exposure of teeth. He is honest. He does not wag his tail & act like he is friendly only to bite. I've been sent hundreds of hours of video footage of people who swear "the dog just suddenly (fill in the blank)" yet when I see the footage, the dog did NOT just suddenly... the dog was very clear in his feelings. I have handled two dogs who had mental problems. One had a brain tumor that was found a year after I told the couple the dog needed to be checked by a veterinarian, the other dog was a stud-dog hopeful who was put down & a necropsy preformed which found abnormalities that explained the bizarre behavior. Even with these dogs & their bizarre behavior, they did not 'just suddenly' snap or turn. There were plenty of signs that trouble was brewing. Dogs do not play mind games. They do not go seek the attention of a stranger to make their owner jealous. Dogs are genuine, honest & always congruent.
Think about this when you are training with your dog or when you are handling the dog in a tough situation. If you are giving your dog the command to climb up on an obstacle & are telling him, "it's okay" yet everything about your body posture, your voice is saying you are worried to death... the dog is most likely to draw close to the handler to comfort or to care for the handler rather than trust your command. If you had to follow a leader, which commander would you rather follow: Leader A who says: "Let's go. Good go. Climb. Good climb. Jump. Good jump", and speaks with confidence & authority or Leader B who says, "L-let's, uhm, go." In a shaky voice as they focus on getting himself up onto the obstacle then remembers about the dog?
It's really a no-brainer. The reasonable side of the brain would tell you to go with choice A, the person with confidence & a clear head. We must aspire to be congruent as we work our dogs, as we live with our dogs so that they can have confidence in us. We will make mistakes. It's a lucky dog who has a handler who cares enough to grow and aspire to be that confident leader. We will have successes & failures. The failures makes us better if we use them to learn from. The successes are the little way of letting us know we're on the right track. The dog, for me at least, is the reward.
It's really a no-brainer. The reasonable side of the brain would tell you to go with choice A, the person with confidence & a clear head. We must aspire to be congruent as we work our dogs, as we live with our dogs so that they can have confidence in us. We will make mistakes. It's a lucky dog who has a handler who cares enough to grow and aspire to be that confident leader. We will have successes & failures. The failures makes us better if we use them to learn from. The successes are the little way of letting us know we're on the right track. The dog, for me at least, is the reward.
Written & Copyright 2015 by Shian Smith. Do not copy or redistribute without the written consent of the author.