The ideal of personality

                Personalities are the basis of a person. A person has a certain set of inner qualities or tendencies that they are judged on, thus creating the perception of a personality. The question of whether a dog can have a personality deeply resides on what type of relationship the individual and that particular dog pertain. Dogs can have personalities, just like people, because dogs share a level of emotional and physical compassion for certain people, whether that be their owner or a child, dogs too can share the same level of connection to people that we share as humans. By providing tendencies, or even qualities, they too can have personalities. Actions speak louder than words, literally.

              The ideal of physical compassion.  Some might argue that it’s hard for a dog to show physical compassion, yet it might be invisible to the naked eye, by that I mean that it just isn’t noticed till you spend some time thinking about it. For most, the most logical name for a dog’s physical actions can be marked by the word “behaviors”. On Dogster.com there is a test, in this test you are finding out what type of dog breed you are based on your personality, then later they say it’s based on your behaviors, which are two conflicting descriptions because they simply aren’t the same. Upon further exploration of the website, I looked up the German Shepard breed specifically, because that’s the breed of my interesting puppy. They continue to talk about the tendencies of the dog, and this time they use the term “trademark traits” which isn’t entirely wrong considering that a “trait” and “quality” are extremely similar. They list “intelligent and eager”, “Strong-willed and fearless”, and lastly, the one most important to the argument “obedient and protective”. Importantly, being protective has its own set of certain sub qualities because in order to be protective, you must have a minimal level of care, one of the key components to defining a personality. You must also have a minimal level of compassion and feeling for that individual. You wouldn’t protect something if you had no feeling, care, or reason too. These so called “behaviors” don’t entail the meaning behind actions, and the compassion. If you have ever noticed, when you are feeling down, or you are upset, a dog might come up to you and bury its head into your chest or arms, and just sit there for however long it takes for you to move. Dogs do this to show that they care for you. Care is a key component to a personality, because it is something that we often mark people as when we describe someone close to us. We envision them as “caring”. When a dog puts forth the physical actions to touch you, or even lick you, it’s because they like you, unless they bite you, that’s just unfortunate.

           The ideal of emotional compassion. Emotional compassion can be a difficult thing to spot from a dog especially sense most of our human emotions are communicated through talking. Yet this is not entirely impossible, emotions are often also communicated through the expressions, and the way dogs act. According to the Florida dog training school, dogs can have up to 6 different personalities. They consist of aggressive, confident, outgoing, adaptable, insecure, and independent. Due to the fact that these can run very closely along the lines of behaviors, they are explained by the Florida dog training school. The one that I would be confident in saying my dog resembles would be the “outgoing” personality.  They say that “A dog with this type of personality is friendly and sociable.” They also say that these dogs have a “flexible temperament”, which in regards to the emotional factor; they are able to exhibit a wide range of different actions that define their personalities. They are able to specify if they are happy or angry, sad or energetic. Dogs are able to show compassion emotionally by being there for you, physically being there with you in the moment, almost like having a shoulder to cry on, except it’s a dog. They can provide emotional support even without words, because they can sense your feelings and read your actions. This can be seen when you are mad, and you throw something, your dog simply cowers into a corner. But if you are happy, and seem inviting, your dog (well at least my dog) will jump up and give you a nice big hug.

 This question of whether a dog can have a personality was thought of after I noticed my own dog’s actions and how they related to my feelings, my actions, and how my dog’s tendencies were repeated, unlike actions or “behaviors”. They seemed like they had meaning, and that’s what sparked this question. Describing my dog became the same, “funny, caring, and outgoing”.  It became clear to me that physical and emotional compassion were essential to the argument after realizing the way I described my dog and others that I hold very closely. Usually describing them as caring, for the reason that care being a key component of personalities. Dogs can have personalities, not just “behaviors”.

 

 

 

Sources:

Florida dog training school

"Dog Personalities - What Kind of Personality Does Your Dog Have?" Tampa Dog Training School. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Dec. 2014.

Dogster.com

"German Shepherd Information, Pictures of German Shepherds." Dogster. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Dec. 2014.

Hannah.

     I have one of the most indescribable dogs. She's just so unpredictable and random that you can't really capture that in a text. Just my luck. Set aside from her appearance, her personality is just nothing but uplifting, but it's the way she conducts her daily life that makes me so happy to have her. My dog never does anything without wagging her tail, which is really bushy, and speckled with dark and tan hairs. My dog is your typical, pure breed German Sheppard, and I take pride in that personally, but she acts the furthest from it. 

     

 

     Upon some research I came up with a few facts about German Sheppards, and I can't stress enough how much my dog doesn't resemble these features explained by dogtime.com. Apparently German Sheppards are of the most intelligent breeds of dogs, and though my dog knows how to open the door to my room, and my room only for some reason, she can't eat food as a whole, for instance she can only eat her dog food one tiny little piece at a time. It's quite funny actually. My dog doesn't dig like most to all Sheppards do, but she always comes inside dirtier than my dog that does dig? It's odd! I noticed that she does like to chew though, it's quite apparent if you refer to one of my earlier posts where she ruins her dog bed within the first couple hours of using it. 

     Hannah is just hard to describe, but there's one thing I know that I can say about her, and that's that she makes me happy! And she would make anyone smile because the way she looks at you is just adorable. The exact meaning of "puppy dog eyes". 

Here's a picture of her, giving you an idea of her massive size, and her adorable eyes. 😍

The person behind the personality

     People have personalities. So my question, or topic of discussion for this blog is whether dogs can have a personality or not. According to the American Kennel Club, German Shepards are seen to be the worlds leading Military, police, and guard dogs. Yet this reputation is clarified by a general set of tendencies, usually being seen as mean or overly protective.

     I can tell you first hand that my dog is extremely protective, she will stand up too anyone coming between me and her that she hasn't seen before. This bond that was built between us was established almost as soon as we were pulling in the driveway to bring her home. By that time she had already fallen asleep. My dog follows me everywhere now and basically she is in my shadow every chance she can get. This dog listens to me, and usually only me, but despite the fact that she is always with me, she always has her own way of doing things, for instance she always showing her energetic jitteryness that she shows all the time. She always barks or squeals when she wants something, but only in her own unique voice. She always jumps up on me, and normally only me, she reaches all the way up to my shoulders and is so big now that her paws extended over my shoulders, her head is buried in my chest. Her eyes are squinted, ears are back, and she cuddles closer, and closer, and then as close as she can get. The explanation for this on account of the American Kennel Club, te German Shepard's best friend, is actually in fact a child. 

     Back to the question now, I believe it's not just a radical personification to say that my dog has a personality, yet I think it can be justified in her actions, perhaps simply because I personally have never seen a dog act this way. Sure, maybe in a movie, but not in real life, not with me, not with anyone. I think that it's perfectly acceptable to say that my dog Hannah is bright, energetic, and caring, which normally is only said about humans. Yet this is not the case in my household.

per·son·al·i·ty

 noun \ˌpər-sə-ˈna-lə-tē, ˌpər-ˈsna-\

: the set of emotional qualities, ways of behaving, etc., that makes a person different from other people

: attractive qualities (such as energy, friendliness, and humor) that make a person interesting or pleasant to be with

: attractive qualities that make something unusual or interesting

sources:

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

"Personality." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2014.

American kennel Club

"German Shepherd Dog History | American Kennel Club." German Shepherd Dog History | American Kennel Club. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2014.

In a dream

      This October, I was able to experience a variety of different, interesting observations of my dog. She tends to dream when she sleeps in my room, and particularly only while in my room. I have never really seen her dream, or run in her sleep while sleeping anywhere else.

     I actually try to put my self in "her shoes" when I see her dreaming, and by that I mean that I try to picture what she's dreaming of. The reoccurring picture that comes to mind is her running through out my backyard, like its some expansive wilderness that she could roam through forever. I picture her running back and forth, jumping up and down with joy, even though she can't smile, it always seems that way with the silly face she makes when she runs, while her tongue hangs out, and she pants so heavy. 
      I imagine that dogs dreams are simplistic because they don't have the knowledge of the outside world and all of its technological advances. As humans we tend to dream about stuff that we want, and we dream about real life tragedies, which we call "nightmares" and as I think about nightmares, it makes me wonder if dogs can have bad dreams themselves. I mean there's plenty of bad, or scary things that can happen to a dog, like the vacuum, a moving car, or even just people. For instance some dogs experience paranoia due to a previous owner, maybe that person was abusive, neglecting, or mistreating. Dogs exhibit a level of trust, or a solacing factor in their owner, or care taker. Even though a dogs dream might be simple, it doesn't necessarily take away the "wow" factor of a dream, as we experience. For all I know, a dogs dream could be the most magical place a dog can visit, physically and mentally.  

      In a dream, I think she's roaming wild, in the world of my backyard, simple yet amazing. In a dream, she's having the time of her life, running wild, running free, and being a puppy, forever. Though she's big, she's still a kid. 

Above: A picture of her sleeping

A day in infamy

This will be short lived. Basically what I will be describing is the power my dog truly has. German Sheppards are some of the biggest dogs that are domestically owned in the United States. My dog for example is up to my hip and has the jaws of a shark. She believes she runs a monarchy of some sort, being that she runs and struts around the house with a cocky little sway, and importantly, she takes on who ever comes into my house. Today I came home and I don't believe she recognized me right away, anyways, she came to the garage door and barked till I opened the door and as soon as I opened the door, she rushed me. I fell. As simple as that, yet the truly magnificent thing about it is that she came from about a foot away and had enough power to knock me down, and not to toot my own horn or anything, but I believe that I'm a relitivley stable and coordinated person compared to the regular population. She knocked me with her tooth and I'm still feeling like I have as stick stuck in my finger, and it hurts. Bad. So harmlessly though, afterwards she licked me and snuggled up next to me, as if she knew she did something wrong. That's it, I just wanted to share the power  my dog can exhibit, and seemingly effortlessly.

  Goodnight 

         RJ 

My first observation

   Well, I wouldn't be in the wrong to say my dog is stupid, yet I wouldn't be right to say she is. My dog, Hannah, she is a 13 month old German Sheppard, I'd say about up to my hip in height, and she's a healthy sized dog, in terms of weight. She's speckled with tan, bright hairs in between her deep fur coat, the majority of her color on her back is a luscious black. She has the ears of a jack rabbit, always up, and when you pet her on the head, the fold back, and resembles a smile, it's rather cute to be honest. I decided to focus on one thing out of my weekly observations, this one thing being my dogs behavior, specifically during the evening from about 6-10 pm, because I spend most of my time with her when I get home. Now being that my dog sleeps with me, I would have naturally seen her, and not have to deliberately make time to see her and observe her, I decided that it would be appropriate for the occasion if I just spent the extra minute on watching her. I've noticed that my dog is almost opposed to beds. She just got a new bed, for my room, and that very night, she decided to chew it up, but the good out of that was that she started to become attached to the bed. That very moment created a connection and I have to stuff the stuffing back into the bed every single morning, yet she puts her head on the bed, she almost refuses to put her body on it, she puts just enough of her head on the pillow to chew it and pull out the stuffing. I think it's cute. But you know, many would be irritated with it, considering its a new chore. Yet, I wake up every morning and I say "Hannah, what the hell?" And she comes up to me and jumps on my bed and lays on me, and buries her head behind my leg, and with this sight, I can no longer be mad. I

  I also noticed that she will be the most energetic dog in the entire world, but as soon as she waltzes in front of my fan, drops and sprawls out, using all the ground she can, just because she doesn't like to be balled up. She almost takes up the entire section of my floor.    

     

       Behavior. It's rather broad, but I focused on how she acts in a sense of the setting, and her reaction to the setting. She demonstrates a sense of neutrality, while also keeping her puppy like attributes alive and well. 

   I think that's all for the night, It's passed my bed time, as a young RJ once said. Night.