Hi everyone, we're here today to talk about dog behavior. Applied ethology is the study of animal behavior. But all too often, we only pay attention to our pets' behaviors when they become a problem for us. However, if we're serious about preventing behavior problems from occurring, we really want to understand what motivates our pets to behave in the way that they do, then we really need to understand all of the different things that can influence dog and cat behavior. So in this section, we're going to talk a little bit more about dog behavior. One of the common misconceptions we have about dog behavior relates to how we've traditionally viewed them as being similar to wolf behavior. Many people are concerned that their dog is trying to take control and to be top dog or the alpha because for many years we thought that the social structure of dogs was arranged as a linear dominance hierarchy. With one dog in charge and the other dogs below that dog in a pecking order. But more recent science has shown that this is usually not the case. How a dog behaves is instead influenced by a variety of different factors which we'll now discuss. The first and most important thing to remember is that just like us, our pets are individuals. How they behave will depend on their individual temperament, genetic characteristics such as anxiety or confidence that are present from birth, as well as their own individual personality. That is their personal preferences, shaped by both their genetics and also the learning experiences as they grow up. Appropriate socialization before the age of 13 or 14 weeks can help puppies in developing personalities that cope with the challenges of modern life. Behavior is also influenced by motivation. How important an activity or reward is to an animal. And also by training, and the animal's previous learning experiences. For many dog owners, training out strongly motivated behaviors, such as food stealing or chasing, can be very difficult because these activities are highly rewarding for many dogs. This is because these behaviors have conferred survival and success over many generations. Dogs that are better at running down prey, hunting and food finding are more likely to breed. And so these traits are passed on or selected for through breeding by humans. For some breeds, these highly motivated behaviors may be difficult to manage. And this is important to consider when choosing your dog breed. It's also important, as responsible dog owners, that we try and limit our dogs opportunities to engage in behaviors which may be socially unacceptable and potentially dangerous in some cases. Our pets are learning all of the time and they don't just learn in the training sessions that we give to them. They are constantly learning from our interactions and what they learn will affect how they behave. For example, how often do we praise our pet dogs at home when they're laying quietly in their beds? In many cases, it's very rare for us to reinforce good, quiet, and calm behavior. However, when our dogs bark, jump on the furniture, or even mouth, or nip at us for attention, we often inadvertently reinforce these undesirable behaviors with eye contact, or vocal responses. This inadvertent reinforcement of undesirable behaviors can lead to a repetition of those behaviors, and this learning experience can lead to those behaviors becoming more and more common. A dog's previous learning experiences are also important. And for dogs with a history of deprivation, or competition, we commonly see problem behaviors. Such as dog dog aggression, or the guarding of resources from other dogs or humans. Again, these behaviors don't come from a dog feeling that he's in charge, but instead, they come from feeling exactly the opposite. Anxiety, fear of loss, and a desire to protect important resources such as food, toys, and sometimes even their human owner. So we can see that the behavior of our dogs is influenced by many different things. Their genetics, their personality, socialization, training, and environment. And whilst at times we may assume that our dogs are being naughty or disruptive, we must consider instead whether we are perhaps inadvertently rewarding these undesirable behaviors by reacting to them. Or whether we are setting our dogs up for success with responsible breeding, socialization, exercise and training to encourage the behaviors that we want. So it's really important that we remember that behavior is always communication. Our dogs communicate very differently than we do. But their ear positions, their tail positions, and their body language can all give us indications of how our dogs are feeling. It's really important that we understand dog behavior, and we don't judge their behavior based on how we, as humans, are feeling. Understanding dog behavior is really important to ensuring the good welfare of our dogs, but also to ensuring really positive human dog relationships.