Temperament Theory - Theory Development

The development of this theory took much longer than we expected. We didn't realize how difficult it would be to take intuitive knowledge about evaluating temperaments and transfer it to the reasoning/logic/language portions of the mind. We tossed ideas and frustrations back and forth for months -- it seemed like there were a hundred new questions attached to each answer we found. Val had to keep going deeper and deeper into textbooks and websites about personality typing and obsessively initiating frustrated conversations with psychologists, sociologists, friends, and dog trainers. All the research and the conversations were frustrating because there was a tiny glimmer of an exciting explanation of evaluations, but she couldn't figure out a way to grasp it. We were ready to give it up and see if we could get away with the "Hey, trust us! Do this on this dog, and it'll work, I promise!" routine!

Then, just a couple of weeks before Lisa was scheduled to present our seminar about Border Collie behaviors and manners, a new puzzle appeared. Val was once again going over all of her lists of the personality-makers that, in combination, make us all individuals. She'd reduced the lists to look like this:

Bold
Upbeat
Shy
Wary

(The decision to use these four particular words for the basic temperaments took us a month of researching dictionaries, numerous thesauruses, and debates. Simplicity wasn't an easy accomplishment!)

Introvert
Extrovert

(These two categories of temperament type were developed by Carl Jung. Extrovert is also sometimes listed as extravert; we chose, for no particular reason, to use the word "extrovert" on this site.)

Male
Female

(The names for this category were easy to choose! And, much as we believe in equality of rights, we also believe there are true sexual differences and priorities.)

Fight
Flight
Freeze

(These three words are used more often about dogs than people, but the instincts exist in all species. For more information about these instincts, here's an interesting article.)

As Val was pondering this list, she was also thinking about the hundreds of dogs she'd seen when they were in hyper-reactive states. (Another reason we used our rescue work for our research is that so many of the dogs (and people) we meet in rescue are in highly emotional states --- we get to see the basics of nature instead of the layers of nurture that we use to play our social roles.) Val knew that a Bold's first reaction to iffy situations is Fight and the first reaction of a Shy is Flight, but she was surprised to realize that Upbeats and Warys both give first reactions of Freeze. Why did she see one reaction in two temperaments? Since all the rest of this temperament stuff is even-numbered, logically, there should be another category of reaction. But there isn't one --- Upbeats and Warys both do freeze. No matter how many dogs we thought about and how many rescuers we asked, we'd all seen a Freeze in both these temperaments when they are experiencing new situations.

Val thinks in terms of patterns and trying to find the reasons for things, so she sat and thought about this new puzzle and she had an epiphany. (It's so cool when that happens!) She realized that the Bolds and Shys both do an action while the Upbeats and Warys both do a non-action. It's not the fight, flight, freeze that is the most important part of initial reaction, what is important in evaluating a temperament is whether the dog is showing an action or a non-action.

This idea changed the list of

Fight
Flight
Freeze

to a list of:

Action
Non-Action

Of course, that answer brought us a hundred new questions. We could understand the Action, but what kind of a survival trait could a Non-Action be all about? And if Bolds and Shys, who seem to be very different types of temperaments, have Action in common, what else might they have in common if we looked at them from a another angle? Were there more connections between Upbeats and Warys? Val went back to thinking about dogs (and people) and re-evaluated all of the lists she'd made over the months. The list of all the words we'd accumulated in the search for naming the temperament types gave another answer. Here's a portion of that list:

FOR BOLDS: confident, assertive, fearless, showing a high degree of skill or competence; habitually, and usually annoyingly, indulging in a particular activity, independent, free from the authority, control, or domination of somebody or something else, capable of thinking or acting without consultation with or guidance from others, unconventional, not caring if they are different from what is regarded as normal or standard, self-assured, bold and presumptuous in manner, daring and therefore likely to shock, upset, or offend, audacious, intrepid, persistent, gallant, brave, spirited, honorable

FOR SHYS: aware, mindful that something exists because you notice it or realize that it is happening, agitation or disturbance caused by strong feelings, inclined toward peace and avoiding contentious situations, discreet, subtle, circumspect, ensuring that no undue attention is attracted, patterned, a regular or standard way of moving or behaving, idealistic, somebody who aspires to or lives in accordance with high standards or principles, diffident, apprehensive, reserved, restrained in the way you behave, apprehensive, timid, lack of self-assurance

FOR UPBEATS: optimistic, cheerful, in good spirits, playful, showing willingness or good humor in complying, dynamic, full of energy, enthusiasm, sense of purpose, able both to get things going and to get things done, harmonious, friendly, hopeful, positive, confident, producing good results because of having an innately beneficial character, generous, sees a glass as half-full

FOR WARYS: melancholy, thoughtful, gentle sadness, feeling or showing unhappiness or sorrow, analytical, studious, sensitive, sympathetic, empathetic, capable of detecting minute changes, reflective, careful, considerate, watchful, philosophical, resigned, appearing to be deep in thought, pessimistic, negative, sees a glass as half-empty

We looked at the lists differently after coming up with the Action/Non-Action theory. We'd assumed there were four temperament types. But what if there aren't four types but only two types with extremes of these two types making it look like four? What if a Bold's fearlessness and a Shy's timidness are opposites/extremes of the same response? What if Upbeats as optimistic and Warys as pessimistic are opposites/extremes of another same response? If this is so, then what we have is no longer four temperament types, but two temperament types shown at the extremes of their spectra.

Bold ---------------------- Shy

and

Upbeat ---------------------- Wary

If we combine these two lines by making a cross, we get:

These two lines began as Action and Non-Action, but the word Non-Action still wasn't right for the Upbeat/Wary reactions and emotions. We thought some more about what we'd seen in the Upbeat/Wary dogs and realized that they weren't doing a "freeze" or a "non-action"--- they were analyzing their emotions before making a decision. What we'd been seeing in the dogs was more like one line (Bold/Shy) that acted first and felt later, and another line (Upbeat/Wary) that felt first and acted later! So the list changed again. This part of the list had started as:

Fight
Flight
Freeze

Was changed to:

Action
Non-Action

And remains as:

Action
Feeling

ACTION LINE (IN BLACK):

Bolds and Shys both react first to the environment. This is why it can be so difficult to cure flight in a Shy dog, for example - the Shy dog simply doesn't see or hear the handler or trainer, and in fact probably doesn't even realize the handler/trainer is there.

FEELING LINE (IN BLACK):

Upbeats and Warys, on the other hand, react first to their feelings. This is why they seem to freeze; they need time to figure out how they feel about a given situation. Once they've made that determination, then they can go on to an action.

Once these conclusions became clear, we knew this theory was ready to use. All of a sudden we understood so much more about the dogs we work with --- why some attach so deeply to people (the feeling Upbeats and Warys) and why some could live with just about anybody as long as they had a job to do (the action Bolds and Shys). Training methods that are effective for some dogs and disastrous for others now had a logic that could be explained and shown.

Combining Actions and Feelings

Up to this point, the theory evolved from looking at extremes of temperament and temperaments under extreme stress. Very few dogs have only extreme Actions or Feelings.

Our job as trainers is to help the dogs become more moderate in their reactions to stress or to new events - that is, we want the Bold dog to slow down and take note of what we want, but we want Shy dogs to gain confidence in themselves and their handlers. What we want to do is take the dog's reactions from the outer extreme and help them move into the inner, more balanced emotional state:

The next step to understanding this goal is to move the cross and make it into an X. This is mainly to prevent us from thinking of any type as being more important than any other. It's not necessary for the actual theory, but for our perceptions of the theory. Imagine moving in a somewhat circular fashion around the X to understand how Actions and Feelings work together:

You can see how it is possible for dogs to be placed around the circle to match their personalities. Some dogs Act Bold but Feel Wary, and their datapoints would fall between the Bold and Wary extremes on the chart, but closer to the Bold extreme, since they Act first and Feel later. Other dogs in the same Bold/Wary spectrum will fall more to the Wary side, because they Feel first and then Act in a Bold fashion.

Take Lisa's BC Oliver, for example. Ollie is a Bold/Upbeat personality, and his temperament is never more clear than when he is herding sheep or out on the agility course. In any given situation, Ollie will always act in a Bold fashion, and then - if he thinks of it - will turn around to see what Lisa's opinion of that action might be. His automatic assumption is that he knows what is to be done, so he goes ahead and does it and worries about the consequences later. This characteristic is the downside of working with Bold/Upbeats - Lisa has to work a lot harder to be sure he is aware of her presence on the course!

Ollie playing agility. Photo by Tien Tran.

On the other end of the Bold spectrum, we have Lisa Long's dog Taz. Taz does his work in a Bold fashion, but he is constantly looking to Lisa for direction. He is much more comfortable performing his tasks when he is aware of how Lisa feels about the given task. But, since he is a Wary/Bold, he is devastated if Lisa corrects him and unconfident if Lisa is unsure or awkward in directing him.

Taz playing agility. Photo by Tien Tran.

How do we help our dogs get to their optimum temperament balance? By deliberately exposing the dog to the lesser-used emotions in controlled practice sessions. To show how you can set up practice sessions that trigger these emotions, the next section is a little experiment involving Actions, Feelings, and how they work together --- and how they sometimes cause problems.

Before you click to the next section, get a blank sheet of paper and a pen or pencil.

Go to Experiment Page

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BORDER COLLIE BEHAVIORS: A TEMPERAMENT THEORY Theory Development

Val Maurer & Lisa Ochoa

Combining Actions and Feelings

BORDER COLLIE BEHAVIORS:
A TEMPERAMENT THEORY
Theory Development