I think alot about the communication between Beeker and me. How do I communicate to him what I want him to do,or how does he communicate to me what his needs are. I have to admit up front that I actually care more about how he understands me. Not that I wouldn't like to be the Mrs. Dolittle of my household but rather as his owner my status is (and should be )greater than his. I pay the food bills and I am responsible for keeping him safe. Therefore, I often wonder how he understands what I want him to do. I think he understands the words that I say to him;sit,come,no!, all done, but maybe its just the inflection of my voice or my facial expressions. Temple Grandin suggests that dogs don't pay much attention to the verbal, but more of the visual cues. Pictures is her term. But Beeks just this morning responded to my verbal request to "go on", when I wanted him to move out of my way. I had an even voice, not gruff but expectant, and I didn't use my hands as a visual cue. His ability to respond to my verbal and visual requests is uncanny. Now you will say, "Yes, we all think our own dogs understand us". We probably do. Max responds to verbal cues also. When he wants to go outside (how he lets me know he wants to go outside is another story) and I am busy, don't have the time right at the moment to honor his request, he understands when I tell him, "Not right now". There are moments that I think the cat understands verbal cues as well. If Chez walks by and I want him to come up to me, I say,"Come here Chez, come on, come here", and he does. Maybe not every time, but often. And the dogs don't come if I call Chez. Go figure. I think they know their names and are more attentive when they hear their own name.
Now the interesting part. How do I know what they want me to know? I mean when Max wants me to let him outside how does he communicate that to me? He doesn't tell me with words obviously. He will sometimes paw at me, which could mean anything as far as I am concerned, but then when I get up he moves his body around in front of me to move me in the direction he wants me to go. For example, the other day, he wanted to get fed(he has an uncanny ability to tell when it is 5:00)and I was busy on the computer, not wanting to stop working. I ignored his repeated attempts to solicit my attention. Finally after 10 minutes of pawing and his moving away, pawing and me telling him, "Not now", I gave in and got up to put him outside before feeding him. He did not want to go outside. How did I know this?He circled around my body when ever I tried to move forward towards the back door and the tether. Just like a herding dog would do if his flock was not moving in the right direction. He was so focused that when I did get to the back door he moved in front of me, again blocking the door. I had to laugh. He is one determined dog. Okay, both dogs bark to let me know they see something great that they want me to see. Usually it is a car that has come into the cul-de-sac, or the neighbor kids outside playing and their squeals are exciting them, but they bark until I acknowledge their ability to alert me. If I say, "Okay, I see it, now go on, Kennel Up", they will stop barking and both dogs (Max leads and Beeks mostly follows what Max does)head to the back laundry room where their kennels use to be. How do they know that is what I want them to do? Maybe it is routine. Maybe they are use to the sequencing of the event. Maybe over time they have observed that when this happens then I want them to do something next. I think that Beeks and Max are very observant of our behaviors and have learned that if they watch us closely we we behave in certain ways and if they follow us they may be rewarded in some positive way.
This reminds me that when we first had Max come live with us he was not very attentive. He would not make eye contact with us at all. He was consistently looking around for movement that he needed to attend to. Brad made huge efforts to get Max's attention and would only give him commands/attention when Max would look at Brad. It was about a year after he had been living with us when we noticed that Max was looking at us when we wanted his attention. Now he is consistently focused on Brad (or me when Brad is not around). Beeks is another story. We adopted Beeks when he was young. He was almost four months when he got him so from the beginning I made sure to wait for his eye contact before I gave him a command. Now he is mostly attentive when I want him to do something. I have heard that if your dog does not follow your request to recall or some other command, then you are just not exciting enough. I think this a very true statement. Sometimes when I want Beeks to come or follow some other command and he doesn't, it is because I am soooo not as exciting as what he is occupied doing at the moment. Sometimes I just can't compete with deer or rodent smells. But I digress. I have read that dogs look for novelty and people look for expectation. I think this means that dogs look to see what is new in their environment and people look to see what they expect to see in their environment. This is why dogs seem hyper-vigilant in their visual scanning of the environment. They are predator animals and are always looking to see if there is something that they need to chase. People are looking to see if everything is like we expect it to be and don't necessarily observe slight differences in the environment.
So, how does this all return to my communication with Beeks? I think that Beeks is looking to see if I am alerting him to some change in the environment that he needs to attend to. When he looks at me, he is including me in the "attention to detail" group that includes himself and Max. He is looking to me to see if I am sounding the alert to something exciting that we need to attend. If you look at dogs in a group, they will lay around until one decides there is something that needs attention, then they all decide there's something that needs attention, so they all bark and get excited. Sometimes when Beeks and Max do this, they don't really know why they are barking. I have seen Beeks start barking and then when Max joins in Beeks will look at Max like,"What is it we are barking at again?" If I get up to go to the kitchen,Beeks and or Max will also get up, and move right along with me to attend to the exciting activity of getting an ice cube. Maybe they think that the refrigerator needs careful watching and I need their assistance. Somehow I am able to communicate with Beeks and Max and somehow they know how to get their needs across to me.
I'm thinking that we've got a pretty good setup. Know what I mean?
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