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Sweet Revenge – Dogs Getting Even With Their Handlers

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236 – August, 2018

BY CHRIS ROBINSON

The scientific community contends that dogs are incapable of higher emotions such as revenge. They say that dogs are reactive, that they live in the moment although they have good memories. When dogs misbehave, it’s because they feel ignored or they are upset about something. That when they act out they aren’t waiting for the mental satisfaction of knowing they got a reaction from you. That behavior would be part of a phenomenon known as “theory of mind” which requires a complex ability to understand and even predict the thought of others, something dogs are incapable of doing.

You’ll have to pardon me for viewing that scientific tenet with a raised eyebrow or two. That’s because on numerous occasions during the 15 years I judged all three types of hunt tests and in stories told to me by sane, sober people who have had no reason to be anything other than truthful in their descriptions of what hap- pened, I have seen or heard of many, many instances when, sometimes with calculated premeditation and sometimes with spur-of-the-moment retaliation, dogs have gotten even with their owners or handlers for some real or imagined sin or slight. What’s more, the dogs knew they’d gotten even. Some examples? There are a lot of them but here are a few that I either personally wit- nessed or were told to me by reliably honest folks who also had witnesses to back their accounts of what happened.

An Airedale Terrier and her owner were going for their final qualifying score in utility obedience. With one more green ribbon the dog could retire from the obedience ring and go on to something more interesting to the dog like hunting or agility. Alas, the obedience ring was just across the aisle from the last of the con- formation rings and thus the obedience dogs often co-mingled with the conformation dogs.

Click here to read the complete article
236 – August, 2018

Short URL: http://caninechronicle.com/?p=148928

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