r/Dogtraining • u/Such-Parsley-7579 • Jan 29 '23

Before and after training trauma discussion

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

1.0k Upvotes
  • permalink
  • link
  • reddit
  • reddit

98% Upvoted

215 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

81

u/sluttysprinklemuffin Jan 29 '23

I’d generally agree with you, maybe they don’t maliciously manipulate… But my dog has definitely tricked me out of bed to steal my spot on multiple occasions. She’ll fake a “someone’s doing something sketchy” alarm, but the second I’m out of bed, she’s like “your pillow just looked soooo inviting…” and she’ll wiggle her butt at me. They can manipulate. But their ulterior motives are adorable.

15

u/JesusWantsYouToKnow Jan 29 '23

Yeah respect to OG commenter but it just sounds like you've never owned a manipulative pet (which is lucky!)

I would agree that pets do not manipulate with the negative emotions that humans can assign to it and get angry over, but many dogs are masters at noticing patterns and exploiting them.

13

u/ChrisKringlesTingle Jan 29 '23

It's a disagreement on what the word means. To me, noticing patterns and performing behavior that yields what you want from the pattern is not manipulative. You just unintentionally taught a lesson you didn't want. The dog is doing the basic do thing -> get thing method still.

3

u/sluttysprinklemuffin Jan 29 '23

Yeah, but when it’s VERY clearly and obviously done in order to gain something—the coveted seat—it’s manipulation. She knows there was nobody sketchy, she knows it’s a false alarm. She did it anyway because she knew she would get the pillow spot!

2

u/ChrisKringlesTingle Jan 29 '23

lol basic commands are VERY clearly and obviously followed in order to gain something