https://aeon.co/essays/the-feedback-loop-is-a-better-symbol-of-life-than-the-helix “We appear to have come to a threshold. The more we know about the molecular processes, the less sense the gene-centric perspective makes.” Sooner or later behaviorism will recognize the thermodynamic nature of animal behavior as the current gene-centric theory (random variability of gene encoded traits filtered by natural selection) makes less and less […]

An article, purporting to be the latest science on dogs, has been making the internet rounds in condemnation of Cesar Millan. http://yodogcast.tumblr.com/post/55504306960/the-damage-of-the-dog-whisperer-a-scientific-critique Cesar Millan is a particularly nettlesome burr under the saddle of progressive learning/training theorists, who believe that animal behavior is driven by reinforcement. Cesar is challenging this view, in effect saying that there is an […]

I began in dogdom with the assumption that dogs were descended from wolves given what I learned from my father. At first this meant that an owner should aspire to be the vaunted Alpha pack leader figure. But through my work with protection and police dogs, and which led me to the German view of […]

http://dogbehaviorscience.wordpress.com/2013/07/21/5-tall-tales-from-1-small-mind/ The Unknown Scientist: “Mr. Behan reaches new heights in ignorance of evolution when he reworks the creationist lament, “Why ain’t monkeys turning into humans?” He puts his own spin on it by asking: “why then haven’t domesticated versions of foxes and coyotes, not to mention other dump scavengers such as rats, bears, raccoons, skunks, crows, […]

The Geometry of Hunting There are two articles about wolves on the blog “Science of Dogs” that merit reading. The first one is entitled: “Freeloading Wolves” and I will analyze it in this post. http://dogbehaviorscience.wordpress.com The author states: “The folkloric view held by some is that of wolves as supreme social predators with some magical […]

“Empathy & Evolution: How Dogs Convert Stress Into Flow” Guest Blogger Kevin Behan Explains the Evolution of “Empathy” in Dogs Published on August 6, 2012 by Lee Charles Kelley in My Puppy, My Self “I’m proud to present this guest post by my mentor and colleague, Kevin Behan, originator of Natural Dog Training, which views […]

“Design In Nature” Zane, J. Peder; Bejan, Adrian (2012-01-24). Design in Nature: How the Constructal Law Governs Evolution in Biology, Physics, Technology, and Social Organization (Kindle Locations 1560-1564). Random House, Inc.. DIN: “One of the most powerful insights born from the constructal law is that social systems are natural designs that emerge and evolve to […]

Generally the discussions I get into on/line don’t go anywhere. When I make a point it is typically ignored. This is easy to do because for one thing there are too many points of contention in play at once which mean one can radiate off in a tangential direction and evade the logical consequences of […]

Lee on the NDT Buzz page draws our attention to a science story that affirms my belief in an energy theory of behavior. In the eighties, I was inspired in this direction by reading about “packs” of Wolf Spiders that hunt Musk Ox Larvae, that in response to predation, herd up into defensive circles, hence […]

So why wait for science? The goal of NDT is for owners to become their own experts. This requires questioning authority, learning to trust what you feel, and to recognize internal contradictions in the information you’re being presented with, no euphemism or oxymoron must lie unchallenged (for example, the term dominance instinct is an oxymoron). […]

Angelique sent me the link below. It’s a great example of the attraction that the wolf feels for its “prey” and how once again, the prey-controls-the-predator. Now if I were one to put thoughts in a wolf’s head, the thoughts that would come to mind would be, “Is that you mommy?”

Donnie poses the following Stump A Chump question: “In one of the Quantum Canine episodes (can’t remember which) you explain a mama dog biting her young not as a correction but as “imprinting fear” so that when they see large prey they know not to go after the strong, healthy ones. Wouldn’t this imply that […]

Actually, I may be the first one to discredit the “old wolf pack theory.” Rather I am into the canine “group theory” and the first to posit the distinction between pack and group, and that there’s no such thing as Alpha-Leader-hood. In 1991 David Mech wrote in “The Way of the Wolf” p. 36: “Perhaps […]

In the seventies I was training a Bernese Mountain Dog and after weeks of training and the dog seeming to have mastered the obedience exercises, I decided to test my control by taking him into the pasture with my father’s herd of cows. Big mistake When the dog was but one millimeter beyond some invisible […]

It’s true that anyone can claim to be natural and in one sense, everyone is being natural because in the final analysis, the dog responds to what the trainer does through a naturally evolved temperament and so it’s always the dog’s nature that’s being affected no matter how arbitrary the training approach. The term natural […]

“What is the nature of the dog?” Is the dog and our understanding of nature all figured out? Natural Dog Training believes that something profound is missing from the current training models and explains its mission in the video below.

Kevin Behan and Trisha Selbach discuss dominance in dog training and Kevin Behan’s “Immediate Moment” theory of social organization in wolf packs. Continue on to Part III of this episode.

Kevin Behan and Trisha Selbach discuss dominance in dog training and Kevin Behan’s “Immediate Moment” theory of social organization in wolf packs. They discuss Kevin’s father’s work in training and his influence, as well as what Kevin learned from his own work training police and protection dogs. The discussion continues! Click here when the above […]

“I don’t want to kill my dog,” the man said. He was near tears. He stood in my office telling me that this should be the happiest time in his life. His newborn son had just come home from the hospital, but his dog was aggressive toward strangers and even worse, with children, and now […]

The purpose of this section: why dogs do what they do is to demonstrate that dog behavior is a function of a “networked-intelligence”. The system logic of this intelligence is emotion. Dogs “know” what to do by virtue of how they feel. To date explorations of why-dogs-do-what-they-do; from the days of Descartes versus Voltaire to […]