there’s a useful result to our primatelike tendency to pat dogs on top of their heads, so we might as well take advantage of it. It’s the perfect situation: humans are quick to pat dogs on top of their heads, but dogs don’t really like it (remember that patting is not the same as stroking: most dogs adore massagelike strokes just as we do). A wolf handler reinforced the usefulness of this technique when she told me that she and the other handlers got wolves to stop bugging them by patting them on the head two or three times. It’s not aggressive or threatening, it’s just mildly aversive, so
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