Dog Behaviour

Adrian Doyle – Dog Behaviourist

As well as keeping livestock, we have dogs. I (Adrian) grew up with dogs and started keeping dogs once my lifestyle became more suitable. Having always been interested in animals, I felt it might be useful to read up on dog behaviour. If I was going to keep a dog, I wanted to be a good owner both from the dog’s perspective and other people too.

As well as reading a number of books and watching multiple videos, the dogs taught me some important lessons. The main one is that most dog issues stem from human behaviours. At the best of times, we humans are inconsistent and can tolrate something one minute yet get angry about it the next. Dogs watch us and monitor our body language constantly. If we return the favour, we can see immediately how our behaviour affects our dogs.

Putting all this knowledge together, I found myself being asked for advice by people who were having problems with their dogs. This graduated into me being taken on at a dog boarding centre where I would “supervise” up to 50 dogs in a field. They taught me a lot too. From there, I found myself working as a dog behaviourist helping people with problem dogs.

Dogs Talk - bookDogs Talk

One of the biggest challenges I faces as a dog behaviourist was convincing owners that their dog’s issues were a direct result of the owner’s behaviour. I tried many approaches. One approach was to write up the dog’s perspective of the situation. This got people’s interest.

I have taken some of these experiences and written a book about dogs. While it is, essentially, a book about dog rehabilitation, it is written from the dog’s point of view. The dogs explain how the human behaviour they observe affects them. The reader will gain an insight into dog psychology, why dogs do what they do and also the problems dogs have with their humans.

It covers a wide range of dog issues including:

  • anxiety including separation anxiety
  • fear of loud noises including thunder, fireworks and loud bangs
  • inappropriate chewing
  • weeing or pooing indoors
  • stealing food including counter and table surfing
  • pulling on the lead
  • aggression including snapping or biting
  • jumping up
  • not coming back when called
  • inappropriate barking
  • digging
  • chasing other creatures

Some of these are described in a little more detail here.

The book also includes some real life case studies that demonstrate many of the problems faced by dogs in a human world. You can read about those by clicking here.

Why Read Dogs Talk?

The main benefit from reading “Dogs Talk” will be getting a better understanding of dogs. If there’s onepresent you can give your dog, it’s to treat it like a dog. Ideally, your dog needs you to be a dog. It cannot be a human, it can only be a dog. However, we humans can tyhink about what we do, we can choose to change or behaviour if we so wish.

Aside from that, I like to think it is an entertaining read.