Dog's memory and negative experiences

Bettyboo222

Bettyboo222

Well-Known Member
Joined
7 April 2010
Messages
3,099
Location
In front of my computer
Visit site
Right a little bit of back ground first, 2 years ago we adopted Biscuit. He was fear aggressive and underweight. I've spent 2 years retraining him and he is a lovely little dog now, however an incident happened the other day which worried me.

I bought a friend a dummy check chain for her to use showing her dog, We decided to try it on Biscuit to see how it would look (just for the record I would never use it). I picked it up and made it open to put on Biscuit and went to put it over his neck and Biscuit completely freaked out, he was really snarling and growling at me whilst I was holding the chain.

It made me wonder, is it possible for dogs to recall negative experiences and pinpoint them onto an item?
 
Going on my own experiance, i would say yes. One of our dogs, who has now passed on, was a rescue. Like you, it took me a good couple of years to work through his issues however to his dying day he would go to pieces when you pulled sellotape or similar of a roll. I dread to think what had happened to him to have such a fear of sellotape.
 
Of course they do - it's how they learn - memory and repetition (for the positive, and for the negative).

For instance, and seeing as you mentioned a check chain - every time I put my dog's chain on (it's the only item the dog is allowed to wear in a competition) I feed him a few bits of kibble out of my hand, so when he hears the chain, he goes mad, in a good way! And it's a cue that he's going to do something fun.

My old bitch (who was actually very stable of character/not easily pressured in adulthood) jumped up on my dad when she was a pup. He was wearing good clothes (and has a bad temper) pushed her off and yelled at her. Until the day she died, when she was 14, whenever she saw him she would slink off to her kennel, no matter how much he ever tried to make it up to her.
 
Bless - I find it hard to get my head round things sometimes with rescue dogs as their reactions to things can make you wonder what on earth happened to them! My mum and dad's GSD x used to cower if we rolled up newspapers. For the record, the reason we did this (this was several years ago) is because their other older dog who've we've had since a pup, loves the game when you blow down a rolled up paper or cardboard tube (he goes daft). However, she saw it and cowered and slunk off :(

She was also (and still is a bit) very scared of young children. We got her aged 7 mths and all we can assume is she either was manhandled by children or she was maybe boisterous (as a young pup is) as got reprimanded for it if near the kids. She hates any shouting and hates even when my dog or my sister's big oaf of a dog gets in trouble for doing anything bad. Poor love! :(
 
Absolutely, but with the same theory you can help try to reverse the negative association, and turn it into a positive (......depending on situation!)
 
Of course. That is learning. If dogs (and horses, and people) didn't remember and carry forward associations we would never be able to train them!

I have a rescue dog who to this day will flinch when you pull your belt off or swing and kind of rope etc. quickly. She has more or less got over day to day things, like having her lead put on or having anything around/over her head but I haven't erased those bad memories, only overlayed them with more positive ones.

I think this is actually a key point in training (dogs, horses, whatever) - you never get a completely clean slate! Sometimes people seem to think animals come with a reset button but part of the fascination for me is how to maximise the good and minimise the bad.

It works the other way, too. I did some clicker training with one of my dogs and despite not practising for years he will pull the behaviours out whenever he wants something.
 
TarrSteps I have not used a clicker in over a year but if my young dog sees it in my hand he will start drooling, very Pavlovian!!

Also, people automatically assume because of certain reactions, that their dogs must have been traumatised in a previous life. I'd have thought my young one had been tortured at some stage, with some of the screamy noises he makes - if I hadn't seen him at eight weeks old in someone else's ownership, screaming every time someone tried to pick him up and put him away/take him away from all the fun :p that's the memory that, whenever he screamed, the thing he didn't like, stopped.
 
Very true, CC. That is one if the fascinations for me, figuring out motivations and roots. Of course you don't necessarily have to know all that to solve a problem but it can help, especially if the animal isn't responding in a predictable fashion.

I know a horse that people are always convinced has been abused. But I've known him every day of his life, I know his breeders, owners and peers. He has been fearful and reactive and, unfortunately, not too bright with it, since the day he was born. I'm sure he has had traumatic incidents, from his point of view, but another horse would have shrugged the same incidents off without a second thought.

I saw another horse have his jumping ruined in a moment. I happened to be standing there and while I thought it was quite dramatic - mostly because of the way the horse reacted - other people there thought it was a perfectly proportional response. But the horse never jumped well again and years later still reacted in ways I could trace to that one day.

On the other hand I've had horses - and dogs and people - go "Ohhhhhh! I'll just do that then, shall I? Much easier!" after literally years of reacting negatively. Memory and learning are very funny, fascinating things!
 
Funny you say about the screaming, too. The older dog, who has never had a bad day in his life, used to scream the place down as a puppy when he didn't get his way. I was nearly banned from Pets@Home one day because he had a strop about something and carried on spectacularly. He will also flinch away from the hand if he's done something "bad" although I know he's never been hit. No surprise to learn he's a lurcher! He learn screaming got him nowhere but he still does a good line in looking woefully abused if things aren't going his way. (Although, to his credit, when he's been really hurt he's been very stoic and great about getting patched up.)

The younger dog has been properly, horribly abused and neglected, starting at birth, which is particularly damaging. She used to cry pitifully in her sleep but hardly ever when she was awake - I suspect she learned all it got her was another kick. She is currently injured and it's a struggle getting her assessed by the vet as she simply does not react and will do anything to appear okay in the presence of strangers.

Knowing their respective histories and personalities goes a long way to being able to accurately assess their reactions.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top