The Concept of Human–Canine Synergy

This chapter presents and explains a new, innovative and very efficient dog training concept called the Human-canine Synergy (HCS). This concept is characterized by two new innovations related to that synergy: first by a holistic approach and second by a multi-dimensional approach in expressing the affiliation of humans and canines. The human–canine synergy concept is relatively simple in explaining and presenting it, but differs fundamentally from past and mainly present beliefs and practices in the way humans deal with dogs. More specifically, its contribution is that the way humans are utilizing dogs is not uniform, but is differentiated according to the objectives of the affiliation. As a result, there are three main dog categories: (a) the Empathy/Therapeutic Dogs, which are dogs helping persons with empathy or therapeutic needs; (b) the Assisting/Working Dogs, which carry out specific actions in aiding or assisting humans to perform specific tasks; and (c) the Facilitating/Inspiring Dogs, which facilitate or inspire humans. Among the last category the most useful are the classroom dogs, which help in teaching and learning almost all educational subjects.