Fuck Yeah, Animal Welfare!

myasphyxiatedmind:

hopefulveterinarian:

grindhag:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/jul/17/dog-training-john-bradshaw-animal-behaviour

This is really interesting 

“Professor John Bradshaw is leading a revolution in the study of canine behaviour. ‘Dogs don’t want to control people, they want to control their own lives,’ he says.”

…Bradshaw’s hypothesis is that domestic dogs were descended from more sociable wolves but that “whatever the ancestor of the dog was like, we don’t have it today”. The wolves alive now are unreliable specimens, necessarily rough diamonds, who have been able to “survive the onslaught we have given them”. And here is the rub: new research – including work with Indian village dogs – shows that dogs “do not set up wolf-type packs. They don’t organise themselves in the way wolves do”. Dogs are not striving, in other words, for household domination. Bradshaw believes our relationship with dogs has been sadly distorted. He writes: “The most pervasive and pernicious idea informing modern dog training techniques is that the dog is driven to set up a dominance hierarchy wherever it finds itself.” He explains that apparently dominant dogs are usually “anxious” rather than “ambitious”. He says: “They don’t want to control people, they want to control their own lives. It is what we are all aiming for – to keep control of our own lives. It is a fundamental biological urge.”…

Can’t wait to get my hands on his book (especially to see how he handles separation anxiety). To the library! 

THANK YOU.

CAN WE STOP ALPHA ROLLING OUR DOGS AND WORSHIPPING CESAR MILLAN NOW.