“Complex is not complicated.”
Nicolas Perony (Ted Talk)
This sums up the NDT model in a nutshell. NDT is the only theory of canine behavior which posits that sociability is simple, it is not the result of high cognition or learning as it is commonly and scientifically entertained. It is a flow architecture organized around a current of emotion. It is not a dominance hierarchy organized around access to resources.
Dogs are the purest embodiment of the basic emotional code by which sensory inputs become information in the animal mind. This is why they were able to be domesticated. I believe the process of domestication itself is derivative of the basic code.
The author of this talk makes a very telling comment when likening Meerkats crossing a road as acting in a way that’s analogous to particles. He notes that while this may be literally wrong, it nevertheless provides a useful model. I suggest that this can be shown to be even more accurate than as a metaphor.
My premise is that the brain-to-gut connection is the basic code. This initiates motive, a compulsion to move, a movement that follows from a state of attraction, not intention. The balance (brain) and hunger (gut) circuitry enact a given state of attraction that then proceeds according to an inherent principle of conductivity by which an individual is able to assess its actions as to efficacy. To the senses, the world becomes partitioned into paths of resistance. The overarching question; did energy (nervous stimulation) run to ground, i.e. smooth peristaltic action. Balance relative to hunger is the basis by which sensory inputs become information and then elicits emotional affects that feel to the individual just as if it is electrically or magnetically charged. Revealingly, every culture in the world describes emotional affects in terms of electrical and magnetic phenomena.
Animals acting as if they are electrically or magnetically charged particles will prove to be the only interpretation of behavior consistent with the laws of motion and principles of thermodynamics, most especially, the Constructal Law. This is also why complex animal behavior lends itself to mathematical modeling because animals certainly aren’t running algorithms in their heads. So the next time one feels harried out of one’s mind and finding oneself launching into irrepressible movement, or observes a ball crazed dog rocketing out of its skin when presented with one about to be thrown, I propose this would be what one would feel like were one an electrically charged particle. It is simple and it accounts for complexity. Any other interpretation of behavior is story telling.
I worry so much about a dog feeling so electrified in its head. I get an image of thousands of lightening strikes to the brain. Correct me if i misunderstood your narrative here.
The best way to apprehend it is to imagine yourself accelerated “head over heels.” The “charge” of momentum has rocketed out of the body and the inputs are overwhelming. So in a behavioral sense, for example an aggressive dog looking at another dog, this is perceived as an intensification of pressure every time it moves, the inputs add to sensations of pressure centered in its head. This for example is why such a dog would growl, neuro/physiologically, it’s trying to dissipate this intensity.