When I Grow Up I Want to Become a Dog Psychologist…

OK……I am curious if there are any other Psych majors out there who are as guilty of this one particular sin as I am, I have a tenacious habit of bringing psychological observations into the conversations that I am having with people.  I tend to be the guy who says something like “Well, certain studies have shown a strong correlation between self esteem and athletics” when someone is just trying to talk about sports or something casual.  Nobody has to bear the burden of this annoying trait more so than my wife Amanda, and this weekend gave birth to another random conversation that of course led to me taking the reigns and inevitably bring it into the world of Psychology.  I found this conversation very interesting because it just so happens to be focused on something that we are discussing in class right now.

Titus

We have a two year old puppy named Titus who is more or less the equivalent of a child, we spoil him like crazy.  Titus is only about 7 pounds and has a tendency for be a little nervous.  He loves people and other dogs, however he seems to be continually anxious.  About 16 months ago we had family in from out of town and we were grilling out in the back yard and playing cowboy golf.  Amanda’s dad threw one of the roped golf balls towards the ladder and hit Titus in the head on accident.  It really scared him and it took him days to calm down and weeks to get back to his old self.  He still to this day shows signs of nervousness and reclusiveness.  We have tried working with him to make his environment as stress free as possible and teach him that he is indeed in a safe place.  Amanda loves Cesar Millan’s show The Dog Whisperer and during lunch this weekend mentioned that maybe we should take him to a similar type dog specialist.

As our conversation progressed I explained that we are currently talking about behaviorism in history of theories right now and that essentially Cesar is simply a psychological behaviorist for dogs.  That you can train an animal thoroughly, even in the areas of behavior and emotional regulation, using just behavior modification.  Behaviorism is essentially the way an organism responds to stimuli in its environment.  Change the reaction and you change the behavior.  This is such an effective therapy for an animal because they lack introspection.  Titus doesn’t posses the ability to look at his feelings with his minds eye and say to himself, “you know I really don’t have any reason to be so nervous.  This is obviously a safe place where I am loved.  I am going to try and regulate the way I feel a little more.”  When you stop and think about it, the ability to be introspective is truly an amazing gift.  It’s our ability to look at our selves objectively, pick out areas in which we would want to improve, and then decide to proceed forth with those improvements that really make humanity unique.