Every dog has a unique personality that influences its behavior.
Today, discover a way to assess your dog’s personality so you can get to know your dog better!
In this episode, we complete our trilogy that shifts focus so you can get a broader knowledge of why your dog behaves the way she does!
Show Highlights
- This is part three of three.
- One of Bennie’s postulates – Dogs have different personalities.
- Episodes 000 through 087 touched on different life cycles, a few breed specific traits were mentioned and discussion about your dog’s personality and YET all those shows were about YOU!
- In this show, we are going to discuss how your dog’s personality can affect your environment and training.
- Dogs have different personalities, what they are most likely to exhibit with these personalities and some combinations to be aware of.
- In human personality testing, we have the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test.
- There are 16 human personality traits, and dogs have them too.
- There are multiple places you can locate a good combination of personality traits of dogs:
- For example: AKC.org
- Affenpinscher – says this dog is confident, famously funny and fearless which is all very true.
- Bennie uses Wikipedia as well – he puts in the dog breed name and has located great information about the temperament description.
- Just like in Myers-Briggs, you can take these personality traits for humans and use them for your dogs.
- Bennie has broken down the different emotions into 7 main categories regarding if you can determine if your dog is going to be aggressive or a dominant:
- Intelligent – mentally sound, emotionally secure
- Loyal – vigilant, calm, trusting
- Dominant – protective, possessive
- Affectionate – friendly, care-free, gentle
- Scheming – strong willed, spiteful
- Independent – aloof, confident, entertain themselves
- Energetic – high strung, alert
- Bennie is adding an 8th – Submissive
- A truly dominant dog is very rare.
- 97% of the time, when you take your role as the leader your dog will assume their position.
- Just like in the Myers-Briggs, you can have a dog with a mix of any the 7 above personality types.
- Canine version of Myers-Briggs:
- INFJ – The strong and sensitive type – Labs, Mastiffs
- ENFP – More confidence than it really needs – Pugs, Chihuahuas
- ISFJ – Likes to cuddle and is a lover, not a fighter – Cocker Spaniels, Bichons
- ESFP – Vanity and Confidence – Poodle, Collie, (Bennie)
- You will start to see these specific personality traits around the 6-month mark.
- Personality is very difficult to change.
- Bennie agrees that it is morally incorrect to try to change your dog’s personality.
Homework
- Take the Myers-Briggs test for your dog and let us know through our Facebook page on Family Dog Fusion. There will be a link that will take you to the 4 personality types and you will choose from each of those types that are indicated by a letter. You just pick out what you think your dog is or what you are looking for. There are brief descriptions of each type.
- If your dog doesn’t seem to fit in a certain way – there isn’t always going to a perfect match up for comparing human personality traits to dog personality traits.
- You are going to come up with a 4-letter trait and at the bottom of the page use that to scan over those 4 letters and it’s going to give you a list of words describing that trait. Pick out three words that express your dog’s personality and look at your own personality traits that could work for you.
- Keep in mind the analytical personality traits and to not give them to your dog. For example: dogs cannot be jealous, spiteful, or envious. They do not learn through analytical thought.
- Send us a picture of your dog or their name and how you and your dog matched up.
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