Do Places have meaning for dogs too?
How does a particular Place fit into your dog’s perception of their world?
Last summer we had a break in Northumberland, a place close to my heart because of family roots. And I always appreciate being a couple of degrees cooler up there in these hotter summers! Of course, a long walk along part of Hadrian’s Wall is a must. This is a mainly on-lead excursion for dogs. But I knew mine would still appreciate the novelty of the wide, windy vistas, and for us humans the wild beauty of this landscape.
What did surprise me was my dog’s reaction when we came upon the famous Sycamore tree. It’s not that it (was) such a majestic, imposing tree. It’s also about its situation. It somehow chose to grow in defiance, in the most unlikely of places, next to an old stone wall in an otherwise bleakly beautiful and largely treeless landscape. Whether you approach from east or west, following the wall’s steep crest, you suddenly look down on this huge tree. It still takes you by surprise even if you know it’s going to be there. Our dog had never been here before so to him it was a genuine surprise, and his reaction was fascinating. He stopped his usual springer I’m-not-sure-why-but-let’s-keep-going momentum and seemed transfixed. You just don’t expect a huge tree to suddenly be there. Just in the same way your dog might fixate on a snowman, or a shopping trolley left in a field. Something has changed. Or does that belong there?
Of course, the tree is no longer there. This means something to me because for us humans Places familiar to us carry meaning. So I got to thinking, on some level can it be the same for dogs too?
Dogs remember places
Remembering is not the same as feeling, but of course they do. The short-term memory of returning home never leaves them when out on a walk. They know where home is, and (hopefully!) they are happy enough to return home. Because that is where they should feel their most secure. If you take them on holiday for a week or even two, their reaction on returning home should be the same, if not a little more amplified (in either direction in the case of the post-holiday blues!).
How about if you return to a holiday place after a year, or even two? Doubtless your dog will remember that place too. Watch their emotional response to when you get nearer to the special place. It is likely to be more elevated and exaggerated – I would hazard to guess they would “know” when you get quite close to the place. Pacing, tail-wagging, sniffing the air… “Oh yes, I remember this!” And how we delight in the arrival ritual and seeing our dog charge around sniffing every corner… perhaps to see if it was just like they remembered? A brand-new place of course holds excitement too, but I’ve watched the emotional response carefully and there is without question a difference. So how can we account for this?
A Place in microcosm
If you try moving your dog’s main bed (for a good reason – don’t take this lightly), the results can be mixed. After initial perplexment (something has changed!), they may take to the new location. But sometimes they simply don’t. Getting used to the new setting can be disturbing – the familiarity of the old Place has gone. And frankly you are better off putting things back to how they were.
Is it the Place itself, or the Event?
We should be careful not to anthropomorphise dogs – in other words, humanise them and interpret their behaviour accordingly. So let’s look at a Place on a bigger scale and break down the walk. Assuming there is no anxiety in the background, your dog should be “happy” to go for their walk because, and in this order:
- They are with you (the Event)
- It’s The Routine, and dogs love routine (the Event and Place)
- They are anticipating the familiarity of the smells, sights and sounds, maybe even friends, which they find comforting (the Place)
- They are going to release energy and toilet, (the Event)
- They are excited by the novelty of new smells, sights and sounds, maybe new friends in a new place (the Place)
So where you go is always interlinked with the actual going. The Place itself doesn’t have to be “special”: it doesn’t matter if it’s a park or a couple of blocks of streets. What matters is it holds an emotional attachment for your dog.
Dog behaviour is shaped by Association
This fact underpins modern, scientific behaviour studies of how dogs learn. A dog learns to have a certain emotional response according to repeated stimuli in their environment. So it seems natural to assume that dogs associate places as well as living things in a positive, neutral or negative way, according to their experience of that place. For example, your dog might fear a particular spot where something unpleasant happened. Here, we would need to re-train their emotional response in that setting, so their world is back on its axis again when you cross that street. For anxious dogs, this could even mean the whole outside world. But the principle is the same, and behaviour modification regarding Place can work wonders. Likewise, every time you both have a good experience outdoors, you are reinforcing the association of that Place being a nice one.
Does the association carry Meaning?
Do dogs dream of Places? I don’t know! But what I do know is that when us humans talk about the meaning of something, we are talking about emotion. And of course, dogs are highly “emotional” beings, (more so than us). Would Woody “miss” the Sycamore tree if we went back? Of course not, because that location had not been emotionally reinforced. Even if it had – does emotional attachment mean he would actually “miss” it not being there? Probably not, because dogs are dogs, but we will never know. But let’s phrase it slightly differently. Would he feel a different emotional response – to us, something amiss – if we stopped going through a gate to a field because they built houses on it? Or no longer walked around that oak tree by a stream because it was felled? Or never turned left out the front door again, just because we now prefer not to? Without question, he would remember these Places from the past. And without question, there would be a different emotional response on some level.
So let’s appreciate the things – the Places – we do have. Let’s embrace their meaning. Our dogs do. And hope they are always there.
I always welcome comments! Do you agree? What’s a special place for your dog?
