Do You And Your Dog Need Couples Counseling?

By Tom Jacobs Do you dread leaving your dog home alone? Do you come back from dinner and a show to find chewed-up shoes, or foul-smelling puddles on your kitchen floor? If so, a newly published study suggests the blame may not lay entirely with Fido. Rather, this sort of acting out may be a symptom of a problematic relationship. Yours and his. Researchers from Hungary and Germany argue that the tendency to avoid close attachments to others—a personality trait that is a common source of friction within families—sometimes extends to one’s canine companion. Owners who keep their emotional distance "are less responsive to the dog's needs," they write in the journal PLoS One, and the animal—not unlike a neglected child—fails to develop the sense of security that keeps him calm in times of stress. Hence the howling your neighbors complain about. The researchers, led by Veronika Konok of Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest, base their study on attachment theory, which was developed in the 1960s by psychologist John Bowlby and refined in the 1970s by Mary Ainsworth. Its key concept is that infants need a primary caregiver who is available and responsive to their needs without being overbearing. Lacking such a figure, children fail to develop a strong sense of personal security, which makes it difficult to connect with others. Not surprisingly, “insecurely attached children are more prone to show separation anxiety,” Konok and her colleagues note. Later in life, ...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news