Human-dog relationships vary from being extremely positive and as reciprocal as possible to being highly abusive, with dogs treated as unfeeling objects and living their lives in fear of making dog-appropriate “mistakes” that upset their humans to the point where they are punished, often harshly, for just being a dog.
Research has consistently shown that positive force-free training is the best way to get a dog to do what they need to live in fair harmonious relationships with humans that value the well-being of all involved.1 Along these lines, in her new science-based book Think Like a Dog: How Positive Psychology Can Help Your Dog Thrive, dog expert Jen Golbeck, Ph.D., “shifts our focus from solving problems and scolding ‘bad behavior’ to building on strengths based on qualities like focus, vitality, and curiosity.”
Marc Bekoff: Why did you write Think Like a Dog?
Jen Golbeck: When I was working on my first book, The Purest Bond, which was about the human-dog bond, I collected so much interesting research about dog psychology that was independent of their relationship with us. As I looked at all of it, I saw that almost all this science described ways that dogs interacted with the world, and found enrichment, in really positive ways. I did not want to write “Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover’s Soul,” but I did want to connect all these interesting, scientific insights about dogs to a framework we have for understanding how people live fulfilling lives. That’s what I’ve tried to do, linking canine psychology with positive psychology in Think Like a Dog.
MB: How does your book relate to your background and general areas of interest?
LG: First, as a dog rescuer and rehabilitator, I am amazed and fascinated by dogs’ resilience and capacity for joy. We take in dogs who have been abused and neglected, who have truly suffered, sometimes for their whole lives, and yet after a few weeks in our gentle, supportive house, we can see that past falling off them. After a few months, they are transformed into happy, loving, engaged dogs. They sometimes have anxieties or weird behaviors left over from their pasts, but they are able to live their best lives anyway. Even though we have shepherded dozens of dogs through that process, it still feels miraculous every time.
But also, I’m a scientist! I love when science gives us insight into what is going on in the brain and mind that explains the things that feel like miracles. In this case, we have decades of human psychology research that tells us how we can be happy and resilient, and it turns out there are straightforward ways to link that to decades of research about dogs and find that, at the heart of it, a lot of the same things make both species feel fulfilled.
MB: Who do you hope to reach?
JG: Certainly dog people who want to understand both how their dogs see the world and how they can use that knowledge to help them be happier. But it’s not a training book, and I think anyone interested in how we humans and animals think alike will find something in here.
MB: What are some of the topics you consider and what are some of your major messages?
JG: One of my favorite things in the book is approaching the more complex social dynamics dogs have with each other and with us. We think of them as loving snacks and walks and a swim, but those are simple joys. Dogs are very complex social thinkers and scientific observations and experiments have shown that.
They have a sense of loyalty, for example, and are less likely to accept a treat from someone who has been a jerk to their own human. They have something like a sense of humor; dogs laugh and seem to enjoy playing tricks.
They have sophisticated ideas about fairness. You have written about this in your own work, with the way they engage in play. They have a set of rules they follow and behaviors they expect from one another, but they also are able to understand when they need to be more gentle or calm and when they can be more energetic and let loose. They also can keep track of fairness in allocations, where some dogs will wait until treats are distributed fairly before taking more than they deserve.
It’s not just that they have these senses or understandings. Their lives are better because of them, just like our lives are better when we laugh, have strong relationships, and engage in fulfilling interactions.
I also want people to start looking for how these traits show up in dogs. Are they happiest after lots of exercise? Or lots of cuddles? Are they constantly seeking out other dogs to play with? Those actions tell us about what the dogs want to be happy, and we should look for how we can offer them more of that. Maybe they need a friend, maybe they need to join a flyball team, maybe they need a job to have a sense of purpose. The major message of the book is to think about how you can recognize your dog’s messages about what brings them joy and fulfillment, and then think about how to give it to them.
MB: How does your work differ from others that are concerned with some of the same general topics?
JG: This book resists something I see in a lot of work that’s on a related topic. It doesn’t anthropomorphize dogs, saying we have to treat them just like humans or see them through our own eyes. It offers science that, I hope, shows their unique way of being in the world. At the same time, it does not treat them as creatures with social rules and psychology different from ours, because we bred them to interact with and like us! Grounding this all in really solid science helps find this middle space where we can appreciate those similarities but also think about what they need that is different.
MB: Are you hopeful that as people learn more about how dogs think, and what they want and need from us, they will treat them with more compassion, respect, and dignity and try harder to take the dog’s point of view and grant them more freedom to be a dog and express their dogness?
It is exactly my hope that once we all understand our dogs better, we will be more gracious with them. If we want our dogs to be happy, one of the best ways to get that is to understand how they see the world and to provide them as many opportunities to do the things that science says will work to make their lives better. That may mean being more engaged (more snuggling, less scrolling), patient (more sniffs and fewer steps on a walk), or creative (more novelty, more excitement), but I think people who really love their dogs will want to understand their unique way of interacting with the world, appreciate the parallels with our own, and give them the same kind of freedom to be happy that we want for ourselves.
