Deficiency Needs
All living organisms have certain requirements for maintaining the life process. The minimum requirements needed to for life to continue consist of basic needs. We usually think of basic need as consisting of air, food, water, shelter, sex, etc…
When an individual or group is deficient in these needs their biological systems begin to break down. Along with a deficiency in one or more of the basic need is an increase in activity, at least in the beginning. When the biological system is out of balance there tends to be increased effort to achieve balance. This balanced state is called homeostasis. When we’re hungry we are more active in a way that has the properties of food gathering behavior. An increase in exploratory behavior when resources are deficient had survival value for our ancestors and for us.
Again our dogs provide a vivid example of this principal. What happens when we do not meet our pet dog’s basic needs? Often our dogs will become more active. Sometime the increase in activity is seen as extreme effort to fulfill some basic need. Goal oriented behavior can be seen with shelter seeking dogs who spend lots of energy trying to get inside the house. The results can be what human home owners think of as destructive behavior. The same can be true for behaviors related to foraging.
To complicate the matter there are levels of basic needs. According to Abraham Maslow’s famous needs hierarchy lower level needs must be met before the next higher level need is pursued.
Maslow’s hierarchy starts with the basic Physical Needs that maintain homeostasis. Next are the needs for Safety. When we have a have a full stomach and a safe comfortable house to live in we begin seeking Love and Belonging. Next on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is that for self Esteem.
I’m not so sure dogs have a need for self esteem. However, for a happy healthy life they do require the first three basic needs. When encountering a dog problem it’s helpful to evaluate the dog’s basic need. Once we know the needs of an individual dog we can determine if a behavior problem is the result of needs deprivation or another cause.
Do you think it would be helpful to use this same kind of awareness with people and ourselves?
Wishing you the best in dog training and in life,
Andrew Ledford