Sue Sternbergs dog ethogram

Calming signals

Links:

Turid Rugaas = http://www.canis.no/rugaas/onearticle.php?artid=1
theartofdog.com

http://www.pawsacrossamerica.com/interpret.html

Barking

From the Telegraph:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=4P5EXJBUIZR2LQFIQMGCFGGAVCBQUIV0?xml=/news/2006/05/17/ndog117.xml

Defra's top 10 reasons why dogs bark (Leaflet at http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/noise/pdf/barkingdog.pdf)

1. Over-dependence on an owner, resulting in separation anxiety.

2. Fear or phobic reaction to sights or sounds, inside or outside the home.

3. Territorial.

4. Attention-seeking.

5. Social - calling to other dogs in the district.

6. To signify the dog wants to play.

7. To signify aggression (it is important not confuse 6 and 7).

8. Predatory or chase behaviour.

9. Frustration, eg because the dog did not expect to be left behind.

10. Senility.

David Sapsted's top 10 reasons why his dogs bark

1. As a good way to ruin the end of Frost so you never discover why the retired librarian did it.

2. To scare away imaginary foxes. Real foxes, on the other hand, are left undisturbed to slaughter the chickens.

3. Because why would anyone want to be asleep at 3.20am?

4. To draw attention to the fact that they missed out on the Bacon Fries during your round at the pub.

5. Because some other dog three counties away decided to bark.

6. To frighten off that ugly beast they have just spotted in the reflection of the oven door.

7. As a warning to passing aircraft that 30,000 feet looks low enough.

8. Because it's too damned quiet out there.

9. To alert you to the hazards posed by that leaf that has just blown past the window.

10. Because they can.

Dominance and Pack Theory - snippets

Some useful links:

http://www.clickersolutions.com/articles/2001/dominance.htm - Dunbar

This is particularly interesting:

There is NO physical domination. Everything is accomplished through psychological harassment. It's all ritualistic.
"Alpha" does not mean physically dominant. It means "in control of resources."

"I think many times people use the term
dominant that the dog is actually not confident but rather
overcompensating (defensively) for a lack of confidence. I prefer to call
this control related problems or "control complex" as I referred to it in
my book." (James O'Heare)

This whole thead http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/DogBehaviorThinkTank/messages/6102?threaded=1&m=e&var=1&tidx=1

Effect of owner personality and home environment on dog personality

Stephen, J. and Ledger, R., Relinquishing dog owners’ ability to predict behavioural problems in shelter dogs post adoption, Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci. (2006), doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2006.09.012

Some interesting references, to papers by James Serpell, Anthony Podberscek etc and coauthors.

Aggression has been linked to (aggression problems more likely): first-time owners, dogs that sleep near their owners, owners that anthropomorphise and indulge their dogs "anthropomorphic owner attachment"

Less likely to have aggression problems if obedience trained

dog cognition

http://iaabc.org/dog

Chris Winch - Equestrian Artist

http://www.dawinchy.co.uk/watercolours.html - some lovely watercolours of dogs and other animals (his horses are amazing).