Thank You, Dogs: A Canine Researcher’s Grateful Look Back

Dr. Dunbar spent 10 years watching dogs doing their own thing as part of a 30-year study conducted at Yale University. photo: AdobeStock

I have always been grateful that my job has also been my passion. As a kid, I spent my time wandering our farm with three dogs and, right after graduating from the UK’s Royal Veterinary College, I spent 10 glorious years just watching dogs doing their own thing. This was part of Dr. Frank A. Beach's 30-year study, conducted at Yale and later at Berkeley, on the social and sexual behavior of male and female dogs. Utterly fascinating.

Among our findings, we discovered that female dogs display over 20 different postures for urination ranging from squats, squat-swivels (for marking), leg raise (under the abdomen) and occasionally, full leg elevations (abducted outwards from the hip). We were also able to document that handstand urinations are surprisingly common in smaller breeds of dog (maybe to pee higher on the post?). Conversely, we found male dogs displayed only a few urination postures: puppy stands, adolescent leans with lean-and-leg lift, and adult full leg elevations.

Just watching dogs do their daily business prompted so many intriguing questions. When dogs pooped, were they plantigrade (on the soles of their feet) or digitigrade (on their toes)? Did they lift their right or left leg when urinating? (Actually, that turns out to be an even split: 40%-40% with 20% ambipedal. And the ambipedal urinators often exhibit a vacillatory approach to a tree or fire hydrant, as if struggling to decide which leg to lift). 

As a young researcher, I found this all so intriguing. But when we decided to research sex differences in dogs’ social behavior, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. 

We discovered that canine social structure was extremely sophisticated and very quickly debunked the silly and simplistic “dominance myth.” In fact, our top dog, Ken, was the most mild-mannered gentleman. We heard him briefly growl only once. He would gladly share his bone with anyone, and he never fought; he didn't need to. Instead, the posturing, growling, and scrapping was largely restricted to middle-ranking males. 

Every week we observed pairs of dogs together and then each group separately - adult males, adult females, and the entire pack of 11 dogs. Although each dog had their own distinct personality, their behavior varied markedly towards different dogs. In fact, it appeared they had multiple personalities that adapted to each specific social scenario. 

The dogs in our study showed strong social preferences and, for many female dogs, these preferences were entirely different from their sexual preferences. Moreover, temporarily removing a single dog from a group changed the entire group dynamic and the behavior/personality of each remaining puppy or dog. Years later, I used this finding to great effect, teaching puppies social savvy in off-leash classes and resolving dog-dog reactivity. I had learned so much from our study’s dogs: Joe and Cassius, Ken and Doris, and even Whip the Underdog. 

One huge surprise came when Ken, the reigning top dog, died. We then found we had a linear, male-dog-hierarchy that was 100% inversely correlated with weight: the new top dog, Eddie, was the smallest, while the lowest ranking dog in the pack, Whip, was the largest. This didn't make sense. But it turned out the male hierarchy was perfectly correlated with age. At that point, we realized we would never be able to understand dog social behavior unless we studied puppy development. 

As my work continued, my enjoyment-satisfaction-gratitude score shot skywards. My favorite studies involved the real-time, learning-on-the-spot development of so-called maternal instincts: whelping, retrieving, and licking pups to stimulate the first breath and neonatal reflex elimination. For several years, I got to watch 12 puppies from three litters grow up with their parents and other adult dogs as one happy pack. In fact, these puppy development studies clarified all that was unclear about adult dog behavior. James, Sadie, Gelsey, Franklin, McLaren, Chevy, and especially Mimi and Sirius were my teachers and affable co-workers. I couldn't imagine that my professional life could get any better. But it did.

After 10 years, I started a largely pro bono behavior clinic for aggressive dogs who had bitten people or fought with other dogs. Many cases had a hopeless prognosis and some just didn't make sense. Why did these extreme multiple-bite attacks seem to come out of the blue? 

Mimi the Beagle provided the answer: biting doesn't have a single cause as per the usual medical model. In fact, biting has numerous subliminal triggers that are cumulative until a last straw breaks the figurative camel's back, causing an eruption, as we witnessed when mild-mannered Mimi eventually exploded at Sirius for being a persistent, tiresome, boorish, wannabe bully. Understanding this concept made rage syndrome safely treatable below a certain threshold, but more important, preventable. 

At about this point, my wife, who was working full-time, asked me, "How are you going to bring income into this relationship?” I replied, "I'm going to start off-leash puppy classes so that Omaha, our Malamute puppy, can go to school." And just as in research, by observing puppies - now with their people in tow - it all began to make sense. 

Teaching my very first class at my new school, Sirius, I saw numerous incipient signs of developing subliminal bite triggers and was able to simply nip them in the bud. Veterinarians began referring owners of new puppies to me because, as adults, Sirius' graduates enjoyed being handled in their clinics (essentially, puppy classes prevent adolescent and adult anxiety, stress, lack of confidence, fear, reactivity and aggression, meaning there are generally no difficult, dangerous, time-consuming, low-prognosis problems to resolve). 

Now, 43 years on, I still love teaching puppy classes; teaching people how to raise confident, well-behaved, and good-natured dogs; and teaching trainers how to teach off-leash puppy classes. In a single class or seminar, I know I am making a difference by improving the prospective quality of life for so many puppies and their people. My doggy career has brought an overwhelming sense of fulfilment to my life. 

During an interview a few years back, I was asked why I still teach classes. I could have been glib and listed any number of reasons along the lines of “for the benefit of dogkind.”  But instead, I told the truth, "Puppy classes offer a wonderful excuse to chat with a dozen families and have fun together play-training their dogs." 

Basically, puppy classes are my substitute for an English pub — a place to go and talk to a diverse group of people about anything. Even better, in a puppy class, most talk is about puppy behavior and temperament, a topic that I love and that is still my life-consuming passion to this day. 

Dogs, thank you so much.