Because animals are emotional beings and human beings displace the most “emotional mass.”
I’ll never forget the first litter I helped my father raise when I was a young boy. They were housed in a stall set up in the back of our boarding kennel. It was quiet there and so the mother and her pups wouldn’t be disturbed by the hubbub of daily kennel activity. One morning I was in their pen cleaning up newspapers, and soon they forgot about me and resumed tumbling over each other with their roly-poly bellies making them look like cement mixer trucks playing bumper cars. At some point my father walked into the room to check on how I was doing and even though the pups were only a few weeks past opening their eyes and able to see no more than ten or fifteen feet, at the sight of a human they wobbled as fast as they could to the front of the stall and then pressed against the wire mesh, mewing, whining and jockeying for position. They seemed even more intensely attracted to the form of a human than when they saw their mother being returned after her exercise session. From then on I remained struck by how profoundly dogs are attracted to human beings and virtually at the start of life. I knew this revealed some fundamental principle of nature and I was never satisfied with the catchall explanation into which it seems every mystery of dogs is placed: “due to domestication.”
From my study of animals as emotional beings, I’ve learned that animal consciousness is a medium of displacement, just like the time/space continuum of the universe is displaced to yield gravity as a virtual force of attraction. Human beings displace the emotional continuum of consciousness more than any other animal, just as large objects of mass displace time and space more than smaller objects. Thus, animals are more attracted to man than they are to any other living being, even their own kind, because humans have the most emotional mass.
What is emotional mass? Just as physical mass is resistance to physical acceleration, emotional mass is resistance to emotional acceleration, i.e. being moved by a feeling. I think it’s safe to say that we are more attracted to huge boulders than to little pebbles, but it’s easier to pitch a pebble than move a boulder. If it wasn’t for emotional mass, animals would be like a boat without a keel in the water, skimming aimlessly across the surface whichever way the wind was blowing.
The main point I wish to make in regards to the dog/human connection is that the higher the emotional capacity of a species, the more emotional mass they acquire through experience, and the more emotional experiences they have simply by virtue of living longer, the more “gravitas” they acquire and the more they displace the emotional tipping points (i.e. consciousness) of other beings, and so therefore, the stronger the force of attraction other beings experience toward such high capacity beings. (Consider how awe struck we are by a great predator such as a lion or grizzly bear, or a huge, powerful animal such as an elephant or whale. The bigger and more powerful an animal, and the longer it lives, the more emotional mass it displaces.) Likewise, while all animals are profoundly attracted to human beings, nonetheless it’s hard for most species to feel emotional movement towards us.
So just as a large object of mass displaces more of the time/space continuum and thereby generates a stronger force of attraction than smaller objects, a species with a high emotional capacity will more profoundly displace the continuum of animal consciousness and thereby generate a stronger force of attraction than animals that carry less emotional mass.
So all animals are attracted to man given that human beings carry the greatest emotional mass, however, given the high emotional capacity of canines, only the dog can fully cross the species divide and connect with man, emotionally. Only the dog can go by feel in man’s world whereas all other animals must go by instinct, and it’s a two-way street as well. The dog as a fellow high capacity emotional being, triggers feelings in us that accelerate our emotion. Dogs put our resistance into motion and so humans feel especially close to their dogs. While this explanation may at first seem technical and clinically cold, in truth adopting an “energy theory” of emotion and realizing that nature is itself constructed in accordance with emotion, can serve to open our eyes to the amazing magic by which nature (and our dog) works.
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Natural Dog Training is about how dogs see the world and what this means in regards to training. The first part of this book presents a new theory for the social behavior of canines, featuring the drive to hunt, not the pack instincts, as seminal to canine behavior. The second part reinterprets how dogs actually learn. The third section presents exercises and handling techniques to put this theory into practice with a puppy. The final section sets forth a training program with a special emphasis on coming when called.Tags: attraction, emotional mass, humans
I’ve been thinking a bit about this, and I was curious as to how our innately “predator-like” energy comes into play. Humans are indeed attracted to large, long living animals– but in the case of a predator like a tiger, there is always an element of fear and that creates hesitation and resistance at same time.
How does this operate with dogs? Is predatory energy attractive or repulsive? Is our emotional mass and capacity large enough (or attractive enough) to overcome any resistance created by our innate predator energy?
Great questions:
Everything is a function of attraction, even repulsion and this is because before there even be a state of repulsion there must first be a state of attraction. So first an animal sees a human at a distance and there is a displacement of its consciousness proportional to its “mass” and it feels a monolithic pull of attraction ala gravity, and this is akin to what we call curiosity. And then the closer it gets, and if it can continue to feel safe, then that becomes akin to awe, just like when we view a large dangerous predator safely behind a fence or moat at the zoo.
However, as the animal gets closer then emotional mass as ballast becomes the “emotional battery.” Now, unresolved emotion changes its function from simple ballast into the far more complex stress. This is significant because unresolved emotion as stress operates according to the laws of electromagnetism rather than gravity and the laws of motion, and this is important because it then allows the animal to arrive at a complex view of an object of attraction, ratrher than go by the simple pull of attraction. So as the animal nears, it is able to differentiate between what is positive about a human and thereby conducts emotion, versus what is negative and thereby interrupts or resists the movement of emotion. So the body of the human will be the positive or preyful aspects, but the eyes will be the negative or predatory aspect. (There are other nuances as well)
What’s really important to know is that only a predatory aspect can trigger stress in the emotional battery, whereas a positive preyful value cannot. But stress is also a function of attraction because it is actually the physical memory of a positive value that didn’t get to completion and hence was internalized and stored in the emotional battery, and then became compacted along with all the other acquired unresolved emotion to serve as emotional ballast as well.
Notice that avoidance in an animal is an electromagnetic negative-pole-to-negative pole, or north-to-north pole kind of thing (same is true of pos-to-pos, or south-to-south) so that even this pushing away force is dependent on an underlying force of electromagnetic attraction.
So the great emotional mass of a human being displaces the consciousness of other animals and they feel a monolithic force of attraction toward us, at a distance. However the closer they get, the stronger our predatory aspect becomes in their awareness and so we evolved in their perspective and mind from a simple displacement of consciousness, to electrical energy that needs to run to ground and we can see them become stressed and flighty if they cannot perceive a ground, or preyful aspect in our makeup.
However, the animal can close the gap if the stress “softens” so that it can be converted back into a positive perception of preyful energy and this happens when the object of attraction acts in a conductive manner toward the approaching animal. I call this “defining” or “grounding” the negative and then we see the approaching animal become more magnetic in demeanor and deportment. The greater an animals sexual nature, the more it will be able to soften and perceive the negative (predatory aspect) as access to the positive (preyful aspects). So dogs are the only animal able to close that gap because they are so sexual/magnetic and this allows them to feel a ground into a human when other species feel the ground moving beneath their feet.
How am I to interpret my #3 dog’s reaction to people in this light? She seems attracted to people but is very timid/skittish of contact at the same time. For example: when she is playing off-lead down at the canoe portage and a person(s) walks through the area, she will will walk towards them in a slight crouching stance with her nose extended. However, if they turn to acknowledge her or try to give her any attention, she immediately backs away and will even bark at them, showing her teeth as if an aggressive display. She is also petrified of crowds and will beat feet in the opposite direction. What can I do to help her to be more comfortable around people? Typically I will give them treats to give her when she approaches them and I encourage them to squat and not make direct eye contact; these methods do seem to help. Is there a better way?
Before you try to fix the behavior of the messenger, be sure to find the message. So find the exact parallel in your own ways. But don’t try to fix it, just find it. Ultimately, there’s probably a judgment against aggression and something to do with “sharing” and being nice, that kind of thing.
Kevin, I have been eating up your blog and all the exciting debates about OC vs. NDT, I have been working with my dog and seeing positive changes in her. She doesn’t push well for food but will shoot towards me at light-speed and then I push her and play push/war. One question. I have been working at having my pooch sit and then I walk away with the tug-toy and approach her in a predator way. When we started this she when the energy would get too intense she would break her sit and run away in search of anything to bite on. So I started anticipating the break and giving her the cue to get the toy in my grasp and play and she responded great! Now when I stare her down and become increasingly more predatory there is a point where I see a shift in her demeanor and she can’t help but bolt to me to get the tug-toy. She is becoming more attracted to me at these high-thresholds which is good, but I’m concerned that now that she has this behavior, if another dog gives her a predatory aspect she will do the same thing and run straight at the dog. Or will she instead look for something with a more preyful aspect? Thanks for the help!
Thanks for your interest and participation.
A few years ago I was listening to a story on the radio about a famous violinist; he might have been Vladimir Horowitz. At any rate, a young prodigy on the violin was brought to him for evaluation. The boy had dazzled audiences in concert and had quickly outpaced his teachers, everywhere he went people marveled at his virtuosity and proficiency with difficult works. However Horowitz in contrast asked him to play an easy composition and after listening to him play just a short while, he interrupted him and asked: “You don’t practice your scales do you?” The boy was taken aback. “Why should I practice scales when I’ve mastered the most difficult pieces?” “Yes,” Horowitz said. “I could tell something was missing.”
In that vein I want to say that there are certain core exericises, such as pushing-for-food and one can’t do the foundation work with a high energy prey object such as a bite toy because your dog’s mind will become so fried with stimulation it won’t be able to develop the necessary power of discrimination. Whereas food is such a low order and pure emotional ground that it’s easier for the dog to learn and take in everything that’s going on around it and formulate fine discrimination capabilities. So getting a good push for food will give your dog the internal fortitude to feel you at high drive and also be able to discern the nuances of your body language and emotional inflection so that it’s overload threshold is raised rather than lowered. It’s especially important to have a strong foundation of grounding before you do the more intense predatory input. So don’t neglect your scales. Keep on pushing!
Ah! Ok, yes that makes sense to me. I guess I’m a skip the scales type of person. I play music but was never fond of the ground work.. I will keep on pushing. Something did seem off that she wouldn’t do push-for-food with much intensity. I am looking forward to helping my dog resolve some of her stress. Thanks for the advice I will take it to heart.
Just got back from pushing, yeah, she hardly pushes at all and is not very focused on me. She would push a little and I would release the push and let her eat then she would avert her gaze or go sniff around then eventually she would become interested in me again. I spent most of the session observing our behavior and with just the food our energy was much more subdued. I’ll keep on working at it. She doesn’t wolf down her food much at all, however my parents feed her two “snacks” in the afternoon, in the house, just put in her bowl, she doesn’t wolf in there either. I think I’ll start to feed her all her food in one meal by pushing in the park. It would be nice to have the same intensity as she gives to the toy in the near future. I am a little confused now though, should I avoid the tug-toy completely until she pushes well or incorporate it somehow? Like tease with the toy then let her push? Thanks.
To build her drive for food, secure to a bungee rope of flexible sapling, and this will increase her capacity to focus because you’ve reduced so many variables. Then invite her to jump up on you and take some food. Massage her neck and then step back and excite her. Step back in invite to jump up, give food, massage and step away with praise. Eventually while massaging push her gently back and see if she exerts herself to sustain contact. She soon will. Also, don’t play toy with her but once she gets a good push for food, put toy on ground slightly out of reach and repeat all of the above. Finally you will be able to tease her with toy, put it down and she will push for food over toy and rather than having toy. She’s now learning to discriminate without the toy frying her circuits. Good luck.
Happy lately is on a mission to eat my arms, or more accurately to just gnaw or nibble on some part of me of his choosing…not of MY choosing. I am sensing that my efforts to direct his mouthing to toys, and even hands when gentle, made about as much sense as if I had told my kids to hug their teddy bears instead of me…and that now asking him to give me all his energy via pushing without also allowing him to connect emotionally via mouthing is causing what I am perceiving as him being on this mission to eat my arms. And although the “circuits fried” jumping/grabbing is not common, a different jumping/grabbing (I feel that it is different, an observer might not notice the different “energy”), one that is a manifestation of this conflict and that can be resolved completely in the moment via pushing followed by mouthing, is increasing in frequency.
I am still hearing the same voice in my head that I do when my kids ask for ice cream before dinner…”this is a dangerous precedent to set!” Yet my heart says that the way to move forward with Happy is to let him mouth my arm/sleeve, that this mission he is on is something that I am not going to be able to “redirect”. Last night he laid at my feet and chewed his bone…then let out a big groan and crawled up onto the couch and onto my lap and just wanted to nibble my sleeve…when I tried to give him an alternative, even a finger, he then wanted my whole arm (only when covered by the shirt he wanted) and was more persistent – if not that, then the sock. The same shirt (literally the same one but not on my body) he wasn’t interested in.
In my mind that little voice is telling me that he should not be able to climb onto my lab and commence eating my shirt. But he seems driven to do so. I know that I could put him off of the couch and into a long down on the floor, and when the family is there that’s where he is, but in this situation where I’m asking him to give me all his energy, my gut tells me mouthing like this is something he needs to be allowed to do to move on in his development, as I fought him so much on it as a young puppy.
I was thinking of wrapping my arm in his favorite fleece PJ top so his teeth wouldn’t bruise my skin…but my husband is worried that Happy will start eating everyone’s PJs…
I may have answered my own question – I think that my indecisiveness is actually the problem. I bet if I just make the decision that I’m going to allow him to nibble my sleeve to fulfill that need, and trust in his good nature as Kevin says (keeping my confusion out of it), seeing what actually unfolds instead of thinking about what might or might not happen…we will both get unstuck (and move onto the next thing that I get stuck on…)
Heather, it’s very important that your dog has his “place.” His place can’t be in your lap because then he has no place since both you and he can’t be in the same place at the same time. NDT isn’t about dogs wanting to be in their owners’ laps, it’s about the dog wanting to be in its place in order to be part of a smooth functioning group. So for now, I would say Happy isn’t ready to lay at your feet without it turning into a struggle because struggling over space is how he interprets being connected to you. This is his earliest imprint and it must heal because it is going to only generate friction. He has to learn how being in his place makes the energy move, not that by getting you to spark that gets the energy to move. Hope this clarifies.
Thanks Kevin! I did figure the climbing on the couch was not a good thing…my husband will be happy to hear it is not a negotiable point…we normally don’t let him on the couch but this was a spontaneous thing, and it sounds like for the purpose of connecting via struggle. The struggles are a bit discouraging sometimes! The last thing I want is to struggle with him, so it’s ironic that way.
By his place, do you mean his pen (our baby-gated corner, which we use like a crate) or on his mat in the room with us? And this may be a dumb question, but how does the energy move when he is confined to his place?
I’ve always enjoyed having the puppers on the couch with me (never on my bed and not in my bedroom), so I am struggling with this one. I’m working on keeping them off the couch but I just can’t always resist them! So I guess more clarification regarding the necessity would be helpful. I know it’s been in previous posts as an NDT “No No” but more info on how their NOT being on the couch with me helps energy to move would be helpful. Thanks Kevin!
By-the-by…they each have their own crate as well as extra pillows on the floor for them. Diva and Duncan are pretty good at finding a spot on the floor. Bodie is the one who insists on getting on the couch with me (it’s how he grew up). Sometimes Duncan or Diva will try to get up but not as often as Bodie.
I am really missing something here and I know too many who think likewise… If our dogs could not roam the house as they please, I would not have them. If you really want to know how energy flows while in a confined space, spend a few nights there yourself and I think that will answer the question.