FORZA10 & Siua together in the common struggle for dog welfare Forza10 has a long history of fruitful partnership with SIUA, in the common struggle for dog welfare. The starting point of Forza10 and Siua lies in basic elements like nutrition and the dog-human relationship, but these factors are inserted into an innovative and scientific perspective. The best possible human-dog relationship evolves through understanding, competence and interaction between the two, in mutual collaboration. The aim of a healthy and self-conscious relationship must be supported and favoured by attention to the dog’s nutrition: food is an essential everyday rite that only the owner can know fully and deal with responsibly. Recent research in the field has unequivocally proven that the psychophysical balance of the dog is heavily affected by polluting chemicals in his food: residues due to antibiotics, antiparasiticals etc., which end up in our four-legged friends’ food. Only an accurate selection ex ante, together with recipes integrated
by natural principles, can ensure a healthy nutrition that allows for the dog’s welfare, perfecting her psychic and psychological wellbeing. Therefore, it is in this attention to nutrition, i.e. the presupposition to a perfect relationship, that the cognitive-zooanthropological approach finds fertile ground for the dog’s learning and development.
NUTRITION: the first step to ensure better health for those who can not choose
A New Alliance
In our society, living with a dog requires the development of a cynophile culture capable both to respond to the needs of the four-legged, in their individual or racial expressions, and to find solutions related to the styles of society as a whole. In other words, as we live in a world that has left rural culture behind, it is essential to rebuild the dog-human encounter on the basis of a new alliance that takes into account what a dog actually is. The risk, in fact, is to expect him to play a role that does not belong to him. Dogs are neither toys nor children: to respect them one has to meet their needs and prepare their adaptive capabilities through an adequate experi-
ential training starting from the early months of their life. We need to educate the puppy, but at the same time we have to educate the owner, in order to achieve a convergence of styles that enhances the mutual wellbeing deriving from the relationship. This is the goal of cynophile education, which is something more than dog training: it is a global consultancy service aimed at enhancing the human-dog relationship. 1
Educating People
Everything starts from the desire to have a dog. But what dog? And are we really sure that in our particular situation it is the right thing to do? I realize that one cannot do the third degree to those wishing to adopt a dog – I use the term “adopt” and not “buy” because a dog is not an object. However, many farmers and many kennel managers are extremely careful before giving someone a dog. They do their utmost to explain the characteristics of that dog, what are her needs, how one should behave with her and how to provide her with contexts, situations and expressive possibilities that are essential require2
ments for her welfare. Often, however, these attempts fall on deaf ears, because when a person decides to adopt a dog a kind of “falling in love” takes place and it is very difficult to explain that certain attitudes are just not right for a dog. So in most circumstances, though obviously not always, action is required to find compromise solutions or at least to try to find the right convergences to give comfort to the dog and satisfaction to the person.
Educating people means making them more aware that the psychological wellbeing of their dog is the best guarantee to make the most of their relationship with her as well as prevent difficulties and behavioural problems from appearing in the future. It is not an easy task, because it requires great communication skills, considerable discretion in the interaction to avoid being perceived as intrusive, and a strong attitude to involve and be followed, because without the full co-operation of the owner
even the simplest piece of information might fail to be understood. Those involved in cynophile education have to be good consultants and their preparation must also include the basics of interpersonal communication and management of critical situations. The consulting part is based on being able to provide correct and comprehensive information about the basic needs of the dog and the best daily management practices, also in relation to the characteristics of the specific environment and family.
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Letting the Dog Emerge
The dog-human relationship can only be realized if the dog can fully emerge as a subject, so as to allow for an authentic and deep encounter. It might seem paradoxical, but the educator’s first goal is to let the dog emerge, trying to set aside all the ideas, claims and expectation that are projected on her due to a lack of cynophile culture. The dog has to become a “centre of attention” for the owner: a neighbour that has to be understood in its subjectivity and diversity. Only thus can a true relationship come into being. The educator has to help the person in the difficult task of accepting the dog for what she is under the ethological profile: this does not mean accommodating anything the dog does, but starting from her normal behaviour to set the 4
correct practices. For example: the dog is a predator and it is no wonder if she acts like one, so we mustn’t treat her like a baby. We should rather address her predatory behaviour towards targets that are satisfactory for her while not being a problem for us. It is not by denying the dog’s nature that we can avoid annoying or problematic behaviours on her part. Something similar can be said with regards to the race, which does not only specify exterior characteristics but also inner drives and attitudes that must be known and channelled into sustainable behaviours.
This is a global need involving the whole process of integration of the dog in the cynophile perspective, so as to fulfill the requirements of the encounter. In Siua, we have focused on preparing “relational activities” to foster the encounter, which represents the preliminary condition to any activity of dog training. Letting the dog emerge means paying more attention to one’s dog. Our number one enemy is lack of attention because, especially when the dog is still a puppy, we should prevent problematic situations rather then acting when they’re already part of the dog’s behaviour. People often manifest a very superficial excitement in the presence of a
dog but soon forget about her, only to intervene when she is making some mess or getting in trouble. This does not mean that one should be pathologically attached to a dog, but rather that one should always keep one’s eyes open to what might happen. It means preventing her need to pee by taking her out regularly and teaching her not to do it home, calling her to keep her attention during a walk or an activity, eluding her natural destructive attitude by preventing her from reaching objects we care about, watching over her behaviour to ensure her well-being. Often people don’t realize that having a puppy requires a lot of patience and care.
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Education Means Helping the Dog Bloom
The cognitive-zooanthropological approach is based on a “pedagogic conception” of cynophile education, which means addressing the puppy’s development to favour her adaptation and full realization. Cynophile education therefore has the goal of creating the best conditions for the dog’s ethological expression to be realized as completely and consistently as possible. In other words, the target is to help that particular subject to emerge – to “educate” is meant in evolutionary sense, helping the dog bloom and grow. This objective is achieved by acting on the owner, so as to raise awareness about the needs and characteristics of that dog and provide an evolutionary path tailored to that particular puppy, 6
taking account of her talents and shortcomings. The point is to orientate the dog’s propensities, channelling them into sustainable behaviour. In this sense, cynophile education is an investment aimed at the future of the dog and the enhancement of the relationship. This follows an internal logic aimed at the correct inclusion of the dog in the family but also at the capacity of the dogowner relationship to relate to other people and other dogs, compatibly with the rules of coexistence.
The pedagogic conception rests on three principles: 1) the dog as a starting point, i.e. considering her characteristics as evolutionary sprouts; 2) the dog as a journey, i.e. adapting different experiences to the puppy’s developmental age; 3) the dog as a target, i.e. considering the whole educational project as an investment for the puppy’s future. The nature of the dog must be the guiding principle of everything we do: one has to start from ethological characteristics, considering both the racial the individual characteristics. Education is the process that enhances these peculiarities, improving them and making them suitable and compatible with the context of the dog’s life.
To educate means to facilitate and guide the process of psychological growth of a puppy, based on the sensitivity of developmental periods and on the intrinsic characteristics of the puppy. Cynophile pedagogy places the dog at the centre. This does not mean letting her free to express herself as she wishes but rather strengthening her character in a logic of co-existence with the human. Education in this sense is not the construction of a sort of expressive etiquette for the benefit of the human being but, in line with what happens in nature, it fosters the fortification of the single dog through the preparation of useful experience for that particular subject.
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Finding Common Goals
Dogs and humans have to find a common ground. Cynophile education must therefore identify common objectives that are realized in everyday living together. The educator must be first and foremost a relationship consultant able to find the best solutions for that dog, in his individual and racial characteristics, in that particular contextual and family situation. It is a daunting task that requires openness and availability when receiving requests, flexibility in finding the best solutions for that particular case, intuition in understanding the unsaid or implied, discretion in gathering information and advice. The first element to take into consid8
eration is the definition of common objectives important to the future of the dog such as: a) pro-sociality, i.e. the ability to address social relations; b) balance, i.e. disciplining talents and overcoming flaws; c) integration, namely facilitating the dog’s adaptive propensity to the environments in which she will live; d) resilience, i.e. the ability to amortize difficulties and to be autonomous; e) reflexivity, or the tendency not to be impulsive while being flexible.
It is true that the educator can set educational activities and thus facilitate certain experiences, but it is equally true that the behavioural and psychological growth of the dog is a process that takes place in everyday life. In other words, the dog is educated by the overall style of the relationship with her owner: the way they play together, the objects to which she may have access, the style of interaction (autonomous or morbidly affective), their everyday habits, the places they go to, whether she goes out frequently or not, whether she meets other people and dogs or not – all these things
matter much to the dog’s development. The pedagogic approach is therefore based on relational activities, able to structure a condition of “permanent education”. Given all this, it is clear that the educator’s task is not only to educate the dog directly through exercises, which become development-related activities, but must also show the owner how to deal with the dog on a day to day basis, being able to give feedback on the integration of the dog in that particular situation. In other words: the true educator of the dog is always the owner.
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A Project For That Specific Situation
The pedagogic project must therefore relate to the specific situation, both in terms of the peculiarity of the puppy and in terms of the adaptive context. Once established the strategic goals of the educational path, one must structure the specific educational project, which is based: 1) the specific characteristics of the puppy, as the objectives relate to trends and vocations or deficiencies and needs that are peculiar to that subject; 2) the peculiarities of the situation in terms of the environment, family, context, since education is also a path of integration and adaptation to the world. The educator is therefore like a tailor who has to take measurements be10
fore being able to sew a dress. The first moments are crucial because at a young age the puppy is like a sponge: she absorbs every experience, which therefore influences her development. The education is concentrated mainly in the life period from the time of the adoption - about 9 weeks - to the first 15 months of life, key moments to set the character of the dog. One must not let too much time pass; the person adopting a puppy should see the educator as often as the vet, in order to deal with the dog’s first months in the best possible way.
The educator must therefore have a very detailed preparation, specifically concerning the developmental age of the dog. Surely one of the most important aspects in the cynophile educator’s training concerns the ability to correctly evaluate the dog’s characteristics. The educator must have significant experience and not just theoretical training. Humbleness is fundamental, because an educator always has to wish to learn and perfect his skills. Flexibility is also crucial to this job, because cynophile education is not standardized and repetitive but always related to the specific situation. Finally, relational qualities are indispensable, and not only with regards to the owner. The educator must be able
to work with other professionals, without overlapping and in full cooperation, avoiding to work on behavioural problems of adult dogs, which require other skills and therefore must be delegated to other professionals. The work of the educator is paramount and will be even more so with the growing awareness of the importance of living with the dog correctly. We should not forget, however, that the educator acts on a very delicate area because it is these early months that will structure the basic character of the dog, the foundation upon which all subsequent experiences will rest. Also, the first moments are essential to set the dog-human relationship because there are no bad habits yet, and because one can take advantage of the initial enthusiasm.
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The Cognitive-Zooanthropological Approach
In view of all these considerations, in the mid 90s our Research and Training Institute (SIUA) began to reflect on the general experiences and approaches of dog lovers. The aim was to identify the best way to respond to a social need that was emerging while adapting teaching to new theories about animal behaviour. Living with a dog in the metropolitan society required a very articulate adaptive apprenticeship and therefore the preparation of very specific experiences, different from the traditional ones. The cognitive revolution put in evi12
dence the importance of considering animals as entities with a full subjectivity and not as puppets moved by wires - this obviously collided with the classical or behaviourist approach. Zooanthropology, on the other hand, focuses on considering the dog-human relationship as central: it is something to be valued but also to be adjusted in a cynophile sense, so as to avoid forms of anthropomorphization.
The cognitive-zooanthropological approach stems from the synthesis of these two disciplines – cognitive science and zooanthropology – that in the final decades of the twentieth centuries have allowed for a new kind of encounter between humans and dogs. To understand the cognitive-zooanthropological approach (cza) it is essential to analyse these two terms and translate them into simple words, even at the cost of simplifying: 1) a cognitive approach means first of all interpreting the dog through a model of description and explanation different from those considering behaviour as a result of direct automatism (stimulus-response). According to the cognitive approach a dog’s behaviour is, con-
versely, the outcome of the overall processing of the dog’s mind. In other words, an event that is more reminiscent of a painting than a switch; 2) a zooanthropological approach means taking the human-dog relationship as the starting point of every event (interactive, performative, educational and rehabilitative). The relationship is something valuable that should always be protected and that has a priority over everything else; according to the zooanthropological approach, the dog cannot be considered a tool but a partner, so any educational intervention that is conducted against him must take the dog as an end and not as a means.
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An Interpretive Approach
To understand the cognitive-zooanthropological approach one should therefore know how this paradigm describes and explains the process of learning while distancing itself from the behaviourist interpretation. This is not a methodological choice, in the optional sense of the term, no more than choosing the Copernican universe over the Ptolemaic. Adopting a cognitive approach means explaining the same universe, i.e. animal behaviour, but through a different model. In cognitive interpretation, one learns in order to build a new adaptive tool; the motive is always an unreachable goal, we may call it desire or purpose, which can emerge from an infinite number of reasons, not least social ones. Learning is therefore the motion 14
of the mind towards the end of a better management of reality. The learning process perfects an endowment capable of resolving the gap between the state of the subject and the objective: so it is not opened by a stimulus and closed by a reinforcement, but it is opened by a desire and closed by the achievement of the end. Knowledge is always the result of a comprehensive work of the mind that, through a variety of operations, tries to find a solution starting from its equipment.
In a zooanthropological interpretation, one always learns by immersing oneself into a relational milieu: learning is always a being-in-relation, even when the subject is apparently on her own or facing a problem arising from inanimate reality. Therefore, teaching is also structured on a relational basis. In a zooanthropological interpretation, one always learns by immersing oneself into a relational milieu: learning is always a being-in-relation, even when the subject is apparently on her own or facing a problem arising from inanimate reality. The reason is very simple: for a mammal, the relationship with the mother,
the dialogue with her since the period of gestation, represents the basic model of all relations with external reality, so it re-emerges every time the subject has to interact with the world. We may therefore say that the interpretation of learning processes follows a cognitiverelational matrix, where the other is always present (other-with-itself) and cannot be reduced to the role of counterparty. Just as the mother is a goal to be sought, a filter through which to interpret the world, a secure base, the other is implied in the learning process even when it is not made explicit in the figure of a teacher.
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Not Really A Method
Too many people confuse cognitive-zooanthropological (cz) approach with a working method comparing it to gentle or traditional teaching. Actually, cz approach is not a method but a model. The cognitive-zooanthropological approach is not a working method but a paradigm of interpretation, which is a specific way to explain: 1) why the dog in certain situations has a certain behaviour; 2) how the endowments of knowledge and skills that lead him to act that way develop in the dog’s mind. For this reason it is wrong to compare it to other working methods - for example, the traditional method - that, even in their diversity, insist on the classic explanation of behaviourist matrix. The cognitive-zooanthropological ap16
proach in cynophile education does not refer to a particular choice of teaching - considered the best, say, in terms of results - but rather to interpreting learning processes in different ways and thus preparing teaching methods that fully respond to the identity of the dog in the light of this approach. In the cz approach, learning is not passively undergone by the subject but is actively realized by the dog acting as a protagonist. In other words, the dog acquires new knowledge thanks to being part of an affective-relational exchange based on shared goals.
If, for example, it is believed that a learning process is driven by a goal of the subject and not by a mere external stimulus, one will not follow the traditional pattern of stimulus-response-reinforcement (behaviourist triad) but that of target-understanding-solution. Consequently, in teaching one will work on motivational engagement or involvement. If it is believed that learning is supported and favoured by affection and a collaborative milieu, teaching will be structured so as to enhance the collaborative relation as much as possible.
Similarly, if it is believed that the learning process should give rise to knowledge and not to a conditioning (not structuring an automatism but endowing the subject with a map that can be used in a flexible way in similar situations), the preparation of teaching will change accordingly. In fact, one does not wait for the dog to eventually put in place the useful behaviour, but makes her the protagonist of the solution process. The cz approach is not a method but, changing the interpretative model of learning, it inevitably transforms the teaching approach as well.
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The Dog As A Subject The dog trainer must consider the “subjectivity” of the dog because every dog is special and unique, and not the example of a model. The dog’s behaviour is an expression of this singularity. Accepting the subjective character of a dog does not amount to denying genetic propensities or the influences that come from the environment: 1) the educator must be very familiar with dog races and corresponding vocations-attitudes, because they represent models to refer to; 2) the educator must always refer to the living environment as the source of stimuli, opportunities, incentives and constraints of expression and therefore behaviour. Starting from the subject does not mean forgetting the importance of genetic influence, predetermined by definition, or of the environment, which inevitably shapes the individual profile. According to the cognitive model, however, these genetic and environmental determinations are not wires that move an imaginary “puppet” but are tools obviously determined in their characteristics - that the individual uses with flexibility, freedom and creativity. Genetic and environmental endowments are not automatisms but instruments with a relatively wide range of functional capabilities, which therefore refer to a subjectivity that in turn defines the mode of use. These endowments are “knowledge” - the term “cognitive” comes from this word - that the subject constructs by modifying previous knowledge whenever facing a goal that it cannot reach with the tools 18
it has. Learning therefore means building the instruments to achieve one’s objectives. For this reason we say that subjectivity is expressed through dispositions namely desires, tendencies, emotional states - that give the individual an effective presence in the moment: an involvement (a motivational engagement) that makes her the protagonist both in behavioural expression and in learning. At this point many might say that they also work through involvement, making the dog the protagonist; rather, they might note that you cannot teach a dog anything without motivational engagement. Well, there is all the more reason for them to stop explaining what they do through the triad; remaining anchored to the behaviourist interpretative approach makes them unable to structure an explicit cognitive teaching, which, being self-conscious, would be much more fruitful. Many people say they work with the behaviourist approach while actually working cognitively, for the simple fact that the dog himself leads them. However, they do it without awareness, continuing to explain what is happening according to the behaviourist triad, thus limiting their educational opportunities. If you focus on the development of single automations you will lose sight of the whole system.
The awareness results in an explicit model of teaching. In fact, it is not enough to say “the dog thinks,� but we need to translate this statement into a model to suggest the best educational practices consistent with this assumption. To sum up, we can say that the most relevant changes relate to these concepts: 1) the principle of subjectivity, which detects how each individual uses its equipment in a free, flexible and creative way; 2) the concept of knowledge, which
(unlike the conditioning model) considers the equipment, both innate and learned, a tool that can be used in a multiplicity of ways just like the map of a city; 3) the systemic assessment of behavioural expression, which calls into question the idea of separated automatisms, proposing instead a model where the different compositions can vary continuously, both functionally and structurally: that is, where everything is potentially connected to everything.
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The Cognitive Approach
Cognitive teaching is different from behaviourist teaching because it considers learning to be the outcome of the subject’s tending to a goal she cannot reach. This system is therefore entirely based on the dog’s overall orientation (projecting towards a goal), her specific placement in the here and now, and her reliance on operational resources. Thinking that what moves the animal is a stimulus, to which the former merely reacts, does not do justice to the proactive inclination and ongoing initiative that characterizes the dog. The cognitive approach places the engine of behaviour in the subject’s initiative, never considering it exclusively reactive. Cognitive teaching is based on an interpretative paradigm completely different from the behaviourist one, therefore it is essential to understand the model that explains such proactivity – the source of the initiative and inclination toward a goal – prior to detailing the teaching. The cognitive approach assumes that every behavioural phenom20
enon is the expression (manifestation) of a state of mind, or momentary activation of a part of a system comprising multiple components (emotional, motivational, representational, functional), organized as a network. The mental state may be conscious, but is not necessarily such, therefore, it is not consciousness that grounds the cognitive principle. The dispositional components, such as motivations and emotions, are also known as positional because they place the subject in the “here and now” and characterize the action as: chase, collect, escape, attack. The elaborative components, such as representations and cognitive functions, have the task to specify the mode of expression, providing it with content - such as targets, evokers, meanings, choreographies. Proactivity is born out of those components.
The model should help to prepare a teaching that can enhance subjectivity, taking account of the subject’s endowments, her inclination towards a goal, and the variables that affect her here and now – all these factors are very important to understand attitudes, predispositions and projections in action. In this perspective, learning is an overall growth of the subject - an inclination that modifies his internal resources - toward the goals that his dispositional state brings up from time to time in relation to the environment. Learning is therefore the result of a dialogue between the identity of the dog and the field of possibilities that the environment offers him. In order to understand the basics of learning according to the cognitive
model I proposed, it is necessary to consider three perspectives, useful only to better focus on the learning processes. These perspectives are therefore framed separately only for the sake of illustration, since in reality they make up a unique phenomenon: learning. The three perspectives of the model I identified are the following: 1) learn how to activate an evolutionary differentiation; 2) learn how to solve problems and build new knowledge; 3) learn how to put together the components in compositions that are each responsible for one expression and, as a whole, for the identity of the subject.
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Learning as an Evolutionary Differential
Learning means growing by using the resources available in a specific way: every developmental process is an evolutionary investment and, as such, it assignes resources to a particular sprout, obviously taking them away from other ones. At first, the subject has a wide horizon of evolutional possibilities: we could imagine him as many sprouts pushing themselves out of the soil in order to grow, and in this sense we speak of virtuality or potential. At the same time it is evident that, while the evolutionary paths that can be taken are almost infinite, the evolutionary resources are limited. This means that every time a sprout takes strength and grows, it also withdraws resources from the growth of others. In other words, every evolutionary investment is also a divestment, and all growth is also a decrease. This awareness leads us to consider learning as a differential growth just 22
like the crown of a tree grows where there is light. In the case of the cognitive system, light corresponds to the “gradient of activation� of a component: i.e. how often and how strongly the component is aroused: 1) because it finds occasions of expression in the environment and in the relationship; 2) because, being already strong in that subject, it finds many opportunities or elements that arouse or recall it to him. For example, the more a justification or a representation is recalled through activity, interaction, opportunities, (eliciting) recalls, the more it grows.
In the case of the cognitive system light corresponds to the gradient of activation of a component: therefore, the more a justification or representation is recalled the more it grows. Therefore, one of the fundamental questions we must ask concerns how the activation of a component happens, because each time a component is activated, not only is it manifested in a corresponding behaviour but it also strengthens, making that particular behaviour more likely. A component can be activated because: a) it is invoked by a condition or an element in the environment that elicits it directly, just as movement arouses predation;
b) it is recalled by the behaviour of a social party that directs or shows that conduct directly; c) it finds in the environment opportunities and rewards that make it both economic and highly competent to give pleasure to the subject. Therefore through games, examples, exemption, or direct arousal by the environment one can grow a component through its activation while decreasing others by subtraction of cognitive resources. Cognitive teaching cares about working on the relationship and on the environment to direct the puppy’s growth, knowing how it matters in the activation of the evolutionary differential.
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Learning How to Solve a Problem
The subject’s inclination towards certain goals inevitably leads him to face problems: learning is the way through which the subject builds new tools to find solutions. Learning is a way to increase one’s effectiveness in the interaction with the environment. For this reason, we can say that the subject is encouraged to learn each time she faces a problem and has no effective solution at hand. It must be said that in a cognitive view the problem does not arise directly from external reality but from the interaction between the world and the subject’s desires. We could say that if the subject did not have desires she would not have problems. But if it is true that the problems arise from desires, the question is where the latter come from, since one often takes for granted the objectivity of objectives when, on the contrary, they are the result of subjectivity. If I lay a baby and a kitten on a lawn - that is, in the same environment - it is likely that the child would collect 24
daisies, while the kitten would chase after butterflies: the difference is in the motivational structure of the two parties, based on the collecting tendency of humans and the predatory tendency of cats. On the other hand even desire, often made explicit in a precise objective, arises from the relationship between the motivational structure of the subject and what the environment makes possible. However for the cognitive approach the first motor of learning is the goal that the subject sets himself. If between the target and the status of the subject there is a gap - a distance or a constraint - a problem emerges: learning is the active work of the mind to solve this problem, which aims to bring the state of the subject to overlap with the objective.
The solution process makes it so that to learn one must first understand, that is, define the structural and situational requirements of the problem. For this reason, in a cognitive perspective, learning requires a hermeneutical equipment. The fundamental aspects are: a) an emotional state consistent with the problem; b) a level of activation (arousal) suitable for the required degree of attention, responsiveness, and concentration; c) interpretative representations related to the problem. Once the problem was understood, the subject makes attempts at finding solutions but, contrary to what is posited by the behaviourist interpretation, these attempts are not random but
heuristic, that is, the subject resorts to solutions already tested in other similar occasions. When an attempt approaches the solution of the problem the subject modifies in part the characteristics in order to reach the solution. Heuristics is therefore merely previous knowledge that, used as a “solution attempt”, gives rise to new knowledge. Learning as a process ends when the subject has reached the target and has acquired new knowledge, which can be used in a flexible way to solve other problems. For this reason, cognitive teaching is concerned not only with the emotional state of the subject but also with her “proximal level of experience”, that is, the set of knowledge that the subject owns and that puts her in a specific experiential condition.
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Learning as Composing
The dog’s expression is never a simple motor mechanism (display) but an overall state of the cognitive system that involves multiple components. When we see a behaviour - the only objectively assessable entity - we observe emotional expressions, activation levels, motivational ambivalence, etc.: in short, something that looks more like a composition of elements rather than a simple motor expression. Behaviour therefore resembles a play with several actors, each characterizing the uniqueness of that particular expression. Often in a repeated behaviour we notice small changes in the actors present, just as it is common for the same actor (component) to participate in different performances (behaviours). The cognitive approach therefore uses a connectionist model and not an associationist one, i.e. it contemplates connection systems where everything is virtually connected to everything and in different ways. Learning is therefore building prevailing connections, those that are 26
more likely to give rise to a performance. Learning means organizing one’s resources. It’s a bit as if when learning one put one’s cognitive endowments – i.e. the different components - in a special order. Learning is like making a cake: it is not enough to have the necessary ingredients, but you must also know how to put them together in a certain way through a recipe. The recipe is intangible but nonetheless just as necessary as the ingredients; when we eat a cake we taste not only the ingredients but also the package of information that put the ingredients together in a certain way. The components therefore never occur alone but always composed in a specific way; behaviour is the expression of this whole and not of the individual elements, just as in a cake. The single ingredient could give a different organoleptic result if composed otherwise.
The cognitive approach gives much importance to the organization of the cognitive system as a whole (the identity of the individual) but also to the different expressions in their prevalent characterizations. Unlike a merely associative view, the cognitive interpretation refers to networks between the elements, where each network is responsible for the behaviour expressed, which thus depends on the activation of multiple components, and the result of which is always emerging from a number of elements - not always the same ones. Similarly, each component can participate in multiple networks resulting in different behavioural expressions. Learning is therefore building these networks putting together elements through the neurobiological law of synchronicity. The latter explains that
the more some components are activated together the more likely it is that they will be activated synchronously in the future. Similarly one can achieve sequential organizations, real flowcharts capable of transforming individual displays into prevailing patterns. The organization also defines the parameters of constraint of a given component with respect to a certain network, for which we can have very constrained and disciplined components (for example predation only with regards to a certain target) and free or degenerate components (for example, cooperation in many different ways). Cognitive teaching therefore aims to define the type of organization of the system, both considering the system as a whole and defining the prevailing expressions of that subject.
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The Zooanthropological Approach
Learning means being in a relationship, living in a certain affective-relational condition that leads us to have certain experiences and not others. Learning is always a journey into the unknown, because we learn precisely to know something that we ignore. For this reason, learning re-proposes the same affective model that the puppy has experienced in the relationship with her mother. Learning also refines the relational model because, taking place within the relationship, it leads the individual to necessarily adjust its “journey” to the current relational canon. According to the zooanthropological approach, which aims to bring out the dog’s ethographic specificity, you must build a relationship canon that is not marked by the dog’s anthropomorphization but by the same relational strings of the maternal relationship. The zooanthropological approach is based on a relational conception of 28
learning, considering the construction of the relation as preliminary to any form of education of the puppy. For zooanthropology one does not train the puppy for the relationship, but, on the contrary, the relationship is built to educate the puppy. In this sense cynophile education in the cz approach is based on a “centripetal relation”: one’s aim is to bring the dog and the person to relate to each other to foster education while limiting dog management to the minimum. This means devoting some of the work to build this relationship and promote mutual attention, so as to make educational communication more immediate and consistent. The centripetal relation does not amount to making the dog totally dependent and morbid in his relationship with his twolegged companion.
The zooanthropological approach intervenes decisively on the relationship to promote a balanced, conscious, fair and responsible development. It is pointless to dedicate oneself to the dog as if he were an isolated entity separated from the relational and situational context in which he lives. Cynophile education is not - I repeat - the education of the dog but the education of a relational system. One of the principles that guide the zooanthropological approach is based on adjusting the overall relationship by avoiding that the dog is forced into a role: baby-dog, loving-dog, doll-dog, tool-dog, toy-dog. Thus, there are many dimensions to the relationship, which are not wrong in themselves but are incorrect when they become the sole basis of the relationship. The job of the educator is also to bal-
ance them by helping the person to explore the least-expressed dimensions of the relationship. There are emphasized dimensions to mitigate and underdeveloped dimensions to implement: all this must happen through activities that are enjoyable both for the dog and for the person. But beware: the dog cannot be forced into a role that does not fulfil her ethological characteristics. The person also has to have a deep understanding of the importance of the relationship, avoiding attitudes of trivialization or negligence. Fostering the relationship means preventing the puppy from remaining in a state of infantile attachment, since a good relational profile also means a good level of autonomy. For this reason, the zooanthropological approach devotes much time to the harmonious growth of the relationship.
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Following the Maternal Model
The relational perspective indicates that learning means being related even when the relationship is not obvious. In mammals, the first reference point of learning is the mother who, in fact, represents the learning environment of the subject. The relationship with the mother is the archetype not only of any relationship but also of learning. The mother intervenes in the learning process of the puppy through an action that helps the puppy: a) through the secure base effect, making the puppy’s experiential centrifugation possible in the sur30
rounding environment by making her feel safe; b) by fulfilling the puppy’s basic needs, which determines a redundant motivation that is expressed in playing - that is the first way to learn; c) by arousing the puppy’s interest by directing it to particular targets, thus operating a first evolutional differential (making some things emerge while overshadowing others). The educator has to follow those coordinates.
Also, the mother acts directly on the learning process: 1) defining, between herself and the puppy, a “zone of proximal growth� - an evolutionary space that the puppy fills through dialogue and continuous interaction with the mother; 2) structuring a space of expression for the puppy, allowing certain behaviours rather than others and thus setting an evolutional differential; 3) defining the areas of imitation ranging from simple osmosis of dispositional states and styles up to more complex forms of presen-
tation of models through her behavioural expression; 4) acting in a masterly way through demonstrations, presentation of obstacles, inhibitions and closures, expressive and experiential stimuli, definition of social rules, and building models of communication. Like a mother, the educator must be reassuring and serve as a model, liberating the energies of the puppy and directing them, making him the protagonist of his growth, providing a safe environment full of experiential opportunities. The welfare of the dog must always come first.
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Behavioral Diet
NUTRITION AND PSYCHOPHYSICAL BALANCE A healthy, complete and balanced nutrition has a key role in dog wellbeing and also in psychophysical balance. Food can influence emotional status and behavioral: nervous and digestive systems are strictly linked and they can deeply influence each other. Certain neurotransmitters, as serotonin, are primarily synthetized in the intestinal tract from amino acids and substances absorbed during digestion. The lack of some of these amino acids in food could cause low levels of neurotransmitters and this could have consequences on behavior and emotional status of the dog. Moreover, intestinal inflammatory status reduces the endogenous production of serotonine.
How can a balanced nutraceutical diet help your dog phychophysical balance? • Because there is no meat from intensively farmed animals, which are frequently contaminated with pharmacological residues, especially OXYTETRACYCLINE, that cause adverse food reactions and inflammations targeted to all the body. For this reason, the only source of protein is the ocean fish. • Because it is made with high quality and clean raw materials, that meet dogs’ nutritional requirements and encourage overall wellbeing. • Because it is a balanced hypoallergenic diet that decreases the probability of manifesting food intolerances. • Because it has a special blend of natural principles and substances chosen for their renowned positive influence on emotional status.
In which cases this diet can help my dog? In every anxiety-related case, in presence of symptoms like: • • • • • • • 32
Excitability Unpredictability Impulsiveness Destructive behavior Excessive licking (on itself, surfaces and people) Inappropriate urination and defecation Continuous bark
FORZA10 Nutraceutic In order to get well: • Primary socialization (with their own and other breeds) • Adoption • Changes in home environment – new pets or people
Nutritional solutions • • • • •
Single source protein: WILD CAUGHT ANCHOVY MEAL Single source carb: GROUND RICE Ideal balance Omega6/Omega3: 0.8:1 Hypoallergenic Natural extracts
AFS TECHNOLOGY
• AFS TECHNOLOGY: The AFS works by adding natural principles into a special heart-shaped, cold pressed tablet, that are combined with traditional kibbles in the ideal percentage to maintain the effectiveness of any thermosensitive substance added. • Linden flowers (Tilia cordata): linden is a native plant from the northern hemisphere, used since ancient times for medicinal properties. Its flower are used in infusion to ease anxiety, thanks to muscle relaxant and calming effects. • Pomegranate (Punica granatum): it is naturally rich in polyphenols that avoid lipid oxidation and damage caused by free radicals. The seeds contain oleic and linoleic essential fatty acids, necessary for the organism. • L-tryptophan: it is an essential amino acid is involved in many chemical reactions, in particular in the synthesis of serotonin, melatonin and other neurotransmitters. L-tryptophan modulates anxiety, stress and some behavioral abnormalities. • Tea extract: it is rich in L-theanine, an amino acid associated with a feeling of relaxation and that may improve concentration. • Valerian root (Valeriana officinalis): this root is used for its tranquilizing and calming properties, renowned in traditional medicine. It has a beneficial effect on the nervous system, helping to reduce aggressiveness.
ISBN 978-88-87690-16-3
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