Good dogs just know...

[drewtam]

So Tabitha and I were watching "Marley and Me". It gets to the end, at the funeral scene, and Sylar puts his head on my knee and starts whimpering/whining while looking up at me with those cute puppy boxer eyes.

I wonder if he could tell it was the sad part.

[Nitrogen]

PRobably could tell that it affected you.

[Zardozimo Oprah Bannedalas]

PRobably could tell that it affected you.

Could be.
Arthur Conan Doyle once put forward an interesting idea re: dogs. He thought that dogs often took after their owners... that you could judge a man's character and such by the behavior(s) of his dog(s).

[Kwelz]

I have found both Cats and Dogs are like this.  Their reactions are different but there is no doubt the our furry companions have some sense of what we are feeling at a given time.  They know much more of what is going on than most people would give them credit for. 

[Jocassee]

I believe dogs can smell pheremones...they can tell when you are happy, angry, sad, or even aroused by the chemicals your body is producing and the proportions thereof.

[Gewehr98]

No disagreement here.

Here's a question that I'm sort of looking for an answer, but not totally.

My biggest dawg has become a serious Daddy's Boy over the last couple of years.  

It's as if he's stuck to my side by an invisible tether, and no matter where I go at home, he's either within visual range, or actually at my feet.

I head into the bathroom, and within seconds, the bathroom door pops open (I have to fix the latch), and in he comes to lay at my feet. He's actually hopped into the shower with me at times, which forces me to grab the dog shampoo and take advantage of the situation.

If I go out to the garage to work at the reloading bench or the lathe, he cries to Mama to open the door so he can visit me.

If I'm cutting the back yard on the tractor, he's whining to be let out on the deck so he can watch me.

Coming home from work late at night, it was like the reunion of long-lost siblings.  Tail-wagging, face-slurping, bowling me over, you name it.

If Mama comes up to me and gives me a hug, he tries to break us apart - somebody's hurting Papa?

I suppose I'm enabling the behavior, but I'd like to lessen his separation anxiety at least a little bit.  

The enabling started very early, about 8 weeks, when I put him on my chest at bedtime to calm him down for the night.  He'd fall asleep with his lower jaw resting on my sternum, feeling my heart beat like some type of soothing metronome.  Several years later, and 100lbs of dawg still has his bedtime ritual, making Papa feel like he's having a heart attack.  He eventually gets too warm, and hops off the bed after a while, but it's almost comical.

Cesar Millan would probably chastise me in no uncertain terms...

[K Frame]

You've just touched on one of the biggest reasons why I felt so close to Ruger, and why I've had such a hard time with her death.

[Leatherneck]

There's probably a shared attitude among us here regarding dogs and how to treat them, judging by the many dog threads over the years. The dogs sense that we're empathetic and considerate about their feelings and they like that, hence: the "Daddy's Girl" and "Daddy's boy" thing. Since Bear's death, Gunner II has been becoming more and more my buddy. But early on he grafted himself to Leatherness, so he's reluctant to let that go. He gets torn when we're apart. I have no doubt when I join them at the river this morning there will be mucho nuzzlenuts and love nips and "Where you been?" looks.

TC

[castle key]

You've just touched on one of the biggest reasons why I felt so close to Ruger, and why I've had such a hard time with her death.

When a dog is the right one at the right time, I think we exude something they sense. The bond becomes much more intense. Even if the dog is "just a dog" and not one of those really special ones, the bond is quite serious.

Dogs are pack animals as are humans to a certain degree. Since we need each other, the pack gets strong. When a new puppy spends its "formative" time as a youngster with chin on sternum, it adds to the pack bond. The little 8 week old pup has just been ripped away from everything it knows, its siblings and mother. Plunged into the cold and cruel world, it will join a new pack, the one we create. Especially for a youngster, the beating of the heart, the warmth of the human body, and the close contact mimics the previous pack.

As to criticisms from television dog trainers that this type of bonding may be inappropriate, I would disagree. The most important element in dog/human interaction is a close bond....so long as the dog never becomes alpha.

[Firethorn]

As to criticisms from television dog trainers that this type of bonding may be inappropriate, I would disagree. The most important element in dog/human interaction is a close bond....so long as the dog never becomes alpha.

The last part is very true.  Humans must be alpha over any dog.  Still, dogs have been bred to be happy with that situation.  There's nothing wrong with forming strong pack bonds, indeed, they're quite for the good.  Dogs, by default, don't want to harm other pack members.  Still, they need to know who's boss, and it's when they lose track of that that trouble happens.

If/when I get a dog, I want a puppy from a house-raised/trained mother.  When my parent's dog, Cindy, had puppies, she trained and housebroke them herself.  We simply helped.  The puppies, when moved to a new home, generally had an accident or two, but after that were fine.

Of course, my parents had to lock up the dogs before they could punish us.  They wouldn't bite, but would get between us and our parents.