A collection of quotes that have influenced my dog ownership philosophy. They come from books podcasts, and a few random sources — some dog-specific, some animal-related, and some just about relationships in general.
This is by no means a comprehensive list, but I try to add good passages when I come across them. This post was first published on October 30th 2022 and last added to on January 1st 2023.
By Frans de Waal (ethologist and author of Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are)
On anthropomorphism
“The closer another species is to us, the more anthropomorphism will assist our understanding of [them] and the greater will be the danger of anthropodenial. Conversely, the most distant a species is from us, the greater the risk that anthropomorphism will propose questionable similarities.”
“The key point is that anthropomorphism is not always as problematic as people think. To rail against it for the sake of scientific objectivity often hides a pre-Darwinian mindset, one uncomfortable with the notion of humans as animals.”
“Anthropomorphism would be a rather empty exercise if all it did was paste human labels onto animal behavior. American biologist Gordon Burghardt has called for a critical anthropomorphism, in which we use human intuition and knowledge of an animal’s natural history to formulate research questions. … Serving as a means rather than an end, critical anthropomorphism is a valuable source of hypotheses.”
On honoring animals in their own contexts
“True empathy is not self-focused but other-oriented. Instead of making humanity the measure of all things, we need to evaluate other species by what they are. I am sure we will discover many magic wells, including some as yet beyond our imagination.”
“The maestro of observation, Konrad Lorenz, believed that one could not investigate animals effectively without an understanding grounded in love and respect. He saw such intuitive insight as quite separate from the methodology of the natural sciences. To marry it productively with systematic research is both the challenge and the joy of studying animals.”
On behaviorism and animal cognition
“Having escaped the Dark Ages in which animals were mere stimulus-response machines, we are free to contemplate their mental lives. But now that animal cognition is an increasingly popular topic, we are still facing the mindset that it can be only a poor substitute of what we humans have. What a bizarre animal we are that the only question we can ask in relation to our place in nature is “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the smartest of them all?”
“Harry Harlow, a well-known American primatologist, was an early critic of the hunger reduction model. He argued that intelligent animals learn mostly through curiosity and free exploration, both of which are likely killed by a narrow fixation on food. He poked fun at the Skinner box, seeing it as a splendid instrument to demonstrate the effectiveness of food rewards but not to study complex behavior.”
By Clive Wynne (ethologist and author of Dog is Love)
On anthropomorphism
“Yet I have become convinced that, in this regard at least, a hint of anthropomorphism is permissible, even proper. Acknowledging dogs’ loving nature is the only way to make sense of them. What’s more, ignoring their need for love — yes, as I’ll explain shortly, dogs do need love — is as unethical as denying them a healthy diet and exercise.”
On strength
“There is a movement in our culture today that equates strength, especially but not only manly strength, with exploiting whatever power one has over others – be it physical strength, elite social standing, or financial prowess – at the expense of those who are weaker. This surely is a brutal morality — a “dog eat dog” attitude to life that ill becomes people or their canine friends.
But there is another concept of strength, and that is the power to help the weak — to support those who are less able to fend for themselves. I’m not a religious person but I honor and respect the great spiritual leaders who over the millennia have taught that we find our greatest strength when we aid the weakest among us.”
By Patricia McConnell (ethologist, trainer, and author of The Other End of The Leash)
On our deep connection with canines
“Perhaps dogs help us remember the depth of our roots, reminding us — the animals at the other end of the leash — that we may be special, but we are not alone. No wonder we call them our best friends.”
By Bronwen Dickey (journalist and author of Pit Bull: The Battle Over an American Icon)
On respecting our dogs
“Donaldson believes that we owe it to our companions to respect their boundaries and to remember that some level of aggression is essential for any animal’s survival. Therefore it’s our job to learn their limits, control our expectations, and, if it comes to it, admit when we are in over our heads, seeking help from trained professionals. Every dog has individual quirks and preferences.”
“Just a generation ago if you went near a dog when he was eating and the dog growled,” she explained, “somebody would say, ‘Don’t go near the dog when he’s eating! What are you, crazy?’ Now the dog gets euthanized. Back then, dogs were allowed to say no.”
On breed-specific legislation
“In nearly every municipality where breed-specific legislation (BSL) has been adopted, it has failed to prevent serious dog bite injuries and hospitalizations. Veterinarians, animal behaviorists, and public health experts, including those at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), are virtually unanimous in their denunciation of BSL on the grounds that it is both cruel and ineffective.”
On guessing lineage of mixed breeds in shelters
“The majority of mixed-breed dogs in America are not crosses of two purebred parents, he explained, but multigenerational mutts, or mutts mixed with other mutts mixed with other mutts. Because the number of genes that determine the dog’s shape is extremely small, and so many variations within those genes are possible, looking at a dog’s physical chassis and making a guess as to its probable heritage will inexorably lead to error.”
By Gregory Berns (neuroscientist and author of How Dogs Love Us)
On lupomorphism (ascribing wolf traits to dogs)
“While it is true that dogs and wolves share a common ancestor, that does not mean that dogs are descended from wolves. This is an important distinction. The evolutionary trajectories of wolves and dogs diverged when some of the “wolf-dogs” started hanging out with proto-humans. … Modern wolves behave differently from dogs, and they have different social structures. Their brains are different too. Interpreting dog behavior through the lens of wolf behavior is even worse than anthropomorphizing: it’s a human anthropomorphizing wolf behavior and using that flawed impression as an analogy for dog behavior.”
On the flaws / limitations of strict behaviorism
“The appeal of behaviorism in dog training is its simplicity. By making rewards like food and praise contingent on desired behaviors, dogs quickly learn what to do to get something they want. But what do dogs think of this? After all, they aren’t robots bumbling around the world, randomly doing things and finding out which behaviors result in food. Dogs show purposeful and consistent behavior whether humans are there or not. This suggests that dogs have some internal mental model of how things work in their world. … Dogs understand how to get along with each other and with other species like humans, which is not an insignificant skill, and they don’t need treats to learn how.”
“For dogs to do what they do, they must have a rich inner life that goes beyond a chain of actions resulting in food. Dogs must have a mental model of their environment. As highly social animals, these mental models are likely to be weighted heavily towards social relationships. Not just dominance and subordination, but more fluid models of how they should behave with members of their household, either dog or human, and how these interactions will affect their current state of well-being.”
“Proof of social cognition means that dogs aren’t just Pavlovian learning machines. It means that dogs are sentient beings, and this has startling consequences for the dog-human relationship.”
On interspecies sociability
“The defining trait of dogs is their interspecies social intelligence, an ability to intuit what humans and other animals are thinking. … Dogs great social intelligence means that they probably also have a high capacity for empathy.”
By Jay Jack (trainer and founder of GRC Dog Sports)
On how unnatural it can feel for dogs to walk on leash
“How about we have some empathy? Look…. Dogs cover like 20 miles a day if left to their own. And they travel at like 4 mph. With a social connection of like 50 yards! We cover like 10 (in a natural setting). At like 2 mph. And we have a social connection of like 10 ft.
Imagine a dog born to cover that ground, in that bubble, at that speed. Being forced to walk in our bubble. At our speed. For most likely two miles 3 times a week. It’s brutal. Horrible. Imagine the only time you’re let out of confinement… I tie your shoes together and make you walk cheek to cheek with me. And if you protest at all or even try to hop faster and speed up…. I will make you pay for your insurrection.”*
* I’ve edited the above punctuation slightly for clarity.
On clarity and structure
“Dogs don’t necessarily need structure, they need clarity.”
By Chad Mackin (trainer and host of Something to Bark About)
On dog manners
“Understand, a poorly socialized, but friendly dog can easily start a fight he’s not looking or prepared for. If I ran up to every stranger I met and tried to hug them, sooner or later someone would punch me in the face.”
On liberty and freedom
“Dogs should be allowed as much liberty as they can responsibly handle. The greatest gift of training is that it increases the dog’s ability to handle liberty.”
By Ivan Balabanov (trainer and founder of Training Without Conflict)
On connecting with our dogs
“Stop acting like the lever in a Skinner box. Dogs are emotional beings that want to interact with you as a fellow creature and not just receive rewards for behaviors.”
By Denise Fenzi (trainer and founder of Fenzi Dog Sports Academy)
On deprivation
“The way to get the dog on your team is not through deprivation of alternatives.”
By Temple Grandin (animal behaviorist and author of Animals Make Us Human)
On blue ribbon emotions
“I believe that the best way to create good living conditions for any animal, whether it’s a captive animal living in a zoo, a farm animal or a pet, is to base animal welfare programs on the core emotion systems in the brain. My theory is that the environment animals live in should activate their positive emotions as much as possible, and not activate their negative emotions any more than necessary. If we get the animal’s emotions rights, we will have fewer problem behaviors… All animals and people have the same core emotion systems in the brain.”
On exposure to the world
“Animals like novelty if they can choose to investigate it; they fear novelty if you shove it in their faces.”
By Brené Brown (vulnerability researcher and author of several books like Daring Greatly)
On love
“Love is not something we give or get; it is something that we nurture and grow, a connection that can only be cultivated between two people when it exists within each one of them – we can only love others as much as we love ourselves.
Shame, blame, disrespect, betrayal, and the withholding of affection damage the roots from which love grows. Love can only survive these injuries if they are acknowledged, healed and rare.”
