If We All Started Treating Dogs In A Humane And Loving Way, Would Dogs Still Be Anxious?
On another episode from the archives of The Family Pupz Podcast, we asked board-certified veterinary behaviorist, the owner and lead clinician at the Animal Behavior Clinic, and one of our favorite people, in general, Dr. Chris Pachel, to give us his take on whether he thinks dogs would still exhibit anxiety-related behaviors if all humans on Earth suddenly started treating dogs in a humane and loving way.
Essentially, a “Nature Versus Nurture” question.
His answer showed us that all emotions, especially negative ones, have a evolutionary purpose.
To listen to the rest of the conversation with Dr. Chris Pachel, check out the podcast episode below:
[TRANSCRIPT FOR THE VIDEO BELOW]
Dr. Chris Pachel: That's a great question, right? Yeah, nature versus nurture. We've actually rephrased that a little bit with one of the businesses that I'm a co-owner over here in the US, Instinct Dog Behavior and Training. We've recently launched a course that's called, “Nature Driven Nurture”. Rather than getting into the either/or, it's really more about saying, “how does the world around you shape who you are?”, and how can we channel that as a way of helping you learn and helping you move forward?
So, you know, this is right on point for the direction that a lot of our understanding is going. And I think the first thing that I always try to remember is that fear and anxiety are inherently normal characteristics. I think both as humans and as animal trainers, I think sometimes we really, we pathologize or we go down that pathway of saying, gosh, anytime we see fear and anxiety, clearly there's something wrong. The animal's brain is broken. They're wired wrong or whatever label we put on that.
And at a fundamental level, fear and anxiety is what keeps us safe, either in situations where we've experienced a negative outcome, or in circumstances that are perhaps just unknown to us. And that anxiety that exists in a situation where we don't know what's coming next, actually keys up our emotional centers in our body and in our brain, so that if something bad does happen, we're ready for it.
So from that standpoint, I would argue that even if we perfected all of the human behavior in the world, if you figure out how to do that, you let me know. Even if we've done that, I'm going to say, yeah, dogs being dogs, cats being cats, parrots being parrots, horses being horses, will continue to experience at least a basic level of those emotional states because they're normal.
I think the place where we’d really make a difference is that I do think sometimes, especially as humans, at least in my own personal experience, sometimes I get a bit sort of caught in my own agenda and I'm putting my agenda on top of the animal that I'm working with. And I may be putting them in situations that are not meeting their needs, or I'm not giving them feedback that's consistent or predictable and so we exacerbate some of those normal patterns and there may also be issues, and this is where we get a little bit more into the harder to nail down piece, we know that not every dog is exactly the same as the next one.
And so there are individual genetic, or developmental influences, on how that brain and body connection really develops that suggest that we do have some dogs who are more susceptible to some of those influences.
So sometimes when I have parents who say, you know, pet parents who are saying, gosh, “I’ve had seven dogs and I've never had this issue”. I hear you. I really do hear you. And perhaps the difference is you had seven other dogs and now you have this one.
But let’s see what we can do. Exactly right! It's just like with kids and with humans and everything else, there's that individual variability. And I think as we start to recognize more and more of what that looks like versus saying, “no, no, no, I'm the alpha, I'm the master, therefore you should do what I say no matter what”, as we shift away from that — perhaps far, far, far away from that, depending on where we're at in our journey, I think that we start to recognize more about what the animals bring to these situations and we really gain the opportunity to learn from them as much as hopefully they're learning from us.