The Other End of the Leash: Why We Do What We Do Around Dogs

by Patricia B. McConnell

Who dogs are and how they behave are partly defined by who we humans are and how we ourselves behave.

Dogs and dog lovers alike have been shaped by our separate evolutionary backgrounds, and what each of us bring to the relationship starts with the heritage of our natural history.

submission, confidence, or threat.

I need to identify this gestures on Cande

They’ve learned to stop doing some of the things that are natural to our species but are misinterpreted by dogs.

The more you love your dog, the more you need to understand human behavior.

Pay attention to your own behavior. Believe me, your dog is.

dogs are watching us for the subtle visual signals they use to communicate to one another.

But it doesn’t mean that he adores me every second of his life, any more than you adore your favorite human every single second of yours.

what you do around your dog should be related to what your dog is doing.

When I first meet a dog, my primary attention is on the dog’s center of gravity and his breathing.

we don’t really see something until we ask our minds to translate it into words or pictures.

Because we’re humans and not dogs, we don’t intuitively know how dogs interpret our actions.

Direct head-on approaches can be threatening to dogs, especially shy ones meeting a person or dog whom they don’t know.

how powerful our hardwired greeting behavior really is.

“Reach out and touch someone” is more than just an advertising jingle; it’s a reminder of how “reaching out” and “touching” are deeply rooted aspects of our social behavior.

Do you want every stranger you see on the street to handle your body?

Sometimes I think that the primary purpose of dogs is to keep humans humble.

he tends to go in the direction that I’m facing, not where I’m pointing.

The best way to get a dog to come to you is to turn away from him and move in the opposite direction (which is actually “toward you” from the standpoint of the dog).

Dogs want to go the way that you’re going, and to a dog that’s the way that your face and feet are pointing.

(Good teachers always help their students by starting at a reasonable level of difficulty.)