Dog Talk and Humans Who Don’t Understand It

By Amy Fernandez

The cultural divide between humans and canines has been growing for well over a century. There are many reasons for that; starting with the economic shift away from an agricultural lifestyle, which severed that daily interaction with domestic animals that had defined humans since prehistory.  That trend likewise phased out most of the essential jobs that kept humans tethered to their canine workmates.  And probably the newest and most insidious force separating our species is the horrific  proliferation of the Animal Rights (AR) philosophy which at its core seeks to eradicate domestic species and obliterate our interactions with animals in any capacity at all.

The thing is that this paradigm shift has happened so gradually that no one really noticed what we lost along the way.  Specifically, I mean our hardwired ability to communicate with dogs.  This thing between dogs and humans is unique among species. We co-evolved and–as neuroscience is slowly discovering–both species have some built-in software to enable this seamless nonverbal conversation. Actually, dogs haven’t lost it at all. They read us like a non-stop Twitter stream.  Unfortunately, the human race has lost the plot on a global scale.

The recent realization of that embarrassing learning deficit has been another unexpected consequence of pandemic life.  The bull market for pandemic pets, originally seen as a disaster in the making, has not turned out as the naysayers predicted. No one anticipated the duration or scale of pandemic disruptions. Weeks morphed into months and, in some cases, life is still on sort of a freeze frame. In other words, everyone has had tons of time to get acquainted with their new canine family members.  And the more they watched and listened, the more confused they became.  Weird half-mast tail wags, whistling whines, and that almost menacing lip curl. And to a good portion of those 23 million first-time dog owners, deciphering this stuff was like trying to read the Dead Sea scrolls. Worse yet, the dogs frequently refused to follow those internet training directions!

Yes, there was dramatic uptick in dog school enrollment. And even that didn’t always crack the code. Back in pre-pandemic times, that sort of frustrating obstacle typically resulted in an instant reevaluation of the entire dog project. Take it back, or to the pound, or to the local rescue. This time things were different simply because after an entire year of daily cohabitation, getting a divorce just didn’t seem quite as easy. Good or bad, these people had a history with their chosen canines.  Obviously the next step was “family counseling” to rehabilitate these fractured relationships.

It seems that canine behavior specialists have been busier than ever. The scale of the situation even prompted a lengthy feature in the New York Times Science section last week which recounted one family’s crash course on how to understand their mysterious new dog; which basically amounted to a primer on reading canine body language.  The writer started off conceding that their first big discovery was that they were probably misinterpreting much of the dog’s behavior.  “Dogs are always communicating with us but most of the time we’re not listening.”

As per usual, the article quoted a range of experts from different academic sectors; they all provided knowledgeable, authoritative explanations of the mechanics of dog communication.  I loved the story because it was so accurate, yet so obvious. For instance, don’t anthropomorphize your dog. (Actually, it doesn’t feel guilty about raiding the garbage and peeing on the rug.) Don’t assume that dogs like the same things you do. (If the dog doesn’t seem to enjoy your bubbly social outing, maybe it really does prefer staying home flopped on the sofa.) Don’t assume that every dog loves to meet new dogs. (Based on my personal observations, humans like dog parks way better than half the dogs I see at those places.)

Those experts did have one point of common consensus.  Dogs are very, very good at understanding us. So, take heart. This will take a little time but those 23 million clueless new owners won’t be riding the short bus forever.

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Posted by Liz on Sep 30 2024. Filed under Current Articles, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.