social structure

Animal Mind as a Charged “Particle” of Consciousness Jul 19, 2015

“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 […]

Animals as “Charged Particles” of Consciousness

        “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 […]

The Homunculus Fallacy Jul 14, 2015

When a dog is looking out, what’s going on within? Modern behaviorism and ethology claims it leaves that question aside and only considers observable behavior, but a close study of their terminology and usage shows that not to be the case. A discussion of a dominance hierarchy in dogs brings this into view.         In […]

More On The Play Bow Feb 27, 2015

Contextual Analysis versus an Immediate-Moment Analysis of the Play Bow The problem with the current consensus in behaviorism is that while the experts make very reasoned cases for a number of possible explanations for the various acts dogs perform during play, such as rolling over, bowing, grabbing and chasing, they haven’t been able to find […]

The Body Does More Than Carry The Head Around Feb 22, 2015

Most treatments of behavior, as far as I know, treat the brain as the seat of the mind and the sole computer of behavior. In my reading of canine behavior however I’ve learned that anatomy is more important in how the mind composes its view of reality than cognitive processes. An organism learns about the […]

From the “Vortex of Life” Jun 06, 2014

“It is a fact that we have only to set the most simple and primary into action, to find, without our having to import any further complications, that more sophisticated considerations are already implied, inherent within them.” Lawrence Edwards   The principle of emotion as a function of attraction, implies flow, resistance to flow, and […]

Domestication and Natural Dog Training Feb 01, 2014

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/12/131203161715.htm For my entire career NDT has been swimming against the tide of consensus that held that the nature of the domesticated dog is due to its contact with man and to such a degree that dogs were considered to have become an adjunct of human culture. Theorists initially believed that it was pointless to […]

Emotional Fusion Apr 26, 2013
Censorship In Dogdom and the Nature of Dominance Feb 22, 2013

Psychology Today has the right to summarily delete any column or terminate any columnist as they see fit, even on a whim, and so their decision to end Lee Charles Kelley’s column “My Puppy My Self is not censorship by any means. When it comes to privately held methods of discourse all’s fair in a […]

The Constructal Law and Behaviorism Sep 20, 2012

I’m surprised, as a matter of fact stunned, that modern behaviorism isn’t taking notice of the Constructal law as articulated by Adrian Bejan in his book “Design In Nature.”  To me the implications of the Constructal law are overwhelming and yet no behaviorist or biologist is taking note. So about a month ago I had […]

Design In Nature -7- Mar 14, 2012

Chapter Six   “Why Hierarchy Reigns” I think chapter six will prove to be the most critical chapter as in how the constructal law intersects with animal behavior. Today we find a reinvigoration of the debate over dominance. The last several decades the positive, learning theorists have been arguing there’s no such thing as dominance […]

Books about Natural Dog Training by Kevin Behan

In Your Dog Is Your Mirror, dog trainer Kevin Behan proposes a radical new model for understanding canine behavior: a dog’s behavior and emotion, indeed its very cognition, are driven by our emotion. The dog doesn’t respond to what the owner thinks, says, or does; it responds to what the owner feels. And in this way, dogs can actually put people back in touch with their own emotions. Behan demonstrates that dogs and humans are connected more profoundly than has ever been imagined — by heart — and that this approach to dog cognition can help us understand many of dogs’ most inscrutable behaviors. This groundbreaking, provocative book opens the door to a whole new understanding between species, and perhaps a whole new understanding of ourselves.
  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.