When I’m talking to clients about why they’ve contacted me, labels such as dominant, pushy, or aggressive are often used to describe behaivor they see. And often, within that exchange of information the term ‘energy’ is also used to describe behaivor. Unfortunately, labels and terms such as energy do not tell me what behavior the dog is performing. Good dog trainers want to know what the behavior looks like not what if feels like.
Before you go further, it’s useful to understand the definitions of energy and behavior; They have very different meanings.
Energy: the capacity of a physical system to do work; Eg: Kinetic, Potential, Light, Heat, Chemical, Electromagnetic etc.
Behavior: the response of an organism to stimulation
In the world of dog behavior, the term energy was made popular by reality TV as a way to describe behavior. However, ‘energy’ does not do this and therefore should never be used to describe animal behaviour. But it’s catchy and makes for great marketing.
We can guess at the emotion a dog is having but we can only act on behaviour we are seeing. It’s important we don’t make assumptions but proceed with a good educated guess based on the actions/behavior of the dog.
Energy has been used to imply an emotion but that is also incorrect.
If we jump up and down and use a high pitched voice, the dog may experience the emotion of joy thus he feels excited. We are not emitting energy towards the dog but displaying behaivor which results in a dog experiencing the emotion of joy and the feelings of excitement which in turn may result in a dog jumping up or barking, running in circles or running away.
If we respond by standing still, not staring directly at the dog or walk calmly, we are emitting a calm behavior that offers a low stimulus to a dog. The result of which may be standing still, or the absence of jumping or barking etc.
Good dog trainers want to know what it is you’re experiencing so describe the behaviour and preferably in detail. Details matter and should always be gathered by the professional.
One thing I want you to consider: when ever your training your dog, interacting with your dog, always consider ‘it’ from the dog’s point of view. And stop getting your training advices from reality tv!
Reference:
http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/energy