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I'm all the time reading on here that dogs live in the moment. Are you saying they have no memory? of course not cause abused dogs often have a really difficult time adjusting to a new home. i was just reading the thread about the lady whose lab was afraid of men and she had to leave town with her husband trying to care for the dog.
I think it is more that their brains deal with situations more on a combination of instinct and associations rather than logical reasoning and anticipation of consequences. Making outside = good = get yummy treat. Unstable dog snarling at/threatening me instinct says run or confront. Owner = affection/safety/good food good things or in an abused case owner = pain/bad things. These associations can be changed and dogs don't hold on to memories as long and as far back as we do.
to me living in the moment doesnt mean not having any recolection of the past...
just that the thoughts of whats to come dont realy play a part in the desicion making process...
for example...
a dog that is addicted to chewing shoes...
the dog has already been trained to associate chewing the shoes with a negative tone of voice and possibly punishment...
but the dog does it anyway...
not because it wants to be bad...but because at that moment the urge to do it overwhelmed the general knowledge that that action has negative consequences.
a dog doesnt store food for the winter...they simply "hunt" and eat when they are hungry if left to the choice (humans put them on a feeding schedual)
a dog doesnt wake up thinking "hey ive got to do this this and this because ive got such and such to prepare for on monday...
they do live for each day in the sense that they dont have the "got to do this on sunday because im at work all next week" kind of mentality. they dont "plan" they just do.
I have an American Bulldog who lives in the moment. He does not dwell on his past. He was abandoned, left behind in the house he knew as a pup. Stayed in a shelter for awhile, then adopted. That didn't work and I adopted him.
When thunderstorms move in, he begins to shake uncontrollably and pants. Does the smell of the rain trigger this reaction? Is he hypersensitive to electricity? Did the empty house get struck by lightening? Or does the booming thunder terrify him because it triggers a memory of an empty house that echoes? I do not know but at that very moment, the one he is living in, he is panting and shaking from the thunderstorm.
(Btw, as long as I have had him, he's been an inside dog).
He's living in the moment and now self medicates by going into the bathroom in the basement. Next, I want to teach him to turn on the exhaust fan (to help drawn out more noise.)
Smart dog...moves away from the sight of the flashing (lightening) and it is more quiet in the basement. Now that is living in the moment!
Last edited by LuvABull.Denver; 08-02-2011 at 04:13 PM..
Reason: Spell check
I really wish Cesar Millan would stop saying that 'dogs live in the moment' without explaining what he means. I think the man is brilliant but that statement stops me short each time I hear it. It does not mean they have no memory and I wish he would explain that each time he says it on his show!!!
I really wish Cesar Millan would stop saying that 'dogs live in the moment' without explaining what he means. I think the man is brilliant but that statement stops me short each time I hear it. It does not mean they have no memory and I wish he would explain that each time he says it on his show!!!
/rant.
See that is where I first heard it. Rather, I read it in his first book. But in the book he does explain more what it means, because he almost always talks about it in the context of either correcting undesirable behavior (don't do it way later cause the dog will think you are crazy), or a one time "traumatic" event (pet was attacked by another dog, or slipped on a glossy floor) that the dog would've gotten over quickly had not the owner made such a big deal out of it, and continued to make a big deal out of it.
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Living in the moment...
