Animals seems to be able to sense you mean to help them even if by helping them you cause them pain.
To wit think of a Veterinarian. My dog hates going to the vet and has to almost be dragged in (which is a task considering she weighs 100 pounds). Occasionally the vet does something painful to her. 100 pound German Shepherd (basically) you think would remove the vet’s face. Instead she puts up with it with only a little fuss.
So, here is a place she does not like with a near stranger (or complete stranger depending on which vet sees her) causing her pain yet she puts up with it. I’d say it is because I am there to calm her but that is not always the case.
As others have noted there are occasions we help animals that are strangers to us yet the animal will put up with it.
Somehow I think they simply must realize the intent is to help even if that means some pain. Yet another mark for their intelligence. Takes some processing to figure that out.
I think it’s not so much that they understand that we’re trying to help. It’s more like Blake’s explanation. They know that the human is the alpha wolf, and they expect to put up with a certain amount of abuse as part of their social position. And if the alpha is generally a good guy and only causes them pain very infrequently and is otherwise friendly and shares his food, then the dog accepts it.
I think dogs are much more hurt by social isolation than they are by kicks and beatings. A dog can accept a smackdown if it gets welcomed back into the pack afterwards.
Except we can see the same thing with cats (not really a pack animal) and we see the same thing with animals we do not know (so while we are hoomins we are not part of their pack).
This comes more from the way the vet and the vet staff handle the dog. You can’t be an effective animal handler without projecting an air of dominance over the animal. Like other skills, it takes time to master, and vets and their staff should be so good at it that you don’t even notice it.
I am much more assertive and less apprehensive when handling animals that are not my own. I have no problem trimming nails on someone else’s dog, but I am more likely to get nervous when doing my own dogs nails.
Plus aren’t there examples of wild animals who don’t know that it’s for their own good and who do have to be sedated because otherwise they’d get really upset being handled?
Can someone please explain to me why my dog (Jack Russell/Min Pin) will bark (not just a single bark, but a “get your damned dirty paws off her”) at me if I grope simWife’s ass while in the kitchen, but wont utter a word if we’re in the bedroom having carnal relations?
(She will, once the act is done, move from the foot of the bed to up beside me - and when I mean done, she seems to sense the SECOND the ole prostate has calmed down)
Is it really awful that the first time I read this, I read the “she” in the second paragraph as being your wife, and not your dog. I was just thinking, “Jeez, if your wife finishes sex too soon, just tell her about it,” and then realized…Oh. Yeah…
Yes, in the interest of clarity - the She in the second sentence refers to the Dog - who sleeps at the foot of the bed until relations are done OR that none will occur. How she knows that I wont be getting any is yet another mystery I will one day try to understand.
Do you have a cite for this interpretation? Or is this just stuff you’ve read on the internets and news and regurgitate without verifying the scientific data behind it?
There’s no dominance hierarchy in wolves, no alpha or at least not the alpha meme pet owners like to throw around.
And just because they are the same species doesn’t mean dogs and wolves behave identically. Wolves haven’t had thousands of years of human interaction, dogs have. This makes a difference in behavior.
And to the OP. IMHO, the reason why your dog isn’t afraid of you is the consistancy of your behavior. The dog has figured out you’re going to be intimidating at certain times (making him eat a pill, putting gel on his paw etc.) whereas the rest of the time you’re fine to be around. More than anything else, dogs appreciate structure.
OTOH, my Rottie/pit, who was abused, (not by me) doesn’t mind going to the vet until the point comes when they try to hold her down to clip her nails. Last time it took four people and a muzzle, and still didn’t get the job done. They told me she had to be sedated next time. At home, she still tends to get very anxious at being left alone (alone being with a pug and a cat), and doesn’t like to go outside in the backyard without the pug. What the pug would do in the event of a catastrophe, I have no idea. She’s the biggest chicken in the world.
