Anthropomorphism
The attribution of human characteristics or behaviour to a god, animal, or object.
The humanising of animals basically.
It’s one of the most harmful things that you can do to your dog. Sure, beating them with a stick is more physically harmful. But treating them as if they’re a human is completely ignoring their biological needs (that are very different to ours) leading to a total lack of fulfilment. That’s not only a miserable existence for them, but it’s setting them up for failure. You’re ruining your dog by doing this, and you’re not alone.
We attach human emotions and thought patterns to our dogs and make all sorts of inferences and assumptions that completely miss the mark. Human emotions do not exist in dogs for the most part. They have a severely underdeveloped prefrontal cortex, which deals with logic.
Their limbic system (or paleomammalian cortex if you want a fancy word) works differently. This controls our behaviour in regard to emotional responses, especially with things like eating, mating and the basic survival instincrs of fight or flight.
Their cerebral cortex differs quite drastically. This deals with attention, perception, thought, memory and conciousness.
The piriform cortex is WAY advanced. This deals with smells.
The list goes on.
Dogs and humans are not the same. Period.
And that’s why we love them, we need to treat them as dogs! There’s no greater insult to a dog than saying, ‘she’s just like a little person.’
In order to get the absolute best from your dog you NEED to understand how that little tangerine sized lump of flesh works.
You need to understand their brain. Their different
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