Dog Behavior is Dog Communication

To understand how your dog makes decisions, you need to understand all the elements that go into making decisions.

Frankie is communicating satisfaction!

#1 NEEDS

Needs are the physical, mental, and social requirements that must be fulfilled in order for a dog to survive and thrive. 

Some needs must be fulfilled all the time, like the need for air to breathe. Some needs can be fulfilled less frequently, like the need for rest, food, or play.  

Some needs are universal among dogs, like the need for water to drink. Some needs vary depending on the dog. One dog may need an hour-long jog everyday to feel satisfied. Another might hate going for a jog, but love spending an hour sniffing around their neighborhood or laying in the shade and watching the world around them. 

A dog’s specific needs can and will change as they age and as their environment changes. 

Discovering what your dog needs and how often is essential to having a successful life together, especially if you want them to be well trained. Remember, a dog with an unmet need is going to suffer, and a dog in pain is hard to train. 

Doggie Examples: 

FIDO

Need - Fido requires food to survive.

ROSIE

Need - Rosie requires time outside to sniff and learn about her neighborhood to feel safe and know her way around.

DUNKIN

Need - Dunkin requires doggy play time to feel happy and to develop strong social skills.

#2 ENVIRONMENT

Environment is the external world in which your dog exists. 

For your dog, their environment includes your home, your geographic location, and the broader society they exist within. But the most important part of their environment is you, because to some extent, you control every other aspect of their environment.  

Doggie Examples: 

FIDO

Need - Fido requires food to survive.

Environment - Fido’s pack leader begins staying up late and sleeping in late.

ROSIE

Need - Rosie requires time outside to sniff and learn about her neighborhood to feel safe and know her way around.

Environment - Rosie’s pack leader takes her outside to go potty, and brings her right back inside once Rosie has finished.

DUNKIN

Need - Dunkin requires doggy play time to feel happy and to develop strong social skills.

Environment - Dunkin’s pack leader keeps Dunkin away from other dogs on their daily walks. 

#3 BELIEFS

Beliefs are how your dog understands the world around them. Dogs may not have words to describe their beliefs, but they have beliefs nonetheless. 

If a dog believes someone is their friend, they will greet them warmly. If they believe a person is a threat, they might run away from them or growl at their approach. 

A belief can be formed from a single experience (that cactus in the living room is dangerous) and others from repeating patterns of experience (every time my pack leader picks up their car keys it means they’re leaving me home alone).

Your dog needs to understand how the world works, at the very least within your home, but ideally in any environment they might regularly spend time in. 

Doggie Examples: 

FIDO

Need - Fido requires food to survive.

Environment - Fido’s pack leader begins staying up late and sleeping in late.

Belief - Fido understands he can’t feed himself, he needs his pack leader to do it.

ROSIE

Need - Rosie requires time outside to sniff and learn about her neighborhood to feel safe and know her way around.

Environment - Rosie’s pack leader takes her outside to go potty, and brings her right back inside once Rosie has finished.

Belief - Rosie learns that if she goes potty outside it brings an end to her sniff time.

DUNKIN

Need - Dunkin requires doggy play time to feel happy and to develop strong social skills.

Environment - Dunkin’s pack leader keeps Dunkin away from other dogs on their daily walks. 

Belief - Dunkin learns that if he cooperates with his pack leader, he doesn’t get to meet and play with new friends. 

STATES 

Your dog’s emotional states are made up of feelings and sensations, both pleasurable (excitement, love, comfort, curiosity, etc.) and painful (anxiety, frustration, boredom, loneliness, etc.), all of which motivate them to behave in ways that ideally leads to the fulfillment of a need. 

Your dog’s state is always dependent on whether or not their needs have been met. You can think of a need like an itch that is begging to be scratched. Let's say your dog is excited to see a doggy friend and is then given the opportunity to say hi and play. In this scenario, the itch gets scratched and the dog feels happy and satiated. If they don’t get to say hi, the itch doesn’t go away. It gets stronger. 

This is how unmet needs can slowly or quickly (depending on the need) drive a dog insane. 

Need (met or unmet) + Environment + Belief  = State

Doggie Examples: 

FIDO

Need - Fido requires food to survive.

Environment - Fido’s pack leader begins staying up late and sleeping in late.

Belief - Fido understands he can’t feed himself, he needs his pack leader to do it.

State - Fido experiences hunger and anxiety because his person is sleeping in and not feeding him at the regular time.

ROSIE

Need - Rosie requires time outside to sniff and learn about her neighborhood to feel safe and know her way around.

Environment - Rosie’s pack leader takes her outside to go potty, and brings her right back inside once Rosie has finished.

Belief - Rosie learns that if she goes potty outside it brings an end to her sniff time.

State - Rosie begins feeling frustrated and bored when she is dragged home after going potty.

DUNKIN

Need - Dunkin requires doggy play time to feel happy and to develop strong social skills.

Environment - Dunkin’s pack leader keeps Dunkin away from other dogs on their daily walks. 

Belief - Dunkin learns that if he cooperates with his pack leader, he doesn’t get to meet and play with new friends. 

State - Dunkin begins to feel increasingly lonely at home, and increasingly excited and anxious when outside. 

BEHAVIORS

Behaviors are physical expressions of a dog’s current needs, beliefs, and emotional state in response to their environment. 

Two dogs can experience the same state but communicate those emotions differently based on different beliefs or environments. 

If a dog believes the only way they can meet their need for mental and social stimulation is to dig under the fence and escape from your backyard, that is exactly how they will behave in order to scratch the itch of boredom and loneliness. 

A dog who understands that ringing a bell near the front door is a reliable way to get their pack leader to take them out to explore the neighborhood will behave differently than the dog that digs. 

Both dogs need mental and social stimulation. Both dogs experience boredom and loneliness when this need isn’t met, but because they have different understandings about how to achieve their goals, based on different beliefs and home environments, they behave differently. 

This is why trying to fix a dog’s behavior alone can fail to address the root cause of a challenging situation. 

Let’s say your dog is behaving aggressively towards other dogs because it believes they’re a threat. If you work only to change your dog’s behavior by teaching them not to growl or lunge, that doesn’t guarantee you will change their belief that other dogs are dangerous. 

If you work to improve your dog’s state, environment, and understanding so that they can accurately see which dogs are friendly and which are not, then their behavior will change automatically. 

Needs + Environment + Beliefs + State = Behavior

Doggie Examples: 

FIDO

Need - Fido requires food to survive.

Environment - Fido’s pack leader begins staying up late and sleeping in late.

Belief - Fido understands he can’t feed himself. He needs his pack leader to do it.

State - Fido experiences hunger and anxiety because his person is sleeping in and not feeding him at the regular time.

Behavior - Fido barks at his pack leader to wake them up and get fed. 

ROSIE

Need - Rosie requires time outside to sniff and learn about her neighborhood to feel safe and know her way around.

Environment - Rosie’s pack leader takes her outside to go potty, and brings her right back inside once Rosie has finished.

Belief - Rosie learns that if she goes potty outside it brings an end to her sniff time.

State - Rosie begins feeling frustrated and bored when she is dragged home after going potty. 

Behavior - Rosie stops going potty outside and starts going potty inside. 

DUNKIN

Need - Dunkin requires doggy play time to feel happy and to develop strong social skills.

Environment - Dunkin’s pack leader keeps Dunkin away from other dogs on their daily walks. 

Belief - Dunkin learns that if he cooperates with his pack leader, he doesn’t get to meet and play with new friends. 

State - Dunkin begins to feel increasingly lonely at home, and increasingly excited and anxious when outside. 

Behavior - Dunkin starts to pull on the leash towards other dogs and expresses his frustration by grumbling and barking.

OUTCOMES

Outcomes are the results the dog achieves based on how their behavior affects their environment. 

This is why a dog will come when called to one person in a household but not to another. They have learned that cooperating with the first person helps fulfill their needs. Whereas following the instructions of the second person does not.  

Dogs are always trying to discover the most effective ways to fulfill their needs. By changing the outcome of a behavior you can help improve a dog’s understanding of how to survive and thrive in a complex human world.

If one day a dog believes that the best way to get a treat is to bark and jump all over you, then they will do exactly that until you change the outcome. Once they learn from you that jumping doesn’t work, but waiting patiently and making eye contact does, they will change their behavior very quickly.  

Needs + Environment + Beliefs + State + Behavior = Outcome

Doggie Examples: 

FIDO

Need - Fido requires food to survive.

Environment - Fido’s pack leader begins staying up late and sleeping in late.

Belief - Fido understands he can’t feed himself. He needs his pack leader to do it.

State - Fido experiences hunger and anxiety because his person is sleeping in and not feeding him at the regular time.

Behavior - Fido barks at his pack leader to wake them up and get fed. 

Outcome - Fido’s pack leader wakes up, gets out of bed, and feeds Fido breakfast. Fido forms a new belief and starts barking every morning in order to get his breakfast. 

ROSIE

Need - Rosie requires time outside to sniff and learn about her neighborhood to feel safe and know her way around.

Environment - Rosie’s pack leader takes her outside to go potty, and brings her right back inside once Rosie has finished.

Belief - Rosie learns that if she goes potty outside it brings an end to her sniff time.

State - Rosie begins feeling frustrated and bored when she is dragged home after going potty.

Behavior - Rosie stops going potty outside and starts going potty inside. 

Outcome - Rosie’s time outside increases dramatically, which she enjoys, but her pack leader scolds her for not going potty and punishes her when she goes potty inside. Rosie’s trust in her pack leader decreases along with her willingness to listen.

DUNKIN

Need - Dunkin requires doggy play time to feel happy and to develop strong social skills.

Environment - Dunkin’s pack leader keeps Dunkin away from other dogs on their daily walks. 

Belief - Dunkin learns that if he cooperates with his pack leader, he doesn’t get to meet and play with new friends. 

State - Dunkin begins to feel increasingly lonely at home, and increasingly excited and anxious when outside. 

Behavior - Dunkin starts to pull on the leash towards other dogs and expresses his frustration by grumbling and barking.

Outcome - Dunkin’s pack leader starts keeping him farther away from other dogs and goes on fewer walks with Dunkin. Dunkin begins to starve for play time with dog friends and becomes more obsessive and aggressive with his leash pulling. 

COURSE CORRECTIONS

Course corrections are the changes you make to your life together based on the healthy and unhealthy outcomes your pack is creating. 

As leader of your pack, your job is to examine each part of the equation (Needs + Environment + Beliefs + State + Behavior = Outcome) and make improvements to each piece as needed.

Getting better at understanding and meeting your dog’s needs is often the most impactful step you can take. This will always involve adjusting their environment, which will alter their state, their understanding, and their behavior, leading to new outcomes. 

All of these elements work together to create a cycle which determines how easy or difficult your job as pack leader will be. The more clearly you understand how these pieces fit together, the easier it will be to make effective course corrections and lead your pack into a better life.

Each course correction leads to new outcomes. Depending on what course correction you make, your dog’s decisions will either improve, worsen, or stay the same. If they worsen or stay the same, this is valuable feedback that your course correction wasn’t an effective one. Your job as the leader of the pack is not to reprimand your dog, but to honor their feedback and continue to try new course corrections until you find one that results in improvement. 

Doggie Examples: 

FIDO

Need - Fido requires food to survive.

Environment - Fido’s pack leader begins staying up late and sleeping in late.

Belief - Fido understands he can’t feed himself. He needs his pack leader to do it.

State - Fido experiences hunger and anxiety because his person is sleeping in and not feeding him at the regular time.

Behavior - Fido barks at his pack leader to wake them up and get fed. 

Outcome - Fido’s pack leader wakes up, gets out of bed, and feeds Fido breakfast. Fido forms a new belief and starts barking every morning in order to get his breakfast. 

Course Correction - Fido’s pack leader identifies his mistake, begins waking up before Fido barks and teaches him that waiting quietly in the morning is the best way to get his breakfast.  

New Outcome - Fido learns that if he barks his pack leader goes back to bed, but if he’s quiet his pack leader gets up and feeds him. 

ROSIE

Need - Rosie requires time outside to sniff and learn about her neighborhood to feel safe and know her way around.

Environment - Rosie’s pack leader takes her outside to go potty, and brings her right back inside once Rosie has finished.

Belief - Rosie learns that if she goes potty outside it brings an end to her sniff time.

State - Rosie begins feeling frustrated and bored when she is dragged home after going potty.

Behavior - Rosie stops going potty outside and starts going potty inside. 

Outcome - Rosie’s time outside increases dramatically, which she enjoys, but her pack leader scolds her for not going potty and punishes her when she goes potty inside. Rosie’s trust in her pack leader decreases along with her willingness to listen.

Course Correction - Rosie’s pack leader realizes their error and begins taking Rosie on long walks with plenty of time for sniffing after Rosie has gone potty outside. 

New Outcome - Rosie’s need for outside sniffing time is now being met. She forms a new belief that going potty outside doesn’t result in the end of the thing she enjoys most. She stops going potty inside.  

DUNKIN

Need - Dunkin requires doggy play time to feel happy and to develop strong social skills.

Environment - Dunkin’s pack leader keeps Dunkin away from other dogs on their daily walks. 

Belief - Dunkin learns that if he cooperates with his pack leader, he doesn’t get to meet and play with new friends. 

State - Dunkin begins to feel increasingly lonely at home, and increasingly excited and anxious when outside. 

Behavior - Dunkin starts to pull on the leash towards other dogs and expresses his frustration by grumbling and barking.

Outcome - Dunkin’s pack leader starts keeping him farther away from other dogs and goes on fewer walks with Dunkin. Dunkin begins to starve for play time with dog friends and becomes more obsessive and aggressive with his leash pulling. 

Course Correction - Dunkin’s pack leader begins taking him to a small dog park and letting him play with other dogs on a consistent basis. He also finds some doggie friends for Dunkin in his neighborhood and offers to host doggie play dates in his backyard. 

New Outcome - Dunkin, feeling much more physically and socially stimulated, stops going crazy on their daily outings, which encourages his pack leader to go on longer and more frequent walks.

BEHAVIOR IS COMMUNICATION

If you take nothing else away from this explanation of the Dog Pack Puzzle it should be this: Behavior is communication. 

Sometimes this communication is direct. Your dog whines and paws at you because they want to play. Sometimes it’s indirect. Your dog falls asleep on their back with their belly exposed, because they feel totally safe.

Once you transition from relating to your dog’s behavior as good or bad to honest communication, it will go a long way towards helping you solve the Dog Pack Puzzle.