Dogs aren't people too

Published in The Post-Star (B12)
10/23/05

Dogs are animals.

Sure, it sounds obvious, but many people tend to forget that "they're not furry little humans," says local author Jon Katz. "We have a tendency to project human thought processes onto dogs, and it's not doing them any favors."

Katz lives on Bedlam Farm in Hebron, with two border collies (Orson and Rose), two Labrador retrievers (Clementine and Pearl), 25 sheep, three donkeys, a barn cat, and a grumpy rooster named Winston. It's a place that lives up to its name at times, but he loves it.

He's a writer who has found his niche -- dogs, the pet of choice in at least 38 million American households.

"I'm fascinated with the emotional geography between dogs and humans," said Katz. Apparently, he's not the only one. His books about dogs, including "A Dog Year" and "The Dogs of Bedlam Farm," have become best-sellers in what seemed to be an already saturated market for animal care books.

His latest book, "Katz on Dogs: A Commonsense Guide to Training and Living with Dogs," was released by Random House in early October and is already climbing into the top 200 best-selling books on Amazon.com. The point of the book, said Katz, is to help people understand the best way to train their dog is to "respect their animal nature," rather than treating them like naughty children.

"People often try to explain their dogs' behavior in human terms -- they're being angry, spiteful, or wily -- but usually these aren't things that are possible for a dog," Katz said. "This doesn't mean they don't have emotions or thought processes. But they're very alien."

Dogs are instinctive, simple creatures, Katz said. If we could see inside their minds, it would probably be like a DVD running a steady stream of images of people, food and places. They're not capable of constructing emotional scenarios, and they don't recognize time as a concept.

He's disturbed by the current trend of putting dogs on anti-depressant drugs for "separation anxiety" because they act up while their owners are away. "When a poorly trained dog is left alone, it doesn't know what to do. It tries to occupy itself, and often gets into trouble," Katz explained.

Don't shout "bad dog!" Katz said. Use positive reinforcement. Sometimes this means getting creative -- no one training method will work for everyone.

"People often feel stupid when they try to train their dogs. In my book, I'm trying very hard to come up with a rational approach that people won't feel so guilty or stressed about," he said.

For example, people often try unsuccessfully to silence a barking dog by yelling at it. The dog misinterprets this response, Katz said.

"To the dog, it's like 'Great, everybody's barking!'"

A better approach would be to ignore the noise, he said, and only pay attention to the dog when it is quiet. "Choose the behavior you want to reinforce."

Food can often be a useful training tool. Katz uses the example of a friend who couldn't get her dog to come. Then she started bringing chopped hot dogs along on their walks. Every 15 feet, she dropped a piece as she called the dog. "Soon, that dog had the best recall on the planet," he said.

Even Katz, for all his practicality, admits that "my dogs are spoiled beyond description." He attributes emotions to them unintentionally ("when I yell at them, you can almost hear them chuckle") and writes in his book that Orson "will always be my soulmate."

But he wants to make one thing clear: His dogs are not a substitute for human companions.
"I would never want my daughter to think that I value the dogs as much as I value her, because I don't," he said. "Sometimes it's easier for people to love dogs than other people, and there's a sadness about that."