Ever thought of the words we use after the death of a beloved dog? We talk about the “pain of loss,” and “healing” from the grief. And what do we do for someone who has lost a dog, or a dear friend or family member? We do the same things for them that we do if they’ve had major surgery. We bring them food and flowers. We hug them and tell them that they are loved.
These connections between physical pain and grief aren’t random, as I learned when I first read Jaak Panskepp’s Affective Neuroscience: The Foundations of Human and Animal Emotions. Panskepp, is one the world’s leaders in the neurobiology of mammalian emotion, and has much to tell us all about the subject. (Not beach reading, I’m just saying.) Reading the book, I found that what is often called “social pain” is registered in the brain in the same way as is physical pain. “Separation distress” activates the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, as does physical pain. There’s more: drugs that alleviate physical pain also work on social pain (i.e., feeling lonely, feeling rejected by others). The opposite of social pain–social support, reduces the perception of physical pain. That’s one of the reasons why animal assisted therapy and interventions are so therapeutic. The connections go on and on; the more we learn, the more we find that physical and social pain are more alike than they are different.
All of this information was highlighted by an insightful and important talk by Dr. Frank D. McMillan, DVM, at the Interdisciplinary Forum on Applied Animal Behavior a few weeks ago. Dr. McMillan is the Director of Well-Being Studies at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary and the author of the book, Unlocking the Animal Mind. He has won my heart and mind by focusing on the emotional health of animals, and is the country’s leading expert on the effects of psychological trauma in animals.
McMillan began his talk by reviewing the evolutionary pressures that drive us to seek companionship. All highly social mammals, dogs and people included, do better in groups. Being separated increases our chance of injury and death. That’s true for a wolf in northern Wisconsin, and it’s true for an elderly person who we know will have a longer life if he has a “village” to keep him company. That’s why selection has favored a system that makes being alone feel bad, and being in a group feel good. We all know how vital this is, even us introverts who need a lot of time alone. “Shunning” is used as an extreme punishment in hunter/gatherer societies; we use “solitary confinement” as the ultimate punishment for social transgressions–a practice so extreme it is seen as torture by some (me included). On the flip side, we intuitively gather around people who are grieving, reaching out to them to let them know that they are not alone.
All very interesting, but how does this apply to our dogs, and the other animals we interact with on a daily basis? That’s where McMillan’s talk, and current research, is so important. Here, straight out of his talk (with his gracious permission and some of my additional comments) are what he sees as the implications of the connection between physical and social pain:
Housing of social animals–surely it is cruel to keep social animals in “solitary confinement? Think of dogs in isolated kennels, dogs chained outside, horses in stables, animals in zoos, etc. I’d argue that we need to rethink the animal cruelty laws given the clear connection between physical and social pain.
Breaking/severing bonds–buying, selling and trading animals like horses and pet dogs, transferring animals (like elephants) between zoos. [A note here: I’d argue that we must take these bonds into consideration, but also balance them with other factors. I’ve had so many clients whose dogs desperately needed to be in another home to be happy, but the owners felt that finding them another home would be a betrayal. In those cases, I saw re-homing the dog as the kindest thing they could do. Balance, balance, balance….]
Redefining abuse and neglect–why the focus only on physical injury in legal cases? Domestic dogs aren’t just “social,” they are exceptionally so. We know, for example, that shelter dogs form social bonds with a caretaker incredibly quickly. It appears that one thing that makes dogs so special is their ability to form strong social bonds with people, even stronger than those with members of the same species. It’s what makes some of them suffer from Separation Anxiety. Thus, McMillan argues, we need to think approach the social pain of dogs as we would care for an individual with an enhanced ability to feel physical pain.
Training and discipline–We need to rethink how we define “no punishment” training methods, in which attention or one’s physical presence is withdrawn. [I’m reminded of the policy at Natural Encounters; they never use “Time Outs” as a way of trying to influence behavior in the belief that there’s virtually nothing “positive” about it.]
Lots to think about here, yes? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic. I imagine that it will take many a year for our legal system to catch up to the science behind this information, but kudos to Dr. McMillan for his research and education on these issues.
MEANWHILE, back on the farm: Wait! I’m not ready for this warm, spring-like weather. I have a long list of “winter projects” that I haven’t finished yet. But then… I never do. And who can complain about temperatures in the 50’s in March in Wisconsin? Well, I can worry a bit about global climate change, and whether all the fruit tree buds will be ready to unfurl, only to be killed by the thermometer descending into single digits. But, worrying won’t help, so I’m enjoying it while I can. Mud…
Maggie and I are working as much as we can, her first trial is in a little over two months and we have lots of work to do. It’s critical for a dog at her stage of training to work with new sheep in new places, so we’ll be out and about as much as I can spare the time. Here we are at friend Donna’s working on driving:
Lambing is right around the corner too. Our flock just got shorn this afternoon, in preparation for lambing later in April. I don’t like them being shorn too close to lambing, but you don’t want to do it when it’s too cold either. Hopefully, today will be just right. By the way, the first due date for lambs is April 6th. That’s when Lady Godiva’s lambs are due. But of course, the lambs will come when they are good and ready, just like babies. I’ll keep you posted.
Here’s a shot of what the wool looks like as it comes off. Lady Godiva is an old pro at this; she pretty much lies still til it’s over. But then she gets grain and hay. Yummy.
Tricia says
Fascinating that he is with Best Friends. They keep dogs kenneled for such long periods of time, in sanctuary. This is becoming more and more common as the pressure against euthanizing is so strong, even with dangerous animals. They are driven by their social needs, and yet we seem to be willing to isolate them more and more in the name of saving lives. Quantity is so often favored over quality.
Chris Wells says
I will look for Dr. mcMillan’s book and I am waiting for your memoir…somewhat patiently. Recently we adopted a Golden Retriever rescue, she will be with us a year this May. I calculate that we are at least her fourth family and she was not yet two when we adopted her. She is truly a GOOD dog. She tries so hard to fit in, it almost brings me to tears. One of the issues we work on, is walking into the house when I open the door. If she goes out to go to the bathroom, when she comes back she bolts through the door, as if we were trying to keep her out. Most dogs bolt out the door; Molly bolts in! We have tried wait, sit, lie down nothing slows her down coming in the house. She obeys all the commands and then bolts through the door! I have finally decided not to make this an issue. At some point in her life she is going to understand that she will always be allowed back in and she will figure it out herself. I think she was never allowed inside with some of her homes and was left alone outside. She just loves people and she is so quiet and calm in the house. In the mean time…..stand back, Molly is coming in!
Scott says
Under “Breaking/Severing Bonds” you mentioned that folks needed to consider putting their dogs in other (different) homes to be happy. Did you mean the dog needs to be re-homed due to a particular problem at the client’s residence? A who is being betrayed? The animal? The human companion? Both?
I’ve witnessed volunteers at shelters who are supposed to “champion” a dog and serve as his/her advocate ultimately subvert efforts to find the dog a loving home because of the volunteer’s subjective evaluation that no one is good enough for “their” dog!
Anne Baker says
The neurobiological similarity between physical and emotional pain makes perfect sense, not only for our dogs, but when we humans experience anticipatory grief over the inevitable loss of our dearest companions when they’re diagnosed with a terminal illness. No wonder even the thought of losing them is a heart-break. Having known this kind of pain led me to write the book, Pet Illness, Pet Loss, and Prayers That Help, that was published a few months ago on amazon.com. When my 10-year-old papillon, Pip, was diagnosed with progressive heart disease, I needed to pull out all the stops to help myself and him cope with his last declining years. Adhering to all the medical instructions and medications could only take me so far. I found myself turning to affirmative prayer when suffering the pain of powerlessness and fear of impending loss. Anyone who has gone through this knows how physical the emotional pain can be. The support I received from the clergy and pet parents I interviewed alleviated the pain enough for me to be fully present for my little Pip, all the way to the end. I want to share my little book of prayers and rituals with others when their neurobiology tells them, “This hurts!”
Nic1 says
Trisha, thank you. My heart swelled reading this and I am typing through tears…
You have summed this up beautifully: I think we need to try harder to amend being so focused on our own desires so much (as a species) and think much more about how our everyday actions affect the natural world around us, including our domesticated animals. Especially in the light of increasing science and evidence.
Amelia says
What an informative article! Our dog is a rescue and comes from an abusive background. He suffers from separation anxiety so we ensure that someone is with him at all times. Judging from our dog, I would have to agree that animals are very social and need that interaction. They are much like children that way.
marcy says
The books mentioned have just been added to my “read” list.
As I was reading your blog I was thinking of all the dogs that are relinquished to shelters and then go into what appeared to be depression. There are some breeds that changes like this hit harder than others. You must take into consideration the big picture. Sometimes it hurts to do the right thing for all concerned.
Also dogs that come from hoarding situations and are Unsocialized and tramatized so much they shut down. Mental scaring. It is deep and takes a long time to build trust and get the dog comfortable.
Mary McComb says
Hi Tricia, I was at Best Friends leading a student volunteer group about 12 years ago. Their housing was impressive. Dogs lived mostly in roundish “pods,” with kennels arranged around a central area. All pods exited to an outside space where dogs could mingle. When dogs were in kennels, they could see the other kennels and the caretaker because the pod was round. (There were some older regular kennels; maybe they’ve been replaced by the pods by now.) The dogs who couldn’t interact with others were housed in large spaces with small shelters. They could see other dogs, and engage in digging, running, and other activities in their large spaces. BF seemed to do a great job not isolating animals, even the troublesome ones.
Larry Caldwell says
My wife and I adopt mature dogs whose owners have died. They normally have some problem with separation anxiety. Being around other dogs as well as people is good for them. In one case, a dog expected to be dumped again until we took him on pack outings where we all went for an adventure and then came back home. I doubt that any herd or pack animal can be happy in isolation.
Monika says
Great photos as always! Seeing the social bonding phenomena first hand with a pair of abandoned/rescued Old English Sheepdogs we got at the local Dumb Friends League. At first it’s heartbreaking then as they begin to get comfortable and flourish in the new environment, it’s heartwarming to see them learn how to trust and love again. ღ
Beth says
So good to see science focusing on the emotional needs of our animals. In regards to zoos, it is important to note that not all animals are social animals and some prefer to be alone.
I too share grave concerns about rescues that keep unadoptable/ unsafe pets forever in a cage situation. I personally struggle to see how that is an improvement over euthanasia. Who is it meant to help? Part of me thinks we do that for the humans, not for the pets. No-kill is not necessarily humane if it is impossible to meet the basic social needs of the animals because their temperament conflicts with their desire for social interaction.
As far as rehoming, I sure hope we don’t start seeing a big push that rehoming social animals is inherently bad. PEOPLE form strong social bonds, yet we survive and thrive with new roommates, children leaving home, moves across country, marriages and sometimes divorces, and so on. Horses and dogs do not live in static packs in free-ranging situations. A healthy and sane social animal should be able to tolerate, within reason, fluid changes to the social group. Horses, for instance, are very expensive to keep and are not pets so much as partners. It is very rare that one horse will meet the needs of a rider from the time it is trained to the time it retires. Riders needs change. Horses ability and energy level change. Normally you would see a young horse start with an experienced owner, and then perhaps switch to being a great show horse for an intermediate child and then as it moves into the later teen years a true babysitter for beginners.
In a wild situation, young horses are driven out of their natal band when they are several years old. Then stallions form bachelor bands, mares are stolen by or willingly pair up with either a young stallion or an existing herd. There is a lot of stability but mares get stolen or wander off, stallions get displaced. The ability to adapt into a new herd is part of being a horse.
Free-ranging dogs form loose packs that disband and reform on a regular basis. So yes, we should not treat these bonds lightly but they can adapt and suggesting we should avoid all social stresses on the animals in our care is asking us to provide an environment that nature never does.
Beth says
Just should add that I’m not suggesting Trish is saying that we should avoid all social stresses on animals in our care….. just saying that research that shows that social stress causes pain must be treated carefully because social pain can be part of growth or moving on to better things and is not always bad in and of itself.
Mireille says
@Larry; going on outings together reminder me of the first time we took our Siberian husky Chenak on a skiing trip. He came to us when 4 years old, one of those dogs that fit into the category Trisha described by the way; owner/dog mismatch. Along the way we stopped at a fellow musher and put our two dogs in their play pen and went into the house for coffee. When we came back, Chenak literally dragged us towards the car . So relieved he did not have to stay there ? He has escapes several times, true husky fashion and yet… Het Could have escapes many times more…
He is now gone for 5 years already, still missed. So I cried when this year we saw the northern lights while visiting the place in Norway where we last went skiing. He came to dat hi with Janouk ? (for anybody not familiar with the legend read ‘North of the rainbow bridge’ )
Mireille says
Dat = say… (Phone & autocorrectie)
Andy says
At the risk of going too far afield, I think marcy is right about viewing the big picture in sheltering, and I want to offer an alternate take on it since I rarely see my perspective out there.
I live in a part of the country that has traditionally had very high intake rates. My own city has managed to achieve very high live outcome rates as well, and our intake has dropped by about two thirds at the same time, most likely due to our massive spay-neuter outreach and the popularity of shelter dog adoption.
We struggle with quality of care issues since we do have some long-term sheltering, and we’ve also attracted some fair criticism about bad adoptions. If I could, I would get all my volunteer and employee peers at the shelter to read Trisha’s sobering post on behavioral euthansia, just to drive home the importance of avoiding these terrible situations, even if that means more behavioral euths at the margins.
However, the “big picture” to me includes what is happening with dogs out in the community. We have an extremely active dog rescue community that networks with the city to get strays off the street, try to find their owners, and, if necessary, admit them to the shelter, where we will work hard to find a decent live outcome for them.
Our peer cities aren’t so lucky. They’ve long towed the line on rigorous adoption standards, and often refuse to adopt out bully breeds. They also have severe problems with stray dogs, and all the attendant safety, welfare, and population management problems stray dogs bring with them. I believe that the lack of trust between dog lovers and the shelter has contributed mightily to the problem, and part of that is due to an over-reliance on euthanasia as a tool for public safety.
Long-term kenneling is a huge welfare challenge and we struggle to stay on top of it so the dogs don’t suffer from the kind of isolation mentioned in this post. But stray life can be worse, for both humans and dogs.
Sue says
Really interesting topic and thanks for bringing it up. It made me think of some friends of mine who as first time dog owners recently got a puppy. They brought it home at 8 or 9 weeks, taken that day from mum & litter mates, and then when evening came left it on its own in the lounge to sleep. When it was howling they tried to ignore it – I’m sure following advise from the breeder and puppy books. Eventually their teenage daughter couldn’t stand it any longer and spent the night with puppy in the lounge… I think there is still a lot of space for more compassion and – dare I say it- evidence based action in dog training and handling, rather than following and administering guidance that seems far outdated…
In regards to breaking bonds. Konrad Lorenz, one of the pioneers of behavioural studies, writes that some dog breeds are more likely to form a really close life-long bond with one person, whereas other breeds are more able to adjust and form bonds with more than one persons. However, that was written in the 1940/50s, so I wonder if there is any more-up-to-date research on that issue?
Jann Becker says
I always thought the social needs of fellow mammals were better met when you have more than 1 of the same companion species. We’ve had 2 dogs and 2 cats for years, so they learn “How to be a dog/cat” from one of their own kind. Even with a pack, losing one is hard-they’re in no way interchangeable.
I’ve seen shelter dogs in a relatively good kennel situation: Plexiglass doors, plants, even a gizmo that lets anyone walking by shoot them a treat! There were enough behavioral euthanasia cases that nobody was killed just to make room. I agree that keeping unadoptable dogs indefinitely under poor conditions doesn’t do anyone any favors, but Best Friends has LOTS more room and resources than a regular city shelter-I don’t think it’s fair to compare them.
Lacey says
@Scott: I was once a volunteer at a shelter adoption event. Since I had a foster in recovery already I wasn’t open to take in a dog, but I was asked to help with a very tense, shy little dog with the sort of temperament I’ve often been able to help.
The kennel supervisor advised me, and I strongly agreed, that this dog needed a very quiet, child-free environment. An animal control officer on the scene brought up a married couple, she in probably the eighth month of pregnancy, and was attempting to “sell” the dog to them. I was firm, however, and got them to check out the other available dogs. Very very luckily an elderly couple with dog experience showed up, and we were able to complete the adoption.
If not, I would have called around to see whether any other foster placement was possible.
Bruce says
Thank you for writing about this topic. I agree with Dr. McMillan that most dogs have a strong drive to seek companionship. My first dog was solo for a year, and it always felt like she was missing something in her life until I found a dog play group and then eventually got a second dog. As much as dogs bond with their humans, hanging out with compatible members of their own species seems to give them an additional level of comfort.
The dogs in our life have come from a variety of sources – humane societies, rescues, strays, owners who could no longer care for the dog, and owners who died. It is truly remarkable how quickly our dogs adjusted to new circumstances.
One part of the post puzzled me. The “training and discipline” heading discussed how to redefine “no punishment” training methods. Do “no punishment” trainers never say “no” or “leave it” to their dogs (or even “whoops” or “try again” or “figure it out”), never “be a tree” to teach their dogs not to pull on the leash, never “take the space” to help a dog learn the sit-stay, or never turn away to discourage their dogs from jumping up? Because, if a post-behavior action decreases the frequency of that behavior, that action – by definition – is punishment (even when the action is mild).
I think we are tying ourselves into rhetorical knots to avoid acknowledging that, in training a dog, it is occasionally beneficial to decrease the frequency of a behavior.
For many of my dogs, few things equal the joy of hiking in the woods, splashing through a creek, or running on a beach with other dogs. Consequently, reliable off-leash behavior is one of my main training goals. I think I would be doing my dogs a disservice if I deprived them of such joyful experiences because I was unwilling to occasionally say “no” or “leave it”.
Nic1 says
Is there new evidence on feral dogs forming free range packs? As I understand, this is not what studies have shown us, according to Donaldson and Dunbar for example.
http://academyfordogtrainers-blog.com/are-dogs-pack-animals/
Packs’ in the true sense of the word do not exist among groups of unrelated domestic and/or feral dogs as far as I am aware unless they are forced to live together, by us. Important to understand the ethology related to our dogs contemporary existence and selective breeding practices as opposed to an existence we may perceive they may have if free ranging in the natural world.
I am interested in understanding more about SA in our companion dogs. John Bradshaw’s research (Bristol) has concluded that many dogs experience this anxiety at some time in their lifetime. In one longitudinal study, they followed puppies, 40 in all, litters of Labradors and Border Collies, from eight weeks to 18 months old. Over 50 percent of the Labs and almost half of the Collies showed some kind of separation distress. Subsequent studies Bradshaw has done, during which dogs were filmed left alone, showed that self-reporting by owners underestimates the scope of the problem.
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/vetscience/services/behaviour-clinic/separation/
To my mind, this is not a disorder, but seems to be a natural behaviour as we have deliberately selected dogs to be highly dependent on us. More so than with other dogs. Therefore, we really need to consider the actual physical pain of anxiety (gut wrenching, horrible) and resulting welfare issues that this can compound on the animal. Chronic increased circulating free cortisol is also a killer. Even though most of us work, we still want the companionship of animals at the end of the day and justify that to ourselves. ‘Well, even though I leave Fido for 8 hours during the day, he just sleeps and at least he gets to spend the evening with me’. etc. The fact he may feel as frightened as a child abandoned everyday is perhaps inconvenient to many of us. It’s an inconvenient truth perhaps to some people.
I am struggling to make any sense of the human behaviour at Crufts with the GSD BOB this week. Not only is the behaviour defended, but the environment is actively encouraged by people and organisations who purport to love the ‘breed’. However, the hundreds of comments on the Facebook pages of both Crufts and the U.K. KC, indicate that the general public are generally appalled to see such a clearly stressed and deformed GSD struggle to walk on its’ hind legs and then get the top prize for being such a good example of the breed. They are also appalled that the broadcaster edited the footage on behalf of the KC to prevent people viewing the worst footage of the dog clearly struggling.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/12193472/Crufts-plunged-into-cruelty-row-over-deformed-German-Shepherd.html
What is interesting about this is that the public reaction to this bitch is one of outrage. Yet, why does the Peke that can barely breathe, has hardly any muzzle and is in danger of over heating simply by walking a few feet around the show ring the day before make people think it’s the cutest thing on earth? Is this because our standard curve for ‘normal’ conformation with GSD has been calibrated differently? Yet, the abnormal features bred into brachy dogs we simply view as normal for those breeds?
However, as the breed issue continues to be such an emotive subject for the ‘groups’ involved, trying to objectively discuss the welfare issues for our companions is like a red rag to a bull with some people who are heavily invested, emotionally and otherwise. David Eagleman’s work comes to mind on our neurological ability for empathy shutdown when it comes to outsider groups. Us and them. Or cognitive dissonance.
I fear that we may not be able to prevent some breeds being be genetically cornered into destruction at this rate. Not to mention the animals that currently exist may well be suffering unnecessarily.
Beth says
Nic1, regarding separation anxiety: While there is a strong genetic tendency in some lines (I think), this is also a behavior we can greatly influence ourselves. So many of us make a huge deal out of saying good-bye to Smoochems and then celebrate our return to the house with over-excited greetings that we actually encourage the behavior.
I looked into this carefully when we got puppy Jack. What I learned was this: Get a very yummy long-lasting treat (peanut butter or cream cheese in a Kong is perfect). Put pup away. Say nothing to pup about leaving, but do hand over the yummy treat just before you walk out the door.
When you get home (and this is the hard part), briefly (briefly being the key) IGNORE the puppy’s frantic attempts at greeting. Put away your jacket, put down your bag, grab the mail. Engage in anything other than greeting for a minute or maybe two. Then calmly pick up puppy, take puppy out to potty, and THEN come in and play and socialize.
This seems almost heartless and it’s so, so hard. But what it accomplishes is this: Teaching your dog that your own coming and going is no big deal at all. After all, when dogs (or even wolves) greet each other after short separations, they do not go crazy over each other. They sniff to see where they have been and do some basic greeting behaviors and that’s it. It is usually only after long separations that they go nuts to see each other.
So what I face when I come home is frequently a dog still asleep on the couch who wakes up on my arrival and yawns and stretches and calmly walks over to say hi, and then after he is fully awake grabs a toy and wants to play. We have an attached garage so goodness knows he would have ample opportunity to hear our car arriving if he were waiting anxiously for us.
Maddie is more inclined to make her way to the door about a half hour before our home time (if her behavior when I am here and my husband is not is any clue). But the rest of the time she mostly sleeps a very relaxed sleep. In fact, if we are home all day on a weekend, I swear they start giving us dirty looks because we are interrupting their nap. And if we come home early from work we normally find two sound-asleep dogs who look surprised to see us.
I do believe SA may be underreported, but there are plenty of dogs who are fine with being alone.
As far as free ranging dogs, they don’t usually form stable packs but they do form loose groups that split up and reform, at least according to most of what I’ve seen and read.
Bruce, I agree completely with everything you said. Social animals use some form of correction or withholding of attention to shape each other’s behavior all the time. It is bizarre to me that some have come to see this as undesirable in any form in our interactions with our dogs. Without timeout I can safely say it would have been nearly impossible to get Jack to stop biting (hard!!) as a puppy. The time-outs were counted in seconds, not minutes. And it was me who left, not him who was put away. But it worked and without it he would have been impossible.
Beth says
Nic1, can’t comment on that GSD except to say I cried watching. I own a dwarf breed which some say should not exist because of the genetic deformity. I don’t agree with that sentiment or I would not have them. But there has to be some limit on what is acceptable. I’ll stop there.
Ellen Pepin says
Would it be better for shelters to house several dogs in the same kennel as long as they get along with each other? That way they would have the companionship of other dogs and not be so alone.
As far as keeping dogs in kennels for years, 8 years was one I heard about, is helping the dog. Just keeping him alive is not a quality life. Still, I hate the idea of killing a good dog.
Andy says
@Ellen Peppin – co-housing is a tool that a lot of shelters use, especially with bonded pairs. Some shelters also use playgroups using various protocols to give dogs a chance to interact.
Co-housing can be great, but a word of caution: it’s no substitute for human interaction, and if left unsupervised it can really go sour. Our shelter went through an unfortunate phase where they matched energetic, friendly dogs, but due to lack of oversight they would work each other up and scrap. They wound up culling some of our most dog-social dogs 🙁 .
I am all for all forms of enrichment, but there is no substitute for multiple regular interactions with humans and individualized care, and I’m not going to rest until it happens consistently where I volunteer.
em says
I’m so interested in these wonderful comments about shelter housing, separation distress, and breed trait extremes (something I know a bit about as the owner of a giant, but I’ll save my comments on that for now except to note that I noticed, shocked, several dogs who appeared to have awkward gaits and pained-looking movement in the last televised dog show I watched as well. I wondered at the time if there was something odd about the camera angles or if I have become hyper alert as I’ve begun closely my own geriatric dog’s gait and posture for signs of pain. I’m terribly saddened to think it might really be as bad as it seemed).
My main comment, however, is actually a question about the “pain” of training. Given that a dog may feel social distress as analogous to physical distress, is there any way to compare or evaluate the total distress felt over the whole training process and weigh that against the social benefit.
Let me see if I can think of a clear example of what I mean- when Otis was freshly adopted, he was 18months old and already 120lbs and 34″ at the shoulder, well over six feet tall on his hind legs. There is nothing in our house he can’t reach if he chooses. We taught him to lie on a specific mat while we worked in the kitchen by rewarding that behavior and gently redirecting him if he came over to try to (literally) stick his nose into our tasks. After a few weeks, he was surprisingly reliable about staying back from tables and counters and so we relaxed a bit about watching him every second.
Sure enough, after one moment of inattention, I turned around to see him as he ever-so-nonchalantly helped himself to a slice of the the ham we were planning to eat for dinner. I responded instinctively, with a sharp “HEY! NO!” , a swift swoop toward him, a firm grip on his collar, and a swift march out of the kitchen. I gated him into the living room (with his bed, open crate, toys, and my husband on the couch) glowering sternly.
When I walked away, back to the kitchen, Otis howled and cried like his heart was broken, like he’s never done before or since. I marched back with a stern look on my face and told him to stop. He quieted but looked miserable. Now,clearly, this was a dog experiencing social pain. I would characterize my actions as punishment. But here’s my question. Given that my giant dog has NEVER again touched anything on our table or countertops, which means that he never had to be excluded from the kitchen or dining room while we ate or cooked, never had to be shut away from family gatherings or stay at home while we travelled, this one moment of serious distress has likely spared him the distress of eight years of small, everyday exclusions and isolation. It also spared him a potentially long, drawn -out and frustrating process of trying to extinguish a self- reinforcing behavior without ANY sort of punishment or reinforcement that would be felt as distressing, even if technically not punishment in the scientific sense.
My instinct has always told me that I did the right thing, and I’m encouraged by this study, which suggests that the isolation and social exclusion that blocking Otis’ counter surfing with physical barriers would have required is itself a form of ineffective punishment- distressing the dog without reducing the behavior. My question is, how can we compare one type of distress (harsher, short term vs. milder but longer term/permanently repeated) to another? I suspect that like so many things it will come down to a case-by-case situation. I suppose it depends on the dog ( I wouldn’t have acted the same way toward sensitive Sandy, and likely not toward a small dog who can’t easily reach the countertops with all four feet on the ground) the circumstances, and the consequences of each action. Which, of course leads me back to where I started when I say I acted instinctively (educated instinct, perhaps, having spent weeks training and living with and observing my dog :-)?). Anyhow, it’s nice to have the language to talk about the difficulty of balancing one social pain against another when we make these choices.
LisaW says
Ouch, that German Shepherd video was tough to watch. Not only the obvious physical deformities, but the dog seemed frantic trying to find a way out. Not sure if the pain of being alone is worse than the pain of being in company when we do such things to fit a mythical-man-made standard.
I do sometimes worry about our dogs’ lack of social interaction. Due to a prolonged period of time with many health challenges coupled with our dogs’ propensity to be over whelmed by too much stimulation, we live a quiet life of late. I often wonder about the stability of a small world versus the chance to learn and grow in a bigger world. None of us are truly alone but are we truly fulfilled? This is an existential question to me.
Kat says
So many fascinating comments to which I want to respond but let me start with this. I recently picked up a booked titled “If You Only Knew How Much I Smell You” which is gorgeous photographs of dogs by photographer Valerie Schaff coupled with poems by Roy Blount, Jr. One of the poems struck me as especially apropos for this blog topic. I don’t have the book with me so I may misquote some words but the sense of it will be the same. “Gone to college/That’s what they said/As far as I know/Means he’s dead.” This coupled with a portrait of a sad dog. Ranger is fortunate that his kid is at a university that’s only about an hour away so she’s come home fairly regularly and we’ve been able to take him to visit her. Finna, however, can’t go visit and although she didn’t show any signs of distress that her girl was gone (after all as long as Finna has me her life is good–just ask Finna) but the first time she came home Finna was doing her usual greeting routine of going down the line sniffing people until she got to me and we saw her sniff the girl, dismiss her as ‘not mom’ and start toward me then do a double take and run back and sniff the girl enthusiastically with her little stub wagging like a propeller. The next time the girl came home Finna greeted her with the canine equivalent of “oh it’s you again, good to see you, now where’s Mom so we can play ball” it was much less pronounced than that first time. She apparently learned that sometimes the girl will be absent for awhile but then she’ll be home for a bit.
Separation Anxiety is not fun. Shortly after we adopted her Finna developed terrible separation anxiety. I couldn’t even go to the bathroom and shut Finna on the other side of the door without her throwing herself at the door and trying to tear it down. When I’d return from even the briefest absence she would literally throw herself on me trying frantically to lick and mouth every part of me. This is 65 lbs of dog totally frantic that I’d left her long enough to go outside and put scraps in the worm bin or gone to the bathroom for a couple minutes. I spent a lot of time being a tree and thinking it was a good thing I had a clue what the root cause of this was and how to address it because her over the top frantic greeting was frankly dangerous. I’m still kind of amazed neither of us got seriously injured. Finna was glad when other family members came back but the greeting wasn’t as out of control. When you think about it from her perspective it made sense, for the first time in her life Finna had someone who tried to listen to what Finna was trying to communicate and tried to explain to Finna what she was to do and how she was to behave. If for the first time in my life I finally had someone who was helping me make sense of it all I’d be pretty frantic if they left too for fear they wouldn’t come back and I’d be left lost and confused again. I went in and out of the house and in and out of rooms closing the door behind me dozens of times a day and Finna was almost never entirely alone (no people or Ranger) for the first year. I’ve never made a big deal of leaving, a pat if the dog was standing there and an I’ll be back in a bit, and off I go. Returns have always been open the door let the dog out to potty while I take off my coat or put things in the house then play with the dog. Gradually Finna learned the routine and that I always did come back. Today she bounces me once when I come home–nothing seems to work to stop it but it’s just one bounce and often not even making contact. And when she sees I’m leaving she goes to what we call her sad place–the corner of the couch close to the window I’ll first pass when I come home and sits or sleeps. She’s still seldom all on her own but I’ve even been able to be gone for a couple nights without her becoming frantic. I think a lot of separation anxiety is connected to emotional resilience a dog with more emotional resilience handles the separations better than those who have little resilience.
Social Isolation Pain: First, I think there is a huge difference between turning my back on the dog who’s just gotten too rough for a few seconds and putting that dog in a 20 minute time out. If the first instance I’m making a point, ‘play nice or I won’t play’ and in the second I’d be significantly punishing the dog. Consequences should reflect the size of the transgression. Life is full of consequences and distress. I don’t believe that we should be handing out outsized consequences just because we can but neither do I believe that we should be beating ourselves up because we applied a consequence that the dog didn’t like (withdrawing our attention) Part of my relationship with my dogs, cats, kids, etc., is to teach them the skills necessary to safely navigate their world and skills that keep their world as big as it can be.
Emotional Distress/Physical Distress I think there is a component to the emotional distress that we’ve overlooked so far in this discussion. I think dogs can feel bad because they did know better and did it anyway. I don’t think it’s guilt in the way people experience it but maybe analogous. I think Em’s story about Otis above is probably a good example. She’d worked very hard to convey the rules about counter surfing to Otis and he’d shown every indication that he understood the rules and agreed to abide by them. Then one day he gave in to temptation and broke the rules. Em was angry with him and applied appropriate consequences. Otis was very distressed partly because he didn’t like the consequences but partly because he knew he’d violated the social contract he had with Em. At least that’s my sense of things based on interactions with Ranger. Ranger knows the rule is to never ever get out of the car without permission and the time he did I grabbed his collar, marched him back to the car, put him back in and stood there glaring at him. He looked so dejected and ashamed. When I did release him after a minute he came over and gave me appeasement behaviors including what I call the apology lick. My sense of the episode was that he felt worse about having violated out agreement that he not get out of the car until I gave the all clear than he did about being put back in the car. In other words he was more upset about having made me mad than about the actual consequences that he experienced (going back in the car). I’m not sure if I’m articulating this as clearly as I want but maybe some of the sense is coming through anyway.
Bruce says
@Beth – Thank you!
@Kat – Well said, and I love the story about Finna and your daughter. Re guilt vs. appeasement: that can be tricky. I usually lean towards appeasement as an explanation, but Ranger sounds like an unusually ethical dog.
Oh, and ‘If You Only Knew How Much I Smell You’ is a wonderful book.
@em – Otis and the ham is an excellent example of a fair correction, and 8 years of enriched life seems like a highly positive trade-off from the dog’s perspective.
I will say that gaining dog training experience makes me realize how often I misinterpret what they are thinking (especially when scent is a factor). I continue to learn the value of evaluating the situation before leaping in with a correction.
A brief example: Red Dog, a 55-pound bundle of muscle and energy, arrived with lousy leash manners. On an early leash walk she started pulling hard towards a random patch of grass in a field of grass. Initially I turned and walked the other way but once Red Dog stopped pulling I let her go where she wanted. She walked back to the patch of grass, sniffed briefly, and then pooped.
Oops, my bad. A year later I can usually walk Red Dog with the leash looped over one finger, but I would still like her to moderate her “Hey, I would really like to go over there” signal.
Trisha says
Argh! I just wrote my own comments for 30 minutes, hit the wrong key and erased it all. And now I have to go! ARGH! All I have time for now is: Great discussion! So many important things to talk about here, but no time left for me today. I’ll add one thing that might tie some of the comments together: McMillan’s point, I think, was not that ‘time outs’ or even shunning, should never be used, but that we should see them for what they are: punishment to decrease the frequency of a behavior. I don’t know what his views are on “100% positive training,” but I would add myself that even turning away from your dog could be considered a form of punishment. My long comment, the one I just erased–sigh–was about how I shunned my female BC Misty, the second time she attacked my other female Lassie. After the attack, I refused to look at Misty, and spoke to her as little as I could for the next 24 hours. I didn’t scold her (except to say “What did you do?! as if disgusted right after the attack and made her lie down and stay to make sure she had calmed down) or crate her. I let her loose but refused to make eye contact. She never attempted to attack Lassie again. Why? I don’t know, nor do I know how she interpreted my behavior, but it certainly seemed to be effective. Was it punishment? Yes, by definition, because the behavior decreased. Was it wrong? I know some might think so, but it resulted in 10 years of at least tolerance between the 2 dogs. But again, I think McMillan’s point was that a need to acknowledge that any kind of withdrawal of social attention could be considered a punishment. I’m posting this now before I lose it!
Mireille says
Just a quick note, something I was thinking about. But is it always the pain of being alone? I ask myself this because when I take the dogs out one by one Spot will bowl and pee in the yard. But he will NOT do this of zo take him out first and Shadow afterwards. Anxious? Or just angry because he wants to come too? He has hotten better over the years, especially about the howling after I went back a couple of times and scolded him – well spoke to him sternly about the virtues of patience ?
Beth says
I absolutely agree that shunning is a punishment, and I have always treated it as such (though when done for brief periods, it is a fairly mild punishment).
In my mind (and maybe I haven’t thought it all the way through), while a punishment, it is also part of the natural language of dogs, unlike other punishments which must seem to the dog like some sort of unprovoked attack. I have often seen adult dogs use turning away or ignoring as a way to teach manners to puppies, especially.
Rebecca Rice says
I am going to comment on the legal definition of “abuse and neglect” that was mentioned above. Yes, social animals can feel pain when isolated, etc. However, the current legal standards are much more bright-line: does the dog have adequate food, water, shelter, and medical care? the first three you can qualitatively measure. The last can be argued (is euthanizing a dog that has a serious medical issue “adequate medical care” if you can’t afford the several-thousand-dollar treatment?), but is still relatively easy to quantify. Try to bring social pain into it, and you will start getting people arguing that “they leave their dog alone for 8 hours a day, and I never leave mine alone for more than 4, and therefore THEIR dog is feeling inappropriate social pain.” Which is a very slippery slope to start on, and could lead to a lot of court cases that just tie up the legal system. Especially when you add in some of our previous discussions of autonomy in dogs, and whether they were happier back in the old days when people just let them roam loose during the day and they could decide for themselves what they wanted to do, where they wanted to go, and who they wanted to see and hang out with.
I do think that the mental well-being of dogs and other animals should be considered as much as possible. On another group that I follow, someone was describing and including pictures of the habitat that they have made for their pet frog, which is not an animal that I would have even considered as a “pet” previous to that. But apparently they do have a full emotional life, and it was actually quite fascinating to hear about them and their behavior. But at the end of the day, it is going to take a lot of balance. I have a fearful, shy dog, who has blossomed in her later years (got her at 2, and she is pushing 8 now). I’ve studied and read a lot about stress. And the reality is that you can’t avoid all stress, nor is it healthy to try. A lot of gaining confidence is being faced with stressful situations and overcoming them. Think of the first time you tried something new: baking a cake, ballet class, being on a sports team, speaking in front of a group. You were probably really stressed out. Then think of how you felt when you mastered that skill, when someone loved the cake or you made the winning goal. Proud and elated, right? I see that in my dogs, when they finally figure out whatever it is that I am trying to teach them. They come up to me looking (possibly anthropomorphizing here) absolutely pleased with themselves!
So to sum up, I would say, consider all things, but keep them in balance.
Bruce says
Trisha – Sorry you lost your post (I always like hearing dog stories), but thank you clarifying Dr. McMillan’s views regarding withdrawal of social attention, decreasing undesired behaviors, and punishment. That did not make sense to me before, but it does now!
Lucy Flanagan says
I was a poop scooper for 10 years in Seattle and would go into people’s homes and see how their dogs fared waiting for the owner to come home from work. People are out-of-sight-out-of-mind. Such suffering I witnessed. Maybe remote cameras will raise consciousness.
I have on a few occasions bestowed attention on a dog that had been ignored for a long time and seen the dog “shake it off” exactly the way a dog that’s been bitten will try and make little of or dismiss the injury – too painful to go there. Yes, it’s pain.
Nic1 says
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/04/19/loneliness-is-public-health-problem-which-raises-risk-of-stroke/
The pain – and increased likelihood of a premature death caused by a stroke – of being alone in humans.
Feeling lonely activates the ‘fight or flight’ stress signal which affects the production of white blood cells. It also increases activity in genes which produce inflammation in the body while lowering activity in genes which fight off illness, promoting high levels of inflammation in the body.
Essentially, lonely people had a less effective immune response and more inflammation than non-lonely people.
Not a massive leap to understand how our dogs’ health may be suffering if continually isolated for long periods too?
Inflammatory markers such as interleukins are becoming increasingly important in our understanding of disease mechanisms. What is the current research in the canine field?
Steve says
Very interesting. I have a dog with severe separation anxiety. We’ve tried everything, standard separation anxiety training, drugs, doggy day care, etc. He’s got used to us being gone during the day at work, but we’ve yet to find a way to also leave him alone in the evening and into the early night, where he will bark and howl non-stop for hours on end.
I’m wondering if we should be trying a pain-relief drug instead of the standard psychological drugs our vet has recommended?