Temperament Theory - Self-Interest

This category is also part of the temperament, but in normal circumstances of training, it is not quite as important as the categories of Bold, Shy, Upbeat, and Wary.
DEFINITION: Concerned with one's own needs, activities, and desires. The extremes of self-interest are self-absorbed and self-abnegation.

"To a man the greatest blessing is individual liberty; to a dog it is the last word in despair."
William Lyon Phelps.

TYPE ANECDOTE: One of my adopters called in a panic. She wanted both of her Border Collies out of her house immediately. The reason? The two females had gotten into a fight while she and her husband were at work. They'd come home and found a blood-drenched couch and two ripped-up dogs. Both girls only needed a few stitches; the amount of blood had made the fight look worse than it actually was. The adopter didn't want the dogs gone because they'd had a fight, but because of what the fight had made the adopter realize for the first time: dogs aren't humans in disguise.

The impact of suddenly realizing she was living with something outside of her own species terrified her. The two Border Collies she'd cuddled and fussed over were now alien, foreign, mysterious---a dangerously aggressive species she could never comprehend. Sadly, she represents a large proportion of the dog-loving people in the United States. We love our dogs until they growl, snap, or snarl. Then we realize they belong to a species that lives by a set of rules different than ours and this realization scares most of us.

THRILL: To be respected for who they are.

ANXIETY: Trying to please us. Every individual of every species on Earth is grounded in self-interest; it is what keeps us all striving. A large part of a dog's self-interest is grounded in belonging to a pack and it is our great good fortune that they accept us as pack members. The downside of this is they try so hard to figure us out and what will please us that they can get themselves all twisted up into knots of anxieties.

TRAINING RECOMMENDATIONS: Take some time and think about life from the dog's perspective. What makes them feel secure and confident? Don't limit yourself to studying wolf behavior because our dogs may be similar to juvenile wolves, but we've also changed them in many ways.

TRAINING EQUIPMENT: A fenced-in yard, a comfortable chair, a bunch of dogs, and the time to observe them interacting with each other with minimum interference from humans.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT: "You are wanted and will not be set aside." Sarah Blaffer Hrdy.

PROBLEM PREVENTIONS: Stop holding dogs too accountable for their actions and people not accountable enough. We build nuclear bombs, chemical and biological bombs, millions of guns, kill thousands of each other every year and we have the nerve to call dogs the most aggressive animal on the planet?

AGGRESSION: Living by their standards instead of ours can lead to huge misunderstandings. For example, we believe in helping dogs live as long as humanely possible; dogs believe old, infirm members of the pack should be killed for the good of the pack. (So, please, separate young adult dogs from older or ill dogs when no one is around to supervise!)

HUG: Hug therapy will help the extreme self-interested dog to an understanding of nurturing and trust of others, especially if the transfer to other people section of hug therapy is safely used.

Self-interest for both humans and dogs includes the enjoyment of social interaction.

It took me a long time to decide on a word for this category of temperament. At first, I called it the survival instinct, but survival isn't the right description. If each individual of all species is only concerned with its own survival, how do we explain acts of charity and sacrifice? I tried various words, like self-centered, egocentric, selfhood, individuality, procreate, etc., but none of these words worked for situations of sacrificing oneself to save others, for teaching non-related young how to thrive, or the human and dog desire to live in social conditions even when we aren't dependent on the social conditions for food, sex, and safety.

I finally decided that the term "self-interest" has gotten a bad reputation. I'd rejected it because to me, it had connotations of narcissism and selfishness. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that self-interest is the only word that fits for this category of temperament. For example, I worked with cast-off dogs. I didn't get paid to do this. I worked at it 16 hours a day with no days off for years. If one of the driving forces of all individuals is survival, then why would I spend so much time doing something that gave me no personal survival benefits? The answer was self-interest; I enjoy figuring out ways to help dogs be the best they can be. Think about the charities you give to. Think about 9/11 and the police, firefighters, emergency workers, search and rescue teams, airline passengers, and construction workers who knowingly put themselves into danger for others.

Self-interest can mean only thinking of the survival of oneself. But self-interest can also mean having a pride in abilities that can help others. These are the extremes of the self-interest category of temperament.

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BORDER COLLIE BEHAVIORS: A TEMPERAMENT THEORY Self-Interest

by Val Maurer

BORDER COLLIE BEHAVIORS:
A TEMPERAMENT THEORY
Self-Interest