Does the Cause of a Behavior Matter?

It’s very common for people to want to understand why a dog is doing a behavior they find problematic. And many attributes or reasons are conceived and presented - because the dog is dominant, or wants to be a leader, is taking revenge, is offended that he was left alone, or was coddled, or any number of other things that don’t have any evidence for those explanations. There’s no way to actually understand exactly what a dog is thinking, other than we can evaluate emotional states like fearful, anxious, frustrated, happy/relaxed by observing each dog’s body language.

There’s no scientific evidence dogs have an emotional capacity for more complex things like malice, revenge, or spite. Dogs aren’t trying to harm people with their behaviors, they are just doing what comes naturally for their species.

The good news is we don’t have to know dogs’ exact thoughts to teach them new behaviors. We don’t have to know what a dog is thinking to teach him to sit on cue, or stay, or to come when called, or shake paws.

The exception to this is understanding when a dog is emotionally upset, because that may require a slight adjustment in training methods. For example, if a dog is barking on-leash towards another dog because he wants to greet him, that is different than if he’s barking to drive the other dog away (because he’s fearful). In the latter case we wouldn’t necessarily want to let the other dog come up to him (until doing some training to build confidence and a friendship first), whereas in the first case we might simply let the dog meet and play (depending on the specific circumstances).

And if a dog is upset towards something, it helps to identify the triggers: such as thunderstorms, sounds, people reaching towards him or restraining him for nail trims/vet procedures, etc. This allows us to target specifically what is bothering the dog and create training plans to teach new behaviors.

It also helps to attempt to identify the cause of the behavior if it is medical-related. If a dog has pain, a brain tumor, or neurological issues it can affect a dog’s normal behavior and, for example, lead to things like aggressive behavior.

Another example would include a dog with a urinary tract infection that may have previously been house-trained but is now urinating in the house again. The solution isn’t following a house-training plan. It’s to cure the infection.

But in general if a dog is happy-go-lucky and healthy, we can just starting teaching the desired behaviors using positive reinforcement/rewards without worrying about the exact thoughts going through our dogs’ heads.