How the Holy Trinity of Behavior, Environment & Sociability of dogs and humans creates a unique relationship which you can use to improve your time and activities together.
More than a webinar, we’ll provide an interactive, behind-closed-doors experience for attendees to see the interconnectedness of the Dog, the Human & the Environment, in part from attendee submitted videos.
Session One: Saturday February 26, 2022 - HOW YOUR BEHAVIOR MATTERS:
Human Sociability – Behavior, Temperament, Attitudes & Perception.
What do you, as a biological organism, bring to the relationship? How the health and attitudes, including human temperament of the handler (their own sociability) affect their dogs, and how biological differences affect perception: for example: dogs hear many things (high frequency) that we do not; and dogs smell far more than we do, smells that dogs never evolved to, and that distract them or give them information we are not privy to. You see more 3D, and you see colors they do not.
What do you bring to the relationship as the trainer?
Attitudes, biases, and experiences all affect the dog-human relationship: most importantly, confirmation bias; and the brain’s tendency to search for the urgent over the important (crisis survival vs. long term). How human anxiety may inadvertently affect canine behavior. How training timing, reactions and cognition delays, all affect how you and your dog interact.
There is no other interspecies relationship on Earth like that of the dog and the human.
Nothing rivals the dogs’ co-evolution with humans and our species unparalleled willingness to sacrifice for them. That includes the ability to genetically modify dogs, and to know what we can change and what we cannot, money to fix ailing dogs, to modify diets, and to otherwise manipulate the interactions. We also created a partner that actively manipulates us. It is no coincidence that dog parks are at such an annoying frequency and look so darned cute to us.
Session Two: Saturday March 5, 2022 - WHY ENVIRONMENT MATTERS:
How Genetics, Perceptions and Behaviors Interact with the Environment.
The environment messes with everything! Dogs and humans each take in the environment differently, and the environment interacts with expression of our dog’s and our own genetic traits.
How the environment affects biology:
What kinds of traits are inheritable and how much does environment affect them? In particular, how much of your dog’s personality is fixed, such as sociability or aggression or curiosity or trainability? How much does the environment affect your dog’s hormones that force its behaviors? Do dogs create pheromones that manipulate us?
Home, Sweet Home—from your dog’s viewpoint and yours.
It is important that your dog has a home, right? But does your dog value or want the same things you want in a home? What would they pick if they had a choice? A place filled with couches? A few boulders with a hole underneath? How do they view their home? How different might your dog be if he or she lived with you in a completely different neighborhood, or moved from a rural environment into the heart of a city or from your city to one on the other side of the globe?
The expanded environment—everything away from home.
Sure, you and your dog love home. What changes when you leave with your dog, and why you should care. Travel to you and travel to your dog are unlikely to be the same. You know you are off to camp in the mountains. How does your dog know it is not another trip to the vet to get stiches or a cast or…
Session Three: Saturday March 12, 2022 – SOCIABILITY IN DOGS:
Canine Biology, Behavior & Sociability.
What limits, capabilities, and opportunities does the dog, as a biological organism, bring to the relationship?
- Ages and stages of the dog
- Why breed type matters
- Why sociability matters.
There are many ways to assess sociability in shelter dogs, but less proven ways of assessing it in owned dogs, since the human-environment so confounds dog behaviors. Sue and Tim hope to get closer to measuring sociability in the owned dog during this webinar series! And there may soon be genetic tests for sociability as well.
- Are we prioritizing sociability enough in breeding? How inheritable is sociability? How do we measure it?
- How close are we to fully assessing the recent discovery of a dog genomic region matching one in humans who have a syndrome involving hyper-social behavior? Could this lead to more predictability of behavior in the future?
- Why sociability is the best insurance policy, given biological limits, environmental uncertainties, and humans…well…being human.
Responses