Freeloader or Explorer?
When we hear the term “Freeloader”, it conjures up images of someone who wants something for nothing. The Popeye cartoon character, Wimpy, was a freeloader, always asking for a hamburger that he promised to pay for on Tuesday, which he never did.
I see many clients “Free-feed” their dogs, which is a term that means that the dog is given a bowl of food to pick at all day whenever he’s hungry. While this does not mean the dog is a “freeloader”, since he has no choice in the matter, however, from an animal husbandry aspect, it raises the question of whether or not bowl feeding is enough of an activity to enrich the dog’s world in a way that “inspires” him.
As usual, I will digress…
Jaak Panksepp, was a distinguished neuroscientist who, among his many interests, was learning about the hypothalamus, which is part of the primitive brain associated with basic emotions. During his experiments with rats, he noticed that they would continuously press a lever to get that part of their brain stimulated, and while other scientists assumed that the stimulus was pleasurable, Panksepp disagreed with them, as he noticed that the rats, if allowed, would press the lever until they collapsed from exhaustion. In his observations he said that the rats were not having fun, but rather, were excited, frantic as though on a hunt where that part of the brain says, “Search” and when they search, it says, “Search!” again. Human subjects reported a sense of restless eagerness, which while enjoyable, were very agitating, as though something wonderful was about to happen, if you could only figure out what it is!
This is what Panksepp identified as the SEEKING circuit that initiates and maintains searching behavior. This circuit, from an evolutionary standpoint, is how humans survived. The amygdala’s alarm system told us when we were in danger, but the SEEKING circuit in the hypothalamus, told us to look for food and other resources. It is a system that promotes exploration.
Konrad Lorenz, one of the founders of modern day animal behavior studies, said that given the opportunity, animals would choose to explore. In fact this circuit is part of our daily lives as we window shop, shop on line, travel, play computer games or other activities that we find stimulating. Keep in mind that it isn’t necessarily about the “goodies” that we find, but rather the adventure of looking for them.
My mom was an avid reader whose weekly routine included spending time at the library. When she no longer could drive, I offered to purchase a Kindle so that she could download as many books as she could read, but she refused the gesture. When I asked why, she gave a simple answer, “I love going to the library where the librarian, puts aside books she thinks I might like, and I also get to search through the stacks of books on the shelves.” To my mom, this was part of her exploration activity which would not be fulfilled by an automatic download of books to a device.
Our dogs also have a need to explore, and among the best ways to do that, for example, is by providing a way that allows them to figure out how to earn a click and treat in a training context, a way to use their super scenting power to find a hidden object or in place of a boring bowl of food, we can give them one of the many feeder puzzles that facilitates exploration when they successfully open a drawer, push a ball, or perhaps nuzzle around a snuffle mat for tasty treasures.
Recent studies of animals has shown that given a choice of having free access to food, the animals chose partaking in activities to obtain the food through some effort. This is known as contra-freedloading and it has been used in modern zoos to improve animal welfare by providing species specific activities for physical and mental exercise thereby helping to prevent abnormal behaviors from developing.
Our domestic companion animals also benefit from braining enriching activities, and while it seems a loving gesture to set down a big bowl of food for Fido to consume all day, Fido however, is no freeloader. When given the opportunity, he’s more likely to choose contra-freeloading to tap into his SEEKING circuit as he explores his world!
HAPPY TRAINING & ENRICHMENT
© Fran Berry CPDT-KA, UW-AAB all rights reserved 2024
