I was invited to revisit one of my favorite online conferences, KIENO.
If that sounds like Japanese to you, know that it’s an acronym for Kindness Is Essential, Not Optional.
I thought I’d share the discussion I had with Holly Tett, the organizer, on the topic of How an Applied Ethologist Looks At How We Care For Dogs.
In our 40-minute talk, we discussed the following:
- What is ethology, and why is it relevant?
- Pet dogs are captive – we dictate everything about their lives.
- How giving them agency in certain areas can improve their welfare.
- Why we don’t need to mimic the animal’s wild habitat down to the smallest detail to provide good welfare- but we should attempt to nail the three most important areas where it really does make a difference.
- The difference between evolution and domestication – and why it’s relevant.
- The hunting sequence of wolves and how it relates to dogs – and the type of enrichment that we might choose for the dog in front of us.
- Why the animal’s feelings of safety should be our first concern.
- Why my jaw drops at how inappropriately we treat pet dogs in the first few months of their lives.
- Why play is tremendously important for the developing baby.
- Why I think most captive, owned dogs, are traumatized orphans (I touch more on my thoughts on the timing of dog weaning here).
- The surprising background of a litter of dogs that aced the Swedish Mental Test for Dogs (MH).
- Why the concept of “dinner” and “breakfast” may be a disservice to the animals in our care.
Here’s the image I discussed showing that feeding and foraging was seen around the clock (I calculated the average to about 9.3% of the time) in Indian free-ranging dogs.
The freebie that we discuss in the end, about how to prevent and help dogs deal with fireworks and thunder, is here.
Get access to the KIENO 2025 conference (which featured this discussion) here.
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Wanna know more of what I’m up to? I write the occasional blog post, participate in summits, webinars and masterclasses, as well as offer online courses – all on the topic of how to get happy, reasonably well behaved animals who thrive living with us weird humans. If you want to be notified when any of these things happen, just sign up for my newsletter below.
References:
Banerjee & Badra, 2021. Time-activity budget of urban-adapted free-ranging dogs
8 replies on “An applied ethologist’s take on how we care for dogs”
Something that just came to mind ate what we do with kids here where they start school as early as 4 and are at playschool/nursery full time even before that. O know that differs in other countries. I found going to school at age five stressful enough. Trying to make up for siblings mother and father can be a big ask. I don’t think I even realised dogs tended to stay in family groups before I saw video footage of mum and dad sitting on a car roof watching their 6 month old puppies playing. I had assumed the pack theory held true but that’s not what I see in video footage from Egypt.I also think puppies have a need to sleep more than most realise but it’s equally true it’s hard to learn about dogs before you have one. They don’t play out on the streets anymore like they used to!
I thought of children too! My husband was packed off to boarding school that was 200 miles from his home on a train at age 7, and was not allowed home for the holidays because it was too far.
Seems life has changed a lot for dogs in the last 40 or so years! As far as I know many owned dogs used to more or less roam their neighborhoods, each returning to their house in the evening (or whenever they were done visiting with friends…)
When it comes to dog sports many times we have to bench in our vehicle or a crate etc. We can’t always be with our dog as we need to do walk throughs, get a coffee or volunteer. There’s always a dog constantly barking due to the stress of being left alone. Is it worth competing for that title or ribbon if your partner is stressed out when you are not available? Like you said Karolina, the dog can’t concentrate on the task at hand in a stressed state of mind. Changes need to be made in order for that dog competitor to feel safe. I don’t think us humans realize how the stressed dog actually feels. It’s a constant learning curve.
It seems to me that we’re slowly catching on to this – the dog world is changing fast!
“Are many pet dogs captive traumatised orphans?” I would say yes. It may be uncomfortable for some people to hear this , but it needs to be said. We desperately need to move away from our egocentric perspective and learn to care for all our captive animals with empathy. Understanding and providing for their needs with kindness.
I have thought for a while now puppies should stay with their parents until they are weaned naturally. I watch videos of Egyptian street dogs and I see them still suckling when big enough for the bitch to just stand and I’m amazed at the care giving she gives,licking their heads etc. Free roaming dogs are very different to bred dogs however so I also think we need to be careful in how much we extrapolate. And yes my garden is fast becoming planned like a zoo exhibit and I think if we all start to understand our dogs needs better that could really help. I do agree safety whether by co regulation from the significant human or mother dog is most important in helping a pup develop emotional resilience
There’s always that balance, isn’t there – not extrapolating too much – and yet not ignoring the similarities, too! I would guess that although the modern dog breeds separated genetically less than a few hundred years ago (which is a blink of an eye in evolutionary terms), both morphology and *some* areas of behaviour has changed remarkably through intense breeding practices during the process of domestication. But many behaviours and needs that we didn’t intentionally breed for remain more or less unchanged – and it seems to me that we’re not paying enough attention to them.