My Understanding of Dog Personality

Trying to understand a dog’s personality requires me to go through a certain process. Human personality is such an interesting topic from a psychological perspective. It is one of the earliest topics that the field tried to wrap its collective brains around — Jungian theory being perhaps one of the most widely known to western society.  So, we define personalities from different perspectives. First, humanists argue that it is an internal process so only the individual can have a true sense of her own, true personality. Then we have Jungian’s archetype theory that personalities fit into a role that is defined by a common set of traits. I think that it is perhaps one of the most dominant in pop pyschology, today. Do you know your Myers-Briggs personality type? I’m an unwavering ENFP (”The Champion”) and have been since I was first administered the test as a teen. Myers-Briggs personality typing is firmly rooted in Jungian psychological theory as is any other system of “personality typing”. Finally (in the sense that nothing in psychology is ever definitive), we have externally defined personality which I lump systems theory into as well. It is perhaps one of the “newest” theories to be explored in depth in modern psychology. Externally or systems defined personality relies on look at personality in context with others, through relationships and how personalities develop in a fluid change of contexts and environments.

As humans, I think we tend to look at dogs from two out of the three major perspectives. Obviously, until our dogs learn to communicate by speaking or writing, we can’t know what they really think of themselves. So, we’re left with archetypes (this is essentially looking at species and breed defining personality) and the systems perspective. While there are a small core of breed specific personality traits, I personally believe that the individual dog’s personality in relationship to other dogs, humans, and its environment is the most determinant factor of its personality. But, as a species, Chomsky and Jung have us pegged — we think most comfortably when we can categorize our world into a hierarchical series of boxes. It’s not entirely off-base. It just lacks room for individual variability which sells individuals of any species short. As humans in western society, we tend to resent when we are not awarded the opportunity of individual variability from others.

There. In my view, attributing personality to dogs is a human construct that we crave to establish because it helps us internally define our relationship with them. Externally, it is pretty easy to trait — you’re a dog lover or you’re not. It’s like choosing between The Beatles or Elvis. My inner psychologist feels better getting that off my chest. It’s good to have contexts and frameworks. Now, on to introducing all of you to Axel and Abbey.