Predatory Aggression

Going back to our allegory on the mind-frame of the child consequent to getting milk and oddly, how our modern world has gotten her into thinking of a neat grocery store while missing the cow that produces the milk. This somehow embodies the sentiments of why I insist that we, in the same manner, have to go back to the brass rudiments of why our ancestors have obtained an appeal towards the dog’s receptiveness as a hunting, herding, and retrieving partner. Our way of life may have been radically modernized but the crux of the matter is that we still get milk from a cow, and the disposition of a dog over a prey is well and the same even today. This reality check, I would argue, will somehow bring a substantial awareness to what we are leaving behind in our training. Today, it is common knowledge to most hardcore trainers and dog handlers that a dog’s life revolves around obedience in its own pack life. However, it is most important to remember that this innate predatory aggression of a dog does not only occur within the walls of its life inside the pack, but also carries the reality that because of their predatory aggression which leans toward hunting prey, it is only coherent to live in packs in order to survive more proficiently. To disassociate these two reciprocal bonds is to break the alliance in your training rationale. Hunting prey as a pack constitutes a big part of their natural character and therefore must likewise be looked upon in order to have a more valid guide in building them to undertake any form of performance we ask them to do, or to be able to undertake any of our modern day sports activities with better competence.

Admittedly, there is a variety of expertise developed by insightful breeders. But any dog as a whole has the ability to detect and capture prey, even the so-called lap dogs. This refers to a dog’s impulsive play behavior they carry even while young. Hence, hunger does not necessarily trigger this behavior, but it is triggered by its own stimulus of moving prey acquired by their matchless ability to smell, hear, and see. Hence, even while a puppy, their sense of smell alerts them to the presence of prey. So, they track them down as a sporting game while utilizing those two other auxiliary senses, hearing and visualization, and at that instant deploying those bodily skills to be able to win the trophy. Yes, with their impulsive play behavior, one can very well develop their overall skills, helpful to accelerate their ability to win the trophy. Hence, I should say that there is no better place to do this than in a rustic environment. See how the sequence works: with prey at hand, a dog tracks game by following the scent trail. This is done by spotting scent cues either from the air or in the ground. As it nears its target in a striking range, it flushes it from hiding and so prompts its chase impulse. It then follows that mastering all those expandable skills like scent, sonance, vision, and stamina can be accomplished through training. Furthermore, depending on what type of dog you have that carries those other special skills acquired through breeding, like pointing, herding, attacking, pinning and retrieving, this ,too, is likewise augmentable. But all this training cultivation is made clear if we place them in a framework of a hunting field rather than in a fancy venue were the dog can becomes careless, indifferent and clueless as to what and why we want them to fervently achieve it. Ever heard of adrenaline rush in humans? Endorphin release while a dog is hunting triggers a state of happiness in them.

By the same token, communicating a task with your dog is difficult to earn when both are detached from nature’s habitation and replacing it with a cold course that is artificial and lifeless. However, this does not mean to say that using tools and toys to enhance their skills and obedience has no place even while exposing them to their natural habitat. It has its own value and prominence in our indulgent age. More about this in our next article. 

The Outright Disconnect

It is inherent that whatever sporty initiative you are presently engaged in or wants to undertake with your dog, the call to duly communicates what you really want them to do rest on how to acquire that skill successfully. It not only saves you your bonding opportunity with them and the frustration to advance that cause in the first place. Sadly, though, with the barrage of fables that dogs think the way we humans think and that dogs can assume things because we humans are capable of assuming things, this certainly has affected our manner and method of communicating a directive to them. The message might sound very clear to us but foreign to them. Therefore, unlike us humans who behave by reason, dogs act by its genetic instinct, which then follows, that unlike us, they do things naturally without ever thinking about its consequence. Moreover, because they are bred with certain instinctive behaviors, they know how to do certain tasks well all by themselves already, so the problem now actually hangs on how to communicate with them to your advantage. This is also the reason why it is so extolling to see a dog in action or at work together with its master. But keeping them idle and inactive only dampens that chance, and a misfortune of keeping a luminary aside, it makes them uneasy and restless, which most call as an improper behavior! Now, all these expressed disconnects is so prevalent that many have even disregarded how a dog communicates. Unlike humans, dogs communicate instead with visceral gestures or bodily motion. They use their mouth, ears, eyes and tail to act something out and not by speaking them out like us. Therefore, it follows that those signals that they make is our only cue, or shall we say a catchword for us to take and to act on.    

In the past, maintaining a number of work dogs was practical since each dog carries with them an exclusive genetic instinct including size, shape, coat, and an instinctive behavior useful for a specific job. The scholarly approach in breeding then was fairly rare if not uninspired. However, the root component in owing a dog that time was its value in rustic living where hunting, herding, retrieving and guarding was vital. This meant that the more affluent they become, the more they would get their hands on a number from those choices. This however has changed drastically, for not only do we have commerce to take care of those basic livelihood needs, we also already have some well-rounded breeds that carries those multiple instinctive faculties, though some still have a slight dominant trait, like a pointer who points its tail to the direction of its hunt, some barks quite aggressively and etc. At any rate, we now have dogs that are now well-rounded based on those rustic living credentials. However, due to our modern day lifestyle that has convened indulgence and convenience, the pursuit for amusement has been advancing to greater extents. This includes the hunger for different kinds of sporting activities as its final demand.

This is the reason why I keep going back to a sporting dog training philosophy differently, because of the fact that these animals have their rudimental roots only made trendier today. This is like most children these days who envision a grocery store when getting milk is mentioned. The cow behind the milk is now out of the equation but replaced by a refrigerated and well-manicured location where all that it takes is to pick up a well packed, non-stale, non- breakable box, and pay it off. Therefore, to jump into a care and a playful activity with your dog calls you to first observe and mark why others do it well.