WE PLANT THE "SEEDS OF IDEAS" IN DOG OWNERS MINDS - THESE IDEAS EVENTUALLY BLOSSOM INTO A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF DOG BEHAVIOUR - Sally Hopkins

MEMORY

This part of the web site explains in layman's terms that a dog's memory and thought processes are very different to that of a human. Sadly this aspect of dog training is often overlooked and many owners and trainers expect dogs to understand what is happening around them as though they were humans rather than animals.

Dogs do not have our capability to make valued judgments, string ideas together, or recall incidents that happened even a few minutes before hand - DOGS LIVE IN THE PRESENT.

Like humans and other animals, a dog's brain is being continually bombarded with information it receives from its senses - sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. The brain has to make sense of all this information and decide what needs to be retained in its memory, and which can be forgotten. Yet as we ourselves know, the brain does not store ALL this information - it would be impossible! Instead, the brain uses "filter systems" so that the creature can differentiate what are important memories (particularly those where safety or rewarding events happen; or those that are threatening or unpleasant) that need to be stored for future use; and those experiences and memories which can be discarded and forgotten.

Because dogs brains are not as complex as our own, Nature has given them the capacity to make split-second decisions on what is important enough to retain in its memory, and what can be discarded and forgotten.

Each underlined web link gives fuller explanations of this flow chart -

An "event" is any experience that a dog's senses detect

SIGHT SOUND SMELL TASTE TOUCH

BRAIN ASSESSES EVENT
(Helped by Latent Learning)

WILL HELP DOG'S

SURVIVAL

EVERY DAY

OCCURRENCE

THREATENING

DOG'S SAFETY