Mary Allen
A reliable human-dog bond is built on various pillars. One of these important components is safety.
What Does Security Mean?
Safety means, among other things, that we as owners ensure that our dog is protected when he explores his environment. That we give him a safe home, offer him a place to retreat and meet his basic needs.
When living with us, a dog is restricted in its ability to act independently and in most cases cannot ensure its own safety. He cannot meet his basic needs, such as getting food, himself. And he can’t respond naturally and appropriately to other human-dog bonds on walks because we limit him with the leash. So he has to learn that we take the scepter in our hands and help him to security in everyday life where he cannot ensure it himself. He must be able to trust in the human-dog bond.
Therefore, as owners, we have the responsibility to give our dog the necessary security and to make it understandable that it will receive this from us at all times.
How Does Safety Affect Your Dog’s Behavior?
If a dog feels secure in the human-dog bond, it will show more exploratory behavior in the presence of its human. He curiously observes his surroundings, other animals, people, and objects. But there is also a growing willingness to develop new, useful behaviors.
Studies show that dogs deal with new intelligence tasks more successfully when their human is present than when other known people, such as friends or family members, are present. But dogs also prefer to deal with toys and other friendly people when their favorite person is around.
If the security that the owner is supposed to convey to the dog is missing or if it is not sufficient, the dog may withdraw. That he doesn’t dare to deal with his environment. If a dog does not have the feeling of being in a safe environment, it will become insecure and sometimes anxious. As a result, he no longer has the opportunity to actively deal with his environment and to learn.
Insecurity in the Human-Dog Bond Can Block Learning
The feeling of insecurity leads to stress. When a dog is stressed, its body releases stress hormones such as adrenaline, norepinephrine, and cortisol. These ensure that certain thought processes in the brain are blocked and learning cannot take place. A feeling of security in the human-dog bond is, therefore, a necessary prerequisite for the learning effect through exploratory behavior.
If the dog can’t find a way out on its own in such a situation and if its human doesn’t offer it away to resolve the conflict either, it can happen that out of necessity or the feeling of having to defend itself, it switches to other means. This can be a threat or, in the worst case, an attack.
In this Way, You Can Give Your Dog the Security it Needs from You in Everyday Life.
However, so that it doesn’t come to that in the first place, it is important for your dog to be able to rely on you to understand him. Only when he knows that he is understood, that his needs are taken care of, and that his fears and insecurities reach you as his caregiver, can he let you take care of the situation and is not in need of finding a solution to resolve it it the conflict himself Find. We should offer this solution to our dog. If he has to look for a solution himself first, he will try different strategies, such as keeping another dog at a distance by barking and in the future using the strategy that once led to success.
A solution you offer your dog might look like this: You are on a walk. Suddenly, another human-dog team comes towards them. The oncoming dog will stare at your dog, making it uncomfortable and unsure of how to act or how to get out of the situation. The usual strategies for reacting to a conflict situation would be to flee, freeze, jump actions, or attack.
The dog cannot escape because it is on a leash. Freezing means not taking another step forward, hoping to go unnoticed, and not attracting the other dog’s attention at all. Another possibility is to show a skipping action and direct your attention to the floor, for example, where something suddenly supposedly smells good. Or, if none of these options work, the dog can attack. And that is when none of the conflict management strategies he has shown before, namely avoiding an encounter with the unpleasant dog, has led to success.
Safety Means Steering
Here it is particularly important not to let our dog be tested in the first place, but to offer him an alternative behavior directly. This could look like you speak to your dog, draw his attention and lead him past the other human-dog team with the “foot” exercise in a controlled manner. Perhaps the conflict is so great for your dog that it helps him to avoid the situation and walk around the oncoming dog in a wide arc.
If we show our dog that we understand him and guide him accordingly, there is a very good chance that he will turn to us in further conflict situations and look for help, so that we can solve the situation for our dog or with our dog together.
If you join forces, common behavior leads to success. If you create a sense of achievement together, what you have experienced feels so good that your dog will always want to use you as a guide in the future. Dogs are creatures of habit too. Our brains always look for the easiest and quickest path to success with the least resistance. If your dog experiences that YOU are the quickest and easiest way to resolve a conflict, it will not feel helpless or need to look for a solution itself. Because you are his solution. This is what makes a secure human-dog bond.