Have you ever looked at your dog and wondered, ‘what are you thinking?’ So have we! And our crew is getting answers. KIRO7 talked to two canine experts to give you a peek inside your dog’s mind.
They help us catch criminals, they act as our eyes when we can’t see, they offer comfort to victims in court, and joy to children in hospital’s. They quite literally save people in the wake of disasters, they aid our farmers, and we love to show them off.
Dogs add a great deal to the human experience, and genetic evidence shows they likely have for tens of thousands of years.
But what do we really know about our canine counterparts?
KIRO7 is sitting down with two industry experts; first, a Q&A with Dr. Stanley Coren, Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of British Columbia and renowned dog-science author, for an explanation of our dog’s minds.
Then, we are conducting an experiment of our own, taking KIRO 7 Anchor Elle Thomas’ dog, Eevee, to Holistic Dog Behaviorist, Julie Forbes, to learn how our dog’s think, process our commands, and learn in real-time.
Let’s get into it!
How do dogs think?
“You want to know how a dog thinks? Look at your two-and-a-half-year-old toddler and you’ve got a pretty good guess,” Dr. Coren said. “That tells you whole bunch of other things like what emotions the dog has.”
Dr. Coren calls that the ‘golden key’ for understanding dog behavior, because everyone has encountered a child in the two- to three-year-old age range.
A dog of average intelligence is like a human between two and two and a half years old. While a so-called ‘super dog’ (the ones in the top 20-percent of canine intelligence) has the mental capacity of up to a three-year-old.
“So, you have some idea as to how their little brains think,” explained Dr. Coren.
That includes linguistic ability.
The average dog knows about 165 words. For super dogs it’s about 250. But Dr. Coren said there have been dogs who were able to learn more than a thousand words.
How do dogs learn the words? We’ll get into that with Julie Forbes a little later.
How do dogs communicate?
“Dogs are experts in body language,” Dr. Coren said. “We can read their emotional state, and we can very often read their intentions by just observing how their bodies are going.”
Dr. Coren said that is everything from the way they move their ears and tail, to their entire body and whether they are standing tall or crouching, or how fast they are moving.
While dogs are non-verbal, they do have a vocal range.
Dogs’ vocal language has three different dimensions – the first is whether the pitch is high or low.
“High sounds are non-threatening, sometimes solicitous. Low sounds are much more threatening,” said Dr. Coren.
The second is whether the sound is sustained.
A short sound may indicate the dog is beginning, whereas a long bark denotes a bit more aggression.
The third, does the dog repeat it? A short yip is probably nothing much. But a series, fido is essentially calling you over to check things out.
Do dogs pick up on our emotions?
“They do perceive our emotions, they’re really quite good at it,” said Dr. Coren. “They will recognize anger and fear and the positive emotions of love… And they do control their own behaviors based upon our emotions.”
Dr. Coren believes one-way dogs are underestimated, is in their ability to remember things.
“We really don’t think that dogs have the memory capacity that they have, and they will remember things, whether they’re important or not, and that will guide their behavior,” Dr. Coren said.
Do our dogs love us back?
Yes! Dr. Coren said new MRI studies on canines show, our dogs truly love us back.
“We’re getting the data which says that, you know, when a dog hears the voice or sees an image of his primary caretaker, the centers in brain which is associated with pleasure and love, lights up,” said Dr. Coren.
“That means to say that not only do dogs recognize and have formed a bond with people, but we’re now getting the chemical confirmation of it,” he explained. “So, when we pet a dog, their oxytocin level rises. Oxytocin is basically the love hormone, okay? And it rises in us. So, guess what? He’s showing signs of love for me, I’m showing signs of love him, okay? That kind of research is marvelous and it’s pushing back the boundaries.”
Early new data also shows dogs have real empathy, which is shown when dogs will willingly offer comfort to people in distress.
Basically, your dog has a lot to say – you just need to learn how to listen. That’s where Julie Forbes comes in.
“They have a very high level of consciousness,” Forbes said. “Just because they don’t speak with words doesn’t mean that they don’t know what’s going on.”
How To: Connect with Your Dog 101
“What do you think people don’t know about their dogs… what are we missing?” KIRO7 Anchor Elle Thomas asked.
“Dogs need work,” Forbes said. “The most powerful way to connect with our dogs is through work.”
Forbes holds a degree in Animal Science, is a Holistic Dog Behaviorist, and the owner of Sensitive Dog, Seattle-based Dog Training and Behavior Specialists.
“I help dogs by helping their humans understand how to communicate with them, how to teach them life skills, how to understand them, and how to be for them who they need in order to be their best selves,” Forbes explained. “It’s about, really, us learning how to communicate with them.”
“[Dogs] are so motivated by our attention.”
Forbes welcomed Elle and her dog, Eevee, to take part in a lesson.
“Do you think we underestimate our dog’s intelligence in general?” Elle asked.
“Yes,” Forbes answered quickly.
“How can we give them more credit?” Elle asked.
“Learn how to teach them life skills, engage them mentally, learn how to work with them, and be present to them, and see for yourself what your dog is capable of,” Forbes said.
So, that’s what we are going to do.
The goal? Learn how Eevee learns and, ultimately, how to strengthen the human-canine connection.
Before we started the exercise, Forbes said it was important to note that while dogs can learn hundreds of words on average, it is the tone that carries emotion. She said they also learn new skills, like new words, through repetition of experience and doing.
First things first, Julie reached into a drawer of doggy goodies and found a treat to Eevee’s liking.
She also starts to read how the owner interacts with the dog, to see what good or unwanted behaviors may be being reinforced unintentionally.
“Dogs are really, really brilliant at cause and effect… when dog do this behavior, what feedback do I get from the environment, mostly meaning the humans, and then that informs them about, do I keep doing this or not?” she said.
Julie adjusts her training based on the response the dog gives.
“We all have different strengths and weaknesses, the same is true for dogs, but dogs are generally underestimated and it’s about really us learning how to communicate with them,” she explained.
Today, Julie is going to teach Eevee the word ‘down’ and walk us through Eevee’s reactions along the way. And, in turn, Elle will learn how to speak Eevee’s language, so to speak.
Julie starts by wafting a tiny piece of treat in front of Eevee’s nose to get her attention. Then she uses the treat as a lure to physically guide Eevee to the ground while saying the command, “down.”
Now here’s the magic sauce – give her time to think! Humans tend to want instantaneous responses, but most dogs need time to process.
Eevee realized within a few seconds she needed to lay down because that’s where the treat was.
“This is one of my favorite things to demonstrate is giving the dog time to process, It only took her a couple seconds of processing, but we don’t often even give the dog that,” Julie said.
Julie then reinforced the behavior by saying “good down” multiple times in the same tone.
“The word ‘good’ is the word that we condition to mean right choice, and then when you say ‘good blank, good down,’ that’s part of what helps the dog acquire the new words, as opposed to just ‘good girl,’” Julie explained.
Julie repeated that same process, using the treat to lure her to the ground a few times, making sure to reinforce the new vocabulary multiple times after Eevee would lay down.
“It’s you telling her ‘oh, I like that so much,’” Julie said. “So, that’s where your tone comes in, I’m not just saying a sound that I’m conditioning with food, it’s me connecting.”
“It’s especially potent if the dog’s human is saying that to her, because what does she want more than anything is connection with you and for you to pay attention to her.”
Once Eevee was following the lure instantly (and sometimes even preemptively) it was time to take the hand cue away, leaving just the verbal command.
“I’m just going to ask her verbally… then, I’m going to let her think and let’s see if she arrives at the right choice.”
“Down,” Julie said after she wafted the treat by Eevee’s nose again.
Keep in mind, this is new for Eevee, so she needs time to process.
Her processing time was about 12 seconds, and in that time you could definitely tell she was perhaps frustrated.
“See how she’s almost doing it? mm-hmm,” Julie said as she mimicked Eevee puffing out her chest with little grunts. “But that’s what gives us insight into what’s going on for the dog internally, is what they do they kind of wear their thought process.”
“Let them process, that’s the whole point in teaching them how to think,” Julie continued.
By the way, it only took about 5 minutes for Eevee to have down, down.
Then, Julie let Elle take the reins. And let’s just say, Eevee clearly knows her mom is a pushover… she did not do the command (but she still wanted the treat).
“You can just verbally acknowledge ‘no’ just a real kind of light, like just information, just ‘wrong choice, that’s a no’ and they say down again,” Julie said.
“Down,” Elle gave the command again with no lure or hand cue.
“Now give her time to think,” Julie instructed. “It’s like a conversation that you’re having with her where she’s actually in it as opposed to just constant human input.”
Keep in mind – every dog is different and they each have unique cues and reactions, so it’s important to listen and watch closely to their sounds and body language.
“This is not about the food, people mistake tis for the treat… It’s not that, it’s deeper than that, it’s about the work, it’s about connection,” said Julie. “Yes, there’s food involved and that is a part of it, but part of this that feels so good to her, it this thinking and this connection with you, and look at her, she’s a little rock star.”
“You’re watching her, you are like fully tuned into her and that’s like her heaven,” Julie smiled.
Want to try this at home? Here are some pointers.
“Slow down, listen, be aware of all these things, like observing your dog and what they do and really trying to be tuned into what their internal experience is.”
“It’s one of my favorite things to demonstrate because it’s such an ‘aha’ moment for the human,” Julie said. “You bring this understanding of listening to her to every context.”
Elle has since used this training technique to teach Eevee more new words and commands, it has worked every time without fail.
A real treat for Elle, Eevee and KIRO7 News.
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