Know Your Pooch
VK Joshi
The writer is former director, GSI, and an avid animal lover. His understanding of man's best friend comes from over six decades of dedicated association with it
I have often said ‘dogs are like computers’! In fact, in cognitive psychology, the human brain is often compared with the computer. However, we have a spoken and a written language, whereas in dogs it is not so. They have to learn our language to live happily with us and we have to learn theirs. However, they are ‘programmed’ from the moment they are born. And each day a new programme is added. Let’s see how it happens and how it relates to dogs that we acquire!
A pup is born blind. His hearing is partially developed. The only comparatively better-developed sensory organ is his nose. The moment a puppy is born and cleaned by the dam and cord severed, he sniffs around, locates a teat, and begins to suckle. That is his first feed outside the womb of the dam. The pup is almost a vegetable at that stage. For the first two days his temperature control system in the blood or ‘thermostat’ is not operational. He has no option but to remain warm by remaining snuggled to his dam and if other siblings too are there, all of them stay huddled up and mostly against the body of their dam. At that stage, if a pup falls out on a cold floor, he too will go cold and may die if not picked by the dam. She is on 24x7 hours duty at that stage and ensures that such things don’t happen.
Dogs live in lairs, hence from day one, instinctively the pup goes slightly away from the dam and littermates to relieve and instantly all his excreta is licked clean by the dam. This is the beginning of programming the pup to remain clean all the time. Further to this, the dam keeps licking them and the siblings too constantly lick each other.
As the pup grows, he instinctively goes farther and farther away from the gang to do his ‘job’ and each time the dam gets up reaches the spot and licks it clean. The puppies too learn to ‘mark’ the spots where the sibling/s have done their jobs. But surprisingly, the dam never ‘marks’ those spots. She being an adult has higher acidic urine than her puppies and she knows that if she marks the spot, they will get scared. Because they will imagine that an animal much larger in size has visited their lair! Which will also affect their psyche.
See a dam who is illiterate knows all such things because she is programmed like this by nature. As long as the pup is with the dam and littermates, he is confident and not scared. Like our infants, some pups are scared of loneliness and darkness. The dam is aware of that too and when the puppies are six weeks old, she may remain away from them all day, but after dark makes it a point to be with them to reassure them. Once the puppies are eight weeks old, their programming by the dam is over. From now onwards they are either he or she dogs. The mom and puppy relationship bond becomes very weak and in a month it doesn’t exist.
I have seen puppies that left my kennel at the age of three months or more, didn’t recognise their dam, however, they had developed better human connections and recognised me and came running towards me, with tail wagging.
You bring home a six to eight-week-old pup, who is already programmed to be neat and clean and to have meals punctually every two hours. The pup had so far been living in his lair (whelping box) or whelping area. He learnt from day one to keep his lair clean. As a six-week-old pup, he was going far away from the living area to do his job and had identified a spot to do his ‘job’.
When he reaches your home, you believe that putting him in a cage will be cruel, so you decide to keep him with you in your bedroom. The poor pup is now totally confused. His programme goes haywire. He is disoriented. Hence the first thing he does is to sniff people and sniff around the place and mark his territory. You get up in the morning and you are enraged to find puddles in the bedroom. Your natural reaction is to hit the pup for his misdeed and may even rub his nose on his doing! Your anger does nothing but crash his computer completely.
When your computer crashes, then what do you do? You go to a computer guy and he reloads the software, erasing all past data. Likewise, when the pup starts making puddles in the bedroom or even on the bed, you start to teach him afresh. At that time the cage/pen comes most handy. The first step is to be very punctual about his feed timings. You can set the time as per your convenience but then stick to it, their biological clock is very precise. Lock the pup in the pen after the meal. In a few minutes, he will begin to cry and howl. Ignore him for a few more minutes and if he is still impatient, take him out, and carry him to the spot where you want him to do his job. If he does it, praise him with the choicest words with all the honey in your voice. In case he doesn’t do anything, put him back in the cage and watch. Let him indicate again and then repeat the process till he does his job.
The dam of the pup programmes him to groom several times a day. But you ignore your Lhasa Apso pup and after a few months, when you take him to the dog parlour, the guy there suggests trimming the hair. He convinces you that a pup with trimmed hair feels more comfortable in summer! And you willingly agree. If that was the case why should nature provide him with a double coat? A long-haired dog minus his hair in the summer is more prone to a heat stroke than anyone else. If you recall, I said a dam keeps the puppies clean. She doesn’t have a brush or a comb, hence she uses her tongue for grooming. Her licking has a double meaning. One it is a reward, for example, a pup gets licked each time he does his job at the right spot; two, she licks him while relaxing to groom them. The dam and the pups both enjoy such sessions.
If she can do it, why can’t you? Just sit and relax with the pup either in your lap or on a table and groom him with a brush. Initially, hold him with one hand and gently stroke his coat with a brush. After a few strokes give him a titbit as a reward. This works the same as the licking by the dam.
Programming a dog is not as complex as programming a computer. But like a computer programme, there are certain steps that you have to follow, irrespective of the age of the dog. In the case of an old computer (oops! Dog), the time taken is longer, because his hard disc (brain) is already congested with past programmes. You have to decongest it patiently and simultaneously introduce him to the new programmes slowly and systematically. It has to be done as a fun or a play. The only thumb rule is the precise timing of the play and instant praise for all commands learnt and instant correction for commands not obeyed/ignored. His ROM is very limited; hence repetitions are important.
This is a subject on which volumes can be written. If things go well and the Editor confirms that there has been a good response from the readers, I will write more about programming a dog.
Enjoy the New Year with your pet. Have a great year ahead! ([email protected])
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