I remember this day like it was yesterday. Luke used avoidance to deal with the big bully on the left.
When nothing is something.
As an avid canine body language watcher; I see a great deal of information that seems to be invisible to many. "He's not doing anything," says my client; watching her dog standing beside the new addition. Ah, to the average Joe, her dog is not saying anything; but to me he is speaking volumes. He is using avoidance with the new dog they just brought home. "Look, he's good with her," she said. "He's not good with her," I said; further explaining, that he was having a hard time dealing with this new dog in his house; so he was opting out.
Avoidance is used for many different things in dogs. They can be seen using it when they don't know how to deal with something. ie. A rabbit is hopping around them at the park and their brain says grab it. Although they know they are not allowed to grab it so they pretend it is not there, avoidance.
Avoidance - an act or practice of avoiding or withdrawing from something.
Avoidance is called upon regularly in dogs; some more than others as they are all different and deal with life in their own very personal way.
Avoidance helps when dealing with tough stuff. A youtube video of my three taken six years ago. I haven't seen this video in a long time. It is filled with great canine body language. It is a fabulous representation of who each was as an individual.
Avoidance can be called upon for many different situations. Just because you don't see your dog looking at or seemingly reacting to something does not mean that they are oblivious. If you watch closely you may see that they are using avoidance. It is important to understand avoidance because it is not called upon for simple and mundane issues typically. Avoidance is different from ignoring. Ignoring is simple, unlike avoidance.
There is so much to learn about our dogs. Living with them should be enough of a reason to learn about them. Sadly most people will never really understand dogs; which is why so much is misread into canine/human interactions.
Dogs cannot tell us what is going on, we have to watch to understand.
Leave a comment, I love to hear from you.
Thank you for your posts on behavior. I do not know much at all about how to read their body language but I want to learn and am glad to read about your blog. I wasn't even aware of 'avoidance' and have seen it in my dogs, but I thought they were just ignoring what was going on at the time. Thank you for your insight and please post more!
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