Moest eerst even bijlezen.
Veel leesplezier
Letting Your Dog “Cry It Out” Could Cause Permanent Damage
The mechanisms that occur when ANY animal feels stress or anxiety is relatively conserved across the way the nervous system responds. This is why we use Rat models to draw conclusions about human behaviour. Recent work by Greg Burns showed that canines have the area responsible for feeling emotions. The discovery that dogs have a caudate nucleus has many implications in training, welfare and the law.
After doing a little research on the advice that people seem to be giving with respect to a puppy or dog whining, the main thought process still very much seems centred around letting him cry and only going back to him when he is quiet. The kind of articles out there seem to have a similar message, such as, “We do not want him to control us with his crying”, “We do not want him thinking this behaviour works”, Some advise, “let him cry for a bit and then go to him if he really means it”. Who is right? Well, none of you actually.
Dogs are not trying to manipulate you with their crying, they have not sat down and drawn up plans to try and control you so their every basic need is met. Surely, with the new evidence brought into the light, they have EVERY right to have their basic needs met. Afterall you make the decision to be in charge of their basic needs when you get a dog. Think how frightening it must be to place that amount of trust on someone (for them and YOU)? How scary would it be, to express yourself and get ignored? How do you feel when your needs are not met? What do you do?
It would seem that the “cry it out” mentality has its roots in hullaballoo research and has formed our basis of youngster rearing since the 1880’s (see Ferber, Weissbluth and Schafer if you want to read more)
Sometimes we do things, not because we know, but because that is what is popular and for some reason, this rather archaic methodology is still rife. You cannot help wondering if this attitude alone could be the reason why we have such an epidemic of separation anxiety (highlighted in recent media coverage) because quite frankly “crying it out” is stressful and by doing this we can create real, lasting permanent damage.
There are many current articles on why some stress is good and to be honest, the more appropriate terms that should be used in these instances are more “seeking” or “drive” related in what is actually meant. Basically, if something is engaging, bringing about a need to solve a problem and it is within the capabilities of the animal (but not too difficult and not too easy) then there will be an increase in dopamine (which is the neurotransmitter that works in seeking response behaviour patterns). Now, if that task is too difficult and the seeking behaviour increases and the animal does not get anywhere and the task becomes too difficult, then this starts to become stressful. Dopamine converts to cortisol as it is used and we all know that too much free cortisol is a bad thing for learning, immunity, behaviour responses, health and so on. So, the answer here, IS: it has to be interesting, engaging and it has to be achievable.
Some people still talk about this most unfortunate label “mollycoddling” (is that even a word?). Unfortunately, this stems from this outdated research methodology. I am not going to say anymore about this, you can make up your own mind.
What we want, is to promote independence and problem solving to keep the animal driven and seeking (this is why training life skills is a great idea because it gives you synergistic cues that indicate what each of you would like out of the relationship, through free choices by both parties). This breaks down the frustration barriers and is fundamental for letting the animal have control over his own outcomes (which have been shown to reduce stress, aggression and his needs are far more likely to be met etc).
So, when we talk about setting animals up to succeed, what do we mean?
We want to reduce stress
Increase free choice
Increase probability that safe, good decisions are made
Reduce anxiety
Arrange he environment so he is set up to make good choices
By ignoring vocalisations and/or stress signals for significant periods of time does not work. Here is why!
(ladder of aggression part of the dog trainers resource pack)
John Watson in the 1920’s took quite a hard stance on using affection in infant rearing and emphasised something which he defined as “too much mother love”. This was a time when the science world was heavily dominated by men. Too much kindness was thought to give you a whiney,dependent animal and this became popular protocol, with no evidence to back it up. Even at the time, studies were starting to show evidence to the opposite. None of the research took into consideration the well-being of the young animals.
The field of neuroscience has really changed this perception, because an animal getting distressed is damaging to them, their social capabilities and this has long term, knock on effects.
Leaving an animal to cry will make them less healthy, more difficult to manage, anxious and probably more fearful. These traits get passed down to the next generation. The attitude that dogs have to be “taught to be independent” is quite frankly coming back to bite us in the behinds. Why? because by forcing independence, we are actually creating the opposite, dependence. Studies have shown that giving them what they need, leads to greater independence, greater exploration and better confidence when left (Hewlett & Lamb 2005 hunter gatherer childhoods). Conditioning an animal to expect that his needs are not met, means he is far more likely to exhibit unhappy, aggressive & demanding behaviours and is far more likely to vocalise to get his needs met. This deep sense of insecurity is likely to stay with him for the rest of his life.
The trick here (according to research by Stein and Newcomb 1994) is that we respond before the distress occurs. We prevent the crying and implement soothing care from the outset (Jaaks P is doing some great work on opiod receptors and depression- think touch pathways). Distress patterns once set, are very hard to break. So, the attitude of leaving your little one to cry could potentially set you up with bigger problems further down the line and actually cause problems with separation distress. This is why the first 7 days of owning a young pupster are the most crucial.
I know people want to put hats on things so just to dispel the myths of which animal we are talking about here! Any animal which nurtures and raises its young. We use rats to study how human brains work. The one thing we can be sure of across the broad spectrum of sentience is that none of them are trying to control your life by crying. They are trying to control their own, or they feel out of control and the vocalisation is a sign that their needs are not met in some way. This is important to understand. Please!!
So, Meaney in 2001 identified a set of genes that are actually turned on by nurturance. This was conducted with rats who had high or low nurturing mothers and there is a critical period for turning on genes that control the animals emotions (set-point) for life. It was shown, in the first 10 days, if you have a low nurturing rat mother (probably first few weeks for a dog) the gene does not get expressed and the anxiety is set for the rest of the animals life and he will continue to display distress in new situations.
The relationship between a human and their canine is one of dyadic proportions. This should be a mutually symbiotic relationship which promotes the health and happiness of both parties (there is no pack or pack leader- Just a team of sentient’s getting along and making it work by trying to make it the best it can be). We no longer use extinction in training and behaviour (crying it out, is unmodified extinction), it does not bode well for the concept of modification and something that always sticks to mind is “what do you want the animal to do instead” (Dr Susan Friedman). With the least manipulative, compassionate intentions, we can teach (reinforce) an alternative behaviour. How many of us forget that we can do this?
One of the best protocols, (which can be modified) is, Dr Karen Overalls Relaxation protocol. This is one of the tools that should be in every behaviour persons tool box.
So, what are the Neurological implications (damage) and how does this affect the relationship between the animal and caregiver?
Neuronal interconnections are damaged, cortisol released, in excess it kills neurons (Thomas et al 2007) This has huge implications in the developing brain.
Stress & reactivity becomes a pattern (the emotional set-point) impairs the functioning of the nervous system. Particularly the vagus nerve (spoken about in length in the introduction to the neuroscience of behaviour online seminar)
Which has knock on effects in digestion, immunity, anxiety etc. Early stress is toxic for the life of the animal.
Meeting the animals needs before he gets distressed (through appropriate training methods which we use in all of our courses) will, in turn, help him to self regulate. The body will be tuned up for calmness. So, when pupster gets scared and he is held and comforted, the animal builds an expectation for soothing. This will be integrated into his ability to self comfort (this gets paid forward in many ways for the other people/animals in the house- monkey see monkey do). When they are isolated, they do not self comfort (if the isolation causes stress, then we are not helping them to be healthily independent)
If left in a distressed state too long, they will shut down, stop growing, stop feeling and stop trusting (Wang ’98).
If needs are met without distress during the sensitive period then there is a sense of trust in the world. This is because he feels supported. If needs are not met, then a sense of mistrust develops, confidence is low. This may result in the dog being clingy and easily anxious.
When an animal displays discomfort, it signals that a need is not being met. The way we deal with this, requires a great deal of compassion, the ability to de-centre from your own stress levels (face it, being a care giver can be hugely stressful) and understand how to meet the needs of the animal. His every need is down to you being able to understand what he is trying to tell you. This is why it is important to bring your entire ethos away from pack mentality and more in line with the current methods that are being scientifically proven and developed every single day! With the use of FMRI we have been able to successfully prove with experiments that dogs feel emotion when they are given a negative hand cue.
Bron: simpley behaviour
Reageren
)
) ....
)
lol maar ik hou van je enthousiasme 
(pfoe... nou weet toch 'iemand' het). 
Volgens mij slaag jij cumlaude voor die test 
)
"