What All Dogs Have In Common

A Dachshund is very different from a Golden Retriever and the variety between all breeds is impressive.

In the Western world over 800 different breeds are registered. While some breeds are very distinct from others, some do look more alike. The variety is enormous, especially if you compare it to the ‘human breeds’.

Dogs have descended from wolves and began domestic interaction with humans only 10,000 years ago. As a consequence, some dog behaviors will develop regardless of the breed. A few common traits stand out and I’d like to discuss 2 of them today.

Predatory behavior:

That doesn’t mean they will hunt down or attack every animals passing by, but it is part of their instinct. They can hear very well in part thanks to precise orientation of their ears. Dogs can pick up a range of sounds and locate the source quickly and with high accuracy.

A dog can see much better than a human. They have a much wider field of vision which is estimated to be at 270 degrees. Humans have a maximum angle of only 150 degrees. So dogs are much better at instantly scanning terrain.

And thirdly, dogs have a much, much better nose than us. They have up to twenty-five times more receptors in their noses which enables them to smell scents up to a hundred million times less intense than people.

Take the Golden Retriever for instance. This breed can perceive a gopher 1 meter under the ground through a thick layer of snow and frozen earth. When they have located the gopher they’ll try to catch him, which is what any predator would do.

Another thing they have in common is that they are social animals.

That’s common knowledge, of course, but unfortunately many times ignored. Individuals will often lock their dog away in a garage or pen, or leave them leashed in the yard for long periods. This isolation from contact with humans or other animals can lead to fear and/or aggression. Dogs need companionship in order to develop healthy behavior.

Isolating a dog for brief periods can be a useful training technique. Expulsion from the pack is an effective way of letting the dog know when he was behaving improperly. He should never be expelled for more than 5 minutes.

But too much time without social contact with other animals and people leads to mental distortions. Even guard dogs need social contact, because how can they distinguish between a friend or a foe if he doesn’t even know who are his friends?