#dog behavior

Dog reactivity is when a dog overreacts to certain stimuli (e.g. other dogs, animals, loud noises, etc), usually by barking and/or lunging. It's an umbrella term that encompasses fear, aggression, and excitement based responses and can vary in severity. All dogs can exhibit reactivity with the right stressors, but true reactivity is when there's a noticeable pattern of behavior.

Anon is curious how many dog owners actually know about reactivity and how much is their own echo chamber.

–

MORE OF DOG ABBOT !!

MDNI.

Jack is so needy and so attached to you that it sometimes takes away from him all sense of a proper behavior. Sometimes he sits on the bed in silence while watching you get dressed for work, containing the whining and complaints about how you don't need to do this, how you can't abandon him like that just to hear you ordering him to shut up and he, without even thinking twice, always obeys. But his sorry puppy eyes never stop being expressive and you known that if he had a tail, he would be swinging it restless, upset.

One time everything went a little over the line when you two had an argument before you started getting ready for a company party. You had invited Jack to go, he had denied it and made a scene about wanting you to stay at home. The fight was ugly and at some point you thought it could even get violent, that at any moment the dog you call husband would bite the hand that feeds him.

A few minutes later you were clacking your shoes on the floor in a terrible mood, but when you left the room Abbot was there, kneeling in the middle of the livingroom like a trained dog waiting for his owner — He crawled to your feet, his eyes wet and his face red as if he could cry at any moment, begging you to forgive him while kissing your shoe and clinging to your legs like a needy pet, once again asking you not to leave him.

I think it's probably going to vary by every dog! But it makes sense that a combination of things could be coming into play, including your idea: digestion uses a ton of energy and tends to make animals sleepy, and having a warm/safe/comfortable place to relax while it happens sounds lovely. It also could be a routine you've built up over time - they came to you once after a meal, you reinforced it, and now it's just a Thing the two of you do.

I would say it's not likely to be a "thank you" as some of what you saw suggested - that's a fairly extreme attribution of a human social behavior to a non-human animal. Your dog knows you provide food and trusts you to provide it and is happy when it appears, but when acknowledging that veers into "and is engaging with primate-normative behavior to communicate with me" it gets a bit anthropomorphic. (Anthropomorphism is important to identify because when it takes over, it kind of... supplants our understanding of what an animal actually thinks/intends/is doing with what we, as humans, would like the answer to be).

I’m sorry but comparing force free dog training to neglect because you aren’t willing to accept that not all dogs are behaviorally stable enough to live with people is so asinine.

The “balanced” folk will literally say anything negative against R+, force free, and other positive reinforcement heavy training methods but always they fail to do anything about actual abuse, heavy handedness, and actual aversive trainers parading themselves around as “balanced” (like I cannot take these folks seriously as balanced until they are actively doing something and speaking up).

My dogs aren’t “force free”, I’m LIMA (Least Invasive Minimally Aversive) trained but I believe heavily in R+ and that if R+ methods are what animal behaviorists are using for tigers, hyenas, and other dangerous non-domestic animals for cooperative care behaviors that this can AND should apply to dogs as well.