A Dachshund is very different from a Golden Retriever and the variety between all breeds is impressive.
Estimates about the number of breeds are as high as 800 in Western countries alone. Even given the fact that the difference from one breed to another can be carried to absurd extremes, the variety is astonishing from a human perspective, who have, perhaps, only a dozen 'breeds'.
The predecessor of the domestic dog is the wolf. Dogs began their domestication some 10,000 years ago. From an evolutionary point of view that is a short time frame and so it is not surprising that between breeds, some behaviors are very similar. Next I go in to 2 of those traits.
Predatory behavior:
Of course this doesn't mean that your dog will hunt down every animal that passes by, but it is very much part of their instinct. They have very well developed ears and they can hear much better than humans. They are very good at distinguishing a wide array of sounds and can locate it very accurately.
Their vision is in black and white, but the angle of vision is much wider. Dogs can perceive angels as wide as 270 degrees, where humans only see up to 150 degrees. This is a huge advantage for hunters, because they can scan the field much better.
And, of course, they're famous for their sense of smell. They have 25 times more scent-receptor cells and they are able to perceive scents a 100 million times smaller than humans.
Golden Retrievers, for example, can smell gophers through two feet of packed snow and a foot of frozen earth. And, they'll dig through it to get to the gopher. That's predatory behavior.
The second trait I want to discuss today is their social character.
We all know that dogs are social animals, because that is the reason why we have them in the first place, but sadly, in practice, owners don't always take that in to account. Many times ignorant owners will leave the dog alone for periods up to 10 hours, isolating the dog too much. Dogs need social interaction with other animals and human beings. If not they can develop anxiety or can get aggressive. In order to stay mentally healthy your dog needs company.
Isolating a dog for brief periods can be a useful training technique. Expulsion from the pack is an effective way of letting the dog know when he was behaving improperly. He should never be expelled for more than 5 minutes.
Your dog needs social contact and if he lacks it you'll pay the price. All dogs, even guard dogs, need to be around their pack or family, because if not how do they know who is welcome and who should be chased away?
Estimates about the number of breeds are as high as 800 in Western countries alone. Even given the fact that the difference from one breed to another can be carried to absurd extremes, the variety is astonishing from a human perspective, who have, perhaps, only a dozen 'breeds'.
The predecessor of the domestic dog is the wolf. Dogs began their domestication some 10,000 years ago. From an evolutionary point of view that is a short time frame and so it is not surprising that between breeds, some behaviors are very similar. Next I go in to 2 of those traits.
Predatory behavior:
Of course this doesn't mean that your dog will hunt down every animal that passes by, but it is very much part of their instinct. They have very well developed ears and they can hear much better than humans. They are very good at distinguishing a wide array of sounds and can locate it very accurately.
Their vision is in black and white, but the angle of vision is much wider. Dogs can perceive angels as wide as 270 degrees, where humans only see up to 150 degrees. This is a huge advantage for hunters, because they can scan the field much better.
And, of course, they're famous for their sense of smell. They have 25 times more scent-receptor cells and they are able to perceive scents a 100 million times smaller than humans.
Golden Retrievers, for example, can smell gophers through two feet of packed snow and a foot of frozen earth. And, they'll dig through it to get to the gopher. That's predatory behavior.
The second trait I want to discuss today is their social character.
We all know that dogs are social animals, because that is the reason why we have them in the first place, but sadly, in practice, owners don't always take that in to account. Many times ignorant owners will leave the dog alone for periods up to 10 hours, isolating the dog too much. Dogs need social interaction with other animals and human beings. If not they can develop anxiety or can get aggressive. In order to stay mentally healthy your dog needs company.
Isolating a dog for brief periods can be a useful training technique. Expulsion from the pack is an effective way of letting the dog know when he was behaving improperly. He should never be expelled for more than 5 minutes.
Your dog needs social contact and if he lacks it you'll pay the price. All dogs, even guard dogs, need to be around their pack or family, because if not how do they know who is welcome and who should be chased away?
About the Author:
About the author: Daniel Varena is an expert on dogtraining and on his website i-perros.com you can read a lot more articles. You can also get lots of accessories to make training your dog easy in his shop tienda animales
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