Is it possible to be offended by a dog

Some owners as “educational measures” are offended by dogs and stop talking to them. Ignore. But is it possible to be offended by a dog? And how do dogs perceive our behavior?

First, you need to answer the question of whether dogs understand what resentment is. Yes, they can be happy, sad, angry, disgusted, scared. But resentment is a complex feeling, and it has not yet been proven that dogs are capable of experiencing it. Rather, to believe that dogs are offended and understand the offense is a manifestation of anthropomorphism – attributing human qualities to them. And if they don’t know what it is, then such behavior of the owner is more likely to confuse them than to “teach the mind”.

Nevertheless, the fact that a person ignores a dog, she reacts, and quite sharply. That is, behavior, not feeling. Most likely, this happens because a person for a dog is a source of significant resources and pleasant sensations, and “ignoring” on his part deprives the dog of these bonuses. Of course, in such a situation, anyone will get worried.

But is it worth using this method as an educational one?

Here we must take into account that a person takes offense at a dog most often when some time has passed after its “crime”. For example, he comes home and finds gnawed shoes or torn wallpaper there. And defiantly stops talking to the dog. But the dog perceives this not as a reaction to the “offense”, which she already forgot to think about (and most likely did not consider it as such), but as an association with your arrival. And she doesn’t understand why you suddenly lost interest in her and deprived her of the privileges associated with your society. That is, the punishment in this case is untimely and undeserved. So, it only destroys contact with the owner.

To be fair, there is a “time out” method where the dog, for example, is kicked out of the room if it has done something unacceptable. But it works only when it occurs at the moment of “misconduct”. And lasts a few seconds, not hours. After that, the dog must be reconciled.

Of course, the pet needs to be explained the “rules of the hostel”. But you can do this with the help of positive reinforcement, teaching the desired behavior and preventing the undesirable. And it is better to leave all insults and ignorance for communication with your own kind, if you really like such methods of communication.