I think dogs experience emotions in a way that we can't truly understand - that is, until we can inhabit their bodies and then come back to tell about it :). That said, "revenge" would surprise me. A dog pooping from anxiety, being upset, fear - wouldn't surprise me. But, what can we know?

I for one, may try this "revenge pooping" myself. I shall keep you posted. :p

The Dog Whisperer is a good place to start. He truely understads dogs. He hass spent his life studying their behavior first hand.

Dogs act of of emotions that that they are feeling at the moment. They resopnd to what is going on right now, just like a baby does.

In order to plot revenge, you have to have much higher level of thinking. You have to think about something that happened that made you mad, then think about what you can do to retaliate. And you have to be able to reason that pooping on the floor or eating the sofa is going to make the human mad, and then reason that all though they will be mad at you that it is worth it.

If the dog tears up the garbage sand everytime you ciome home fyou start yelling, he is cowering because he knows that when you come home he is going to get yelled at. He does not even remember that he tore up the garbage.

People tend to put their own personal emotions into the dogs mind, that makes as much sense as putting the power of reasoning into an infants mind.

I know I'm not going to change the way that many of you think on the subject, but I also know that until you change your way of thinking and start thinking like the dog, the dog will continue to do what he is doing and you will continue to believe that you cannot control it.

The Dog whisperer does not train dogs, he trains people to think like the dog, and that is how he solves the problems. And if gets people that refuse to change their way of thinking, he tells them right out "I cannot help you"

Yes please do..... Because if it works for you then I might try it myself:rolleyes:

LOL :D

:D ... good luck ... LOL

LOl if you do I bet your the one that gets stuck cleaning it all up too. lol

I agree, very good post. Thats what I would of loved to said but . im not good at wording it thumbup: You said it PERFECT.

Some good humor in this thread :), keeps me heart laughin'!

Another trainer whose insight I like is Tamar Gellar, who wrote "The Loved Dog" - she believes in positive training only and is The Oprah's trainer. :)

I'm 68 years young, and have had dogs all my life. Yorkies are very, very hard to train. But that said, I have potty trained both mine. My Misty will piddle right by the door if I happen to go out for any reason. Paper--Mail--etc. I try not to forget to let her come out with me---then, no cleaning up! So, if that is not an emotion of I will show you, or I am mad, or something, I don't know what is.
Now, to potty training. When your dog does go outside and does it's business, praise it to the highest degree. Inside, gets bad looks, and no emotion what so ever. They will soon learn where they are supposed to go. I must admit, it takes a lot longer with Yorkies. Now Misty has to go with me when I pick it up, and I praise her with each pick-up. She now runs to the next site and waits for me to pick that one up and give her praise!
Crazy Dogs, huh?
Pat

Hey Wylie's Mom- if you start eating the trash too, we're really going to get worried about you.:p

As I read these posts, an interesting though occurs to me that is the beauty of these dogs- they can be what we want them to be. If we want to think of them as emotional and compassionate creatures, they give us proof of that in ways we can't and don't have to explain to anyone. If we want to think of them as being governed by the laws as science and psychological understandings, well, hey, that's another great way we can connect to them. If we love them because of their inabilty to contemplate revenge, that just makes them even more beautiful an animal. :):aimeeyork

Im just worried that people may read and think that their dog is doing this stuff for revenge and get mean with the pup. Not meaning anyone who posted on this thread but there are some people like that. If they think Ha this dog is doing this to get back at me, then Ill teach it a leason, KWIM? and Id hate for them to think that when maybe its just anxiety or some thing. :confused:

:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:
You read my mind.

EXACTLY! :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

Just wait 'til I start eating poop. :rolleyes:



Did I just say that?

I saw this and thought I would post it.

How does the dog think?For a better understanding of our best friend...VIVAPETS :: The global pet community, dogs, cats, kittens, puppies


Most owners think that their dog’s brain works like ours. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Misunderstandings between men and dog result from their different ways of thinking. Man has the ability of abstract thinking, of thinking in past, present and future terms and of analyzing and drawing conclusions from the events. A dog thinks in a much simpler way and he doesn't distinguish what is good from what is bad.

People know they should not kill, steal, lie, etc. They know that they should help a friend in need and take care of the sick. But the dog, because he does not have the ability of abstract thinking, only thinks about the immediate, here and now; he doesn't have a moral perspective of what he does. In the end, he likes doing the things that he likes doing or that help him to maintain his position in the group.

We can only influence the canine behaviour if we stimulate the wanted behaviour by positive reinforcement (rewards). Thus, the dog will like to obey, because obeying is linked to a pleasant sensation. On the contrary, an unwanted behaviour should be punished in a way that may be understood by the dog. The dog should be able to relate the punishment with the wrong doing.

Praising and rewarding the dog when he obeys or displays a wanted behaviour and punish him when he does something wrong or displays an unacceptable behaviour seems to be the logical course of action. But, in fact, it is exactly in the acts of rewarding and punishing that most owners commit the biggest mistakes in the canine education, confounding the situations, assuming that the dog thinks like us and forgetting that the animal sees the sequence of the events in a more immediate way.

Let’s analyze the following example, to emphasize the most common mistakes made when training a dog:

The owner calls the dog, who is far away in a field smelling something that pleases him. The dog hears the calling, but he doesn't show any interest in answering. Only after consecutive callings the dog will approach the owner, with an expression slightly submissive. What happens then? Will the owner reward the dog for having finally answered the call? No. Usually it is the opposite: the owner scolds the dog saying: You have no shame! I had to call you endless times until you answered. You deserve a punishment!


This is one of the situations when we act according to the human thinking: we have in mind an action of the past and punish it in the present moment. We forget that the dog feels he is being punished for answering the call... and not for the time he took to answer! In this instance the owner should praise the dog effusively, even if he has taken a long time to obey. This way, the dog correctly associates the reward to the act of answering the call.

Does Your Dog Think
Have you ever wonder what your dog thinks about all day long? or maybe even how he thinks?
Maybe his thoughts are like a Polaroid –separate, and still pictures
Maybe they are pictures of important events both positive and negative.

What we do know is that your dog isn't as good as you are at linking the pictures together in cause and effect. The main reason fir this is that he is not human. He's a different species. Dogs often focus on the wrong variable in a sequence of events.

Here's an example.
I have trained dogs for a living for quite some time and during a meeting of trainers last year a co-trainer told a story of a dog who responded to commands wonderfully, better than any dog she had ever worked with one week yet would cower in fear the very next week. Why? What was going through little spots' mind? One of the other trainers had an idea. Let's spend some time with the person training the dog. Was everything the same week to week? Well no, not exactly. When Spot trained well, the trainer was wearing white tennis shoes. The next week when Spot was afraid, the trainer was wearing different shoes they were black. A little investigation of Spot found he was a rescue dog who was regularly beaten by his former owner with a newspaper. And what did Spot take a picture of while he was being beaten? The owners BLACK SHOES. You want to train Spot? It's easy, use good techniques and remember not to wear Black Shoes. Being a dog and not a human poor little Spot didn't realize that what he should have been afraid of was his ignorant owner with the newspaper and not the shoes he was wearing at the time. But for Spot the White shoes were right in front of his face and that's what he took a picture of. If you want to train a dog or change his behavior you first have to know a little bit about how his mind works. Please take some time to understand these wonderful creatures.

Just wanted to comment that dogs don't like litter boxes that much, a litter box seems more like a bed to him. Dogs really hate to poop in the same place they sleep, and will do almost anything to avoid this. People have trained dogs to go in litter boxes, but it takes some time. Crates should not be too big if you are actually trying to crate train, there should be only room enough for him to stand and turn around. Then you take him out of the crate and place him on the pee pad. This works really great during the nighttime. If he's left for long periods in the day, some people put the crate in a bathroom or x-pen, and place his pee pad outside the crate with food water, and toys, the crate would just be used for sleeping. I tried placing a pee pad inside Joey's crate because it was a large crate, and it just didn't work, he would pee on his blankets and sleep on the pee pad. As soon as I used a smaller crate he was "trained."

I swear Zoeybear used to do a "grudge poo" under the table if we left her home alone. She was 100% potty trained unless left alone. It was like she was mad and did a "grudge poo"

I don't think all dogs don't like them. I have three little ones using one, I think with time and consistent training, any dog can be taught any spot to do their business in. I like the litterbox, because even though it has a pad in it, they have to step into it to potty and they learn that they have to step into something (in the house) to potty in, thus not running around leaving presents on every piece of carpet in the house, lol

Thats who I like also. She is remarkable

Lots of good advice in some of the posts above. But I have to disagree with this one as well. I don't know that they are capable of revenge as we see it, but I do believe they exhibit emotion. Have you ever seen how a companion dog acts when one of its house mates passes away or doesn't come back home? Is this not emotion? JMHO

I think it's a great idea, I just think she may have more luck if she trains them to use a pad first than trains them with the litterbox. Anytips on how you trained them to use the box?

Whew! I didn't realize this topic would spark such emotion. Thanks for the tip. I will check it out.

Great tip! Thanks for the info. I will give it a try.

I wish I had trained the pee pad first but I didn't. He goes in the yard just fine. Any idea on how to make the switch?

Your title was very provocative.