I was just thinking about writing a similar post on a related topic, so I'll just reply here.
I watch the Dog Whisperer program rather regularly, and I've tried some of the things on my dog. I've also watched Victoria Strauss, who's another dog trainer. People are often guilty of humanizing their dogs. Dogs aren't human. They don't have human feelings. What I was going to write about was that with humans there is no such thing as unconditional love. We can love each other, but there are always times when we act in ways that are cruel and hateful. We are all guilty of that. If you want true unconditional love, get a dog and train the dog properly. It'll adore you. It'll love you, no matter what you do to it. If you beat it and walk up to it, it may hunker down in a show of submission, but it's still going to wag its tail and be happy to see you.
Dogs are pack animals. In the wild they look up to the "alpha" male and female for leadership. With humans, we become their pack. That's the philosophy behind the dog whisperer's techniques. The humans have to take on the role of the alpha. Dogs develop a natural heirarchy in their pack. The strongest get to eat first, get attention, etc. Dogs don't feel guilty. They don't do things just for spite, even though at times it seems like they do.
I read someplace that dogs have about the same amount of intelligence as a two year old. They can understand about two hundred words. Some dogs might know more. I don't think there are narcissistic dogs. I think there are poorly trained dogs and poorly socialized dogs. I don't think there are dogs that are just inherently bad.
