PCT part 4 - Perceptual Adaptation Across the Canine Lifespan:

Oliver Ringrose
Jun 6
6 min read

Internal Shifts and Co-Regulation in Dog-Human Systems

This is the fourth entry in our ongoing exploration of Perceptual Control Theory and canine perception. It follows our previous pieces:

Introduction:

The Fluidity of "Normal" What feels "normal" to a dog is neither static nor universal. It's shaped moment to moment by their internal reference states, past experiences, and current sensory load. Perception isn't a single channel—it’s a layered network, constantly adjusting to help the dog stay regulated and safe.

But what happens when that network becomes unstable? When perceptual priorities shift faster than the dog can adapt, or when internal references no longer match the environment?

In this follow-up to our exploration of perceptual control systems, we turn our lens to lived experience.

We look at how dogs across different life stages show us the signs of what we might call perceptual instability (i.e., dynamic shifts or mismatches in internal-external perception coherence)—and how our role is not to correct their behaviour, but to support their reorganisation toward internal balance.

Case Study 1: Adolescence and the Expanding Sensory World –

Milo, 9 Months Milo, once an eager and responsive puppy, now startles at shadows, lunges at silhouettes on the horizon, and ignores cues he once knew. It's tempting to label this as a behavioural regression. But viewed through a perceptual lens, it’s something else: a system under recalibration.

Adolescence brings a flood of neurodevelopmental change and hormonal fluctuation (Bray et al., 2021). Milo’s sensory and emotional systems have gained sensitivity, while his cognitive frameworks for prediction and integration haven’t fully matured. The result? Sensory-emotional disequilibrium.

What Milo needs isn’t firmer handling, but gentler buffering. Predictable routines. Low-stakes choices. Space to let his perceptual systems resynchronize.

Case Study 2: Midlife and Shifting Boundaries –

Daisy, 6 Years Daisy has always been sociable. But recently, she’s begun growling when children visit. She retreats more. She no longer tolerates chaos the way she used to.

This isn’t "moodiness." It’s a mismatch between her updated internal reference ("I want peace") and her external environment ("here comes noise and unpredictability"). Her sense of perceived control or environmental mastery is compromised.

Support here isn’t about re-socialising Daisy to tolerate overstimulation. It’s about preserving her autonomy and sense of safety. Offering retreat options. Teaching children to respect boundaries. Protecting her perceptual balance.

Case Study 3: Aging and the Dissolving Narrative –

Leo, 14 Years Leo now paces at night, stares into corners, and no longer seems to recognize familiar cues. These behaviours suggest more than confusion—they indicate spatial and temporal disorientation common in Canine Cognitive Dysfunction (CCD), often accompanied by sensorimotor degradation and reduced cognitive mapping abilities (Fast & Schütt, 2020).

His internal narrative of "where I am" and "what happens next" is eroding. His once-coherent perceptual flow is fragmenting.

Support means minimising novelty, anchoring him with scent and tactile familiarity, and validating his attempts to orient in a changing internal world.

Case Study 4: Trauma and the Hijacked Hierarchy –

Max, 3 Years Max was attacked by another dog in a park six months ago. Since then, walks have become unpredictable. A passing stranger, a rustling tree, even a distant bark can send him into a sudden lunge or retreat. But other times, he walks calmly. What’s happening?

Trauma has sensitised Max’s hazard-perception systems. His internal perceptual hierarchy is dysregulated—higher-order safety alerts now bypass lower-level sensory filters, triggering defensive responses before he can assess context. It’s not behavioural inconsistency—it’s a system override.

Support means reducing exposure to unpredictable input, offering Max choice and distance, and helping him rebuild perceptual trust. He doesn’t need to “get over it”—he needs the world to become safe again, gradually, from the inside out.

Case Study 5: Rehoming and the Fractured Reference –

Nala, 2 Years Nala arrived from an overseas rescue last month. She lived on the street and in shelters. Now she’s in a quiet home, but every doorframe makes her pause, and every sudden sound sends her into hiding. Her new guardians are gentle and patient—but Nala’s world feels disjointed and unfamiliar.

Her perceptual stack has no stable map. She’s navigating life without consistent sensory anchors—no familiar scent trails, no spatial continuity, no history of safety. Her behaviours aren’t oppositional—they reflect disorientation and uncertainty.

Support means co-creating predictability. Using scent-marked paths, consistent routines, and calm, attuned social contact. Over time, Nala begins to anticipate—not just react. Her perception stabilizes. She begins to belong.

Meeting Dogs Where Their Perception Lives Across the lifespan

Perceptual recalibration is not a deviation from normal—it is normal. Our challenge is not to enforce behavioural alignment, but to recognise and support perceptual reorganisation as it unfolds.

Whether it’s the adolescent mind awash with new signals, the adult navigating shifting priorities, or the elder finding meaning in fragments, our task is not to demand clarity, but to offer presence.

Behaviour is the surface. Perception is the sea.

When we support the dog’s effort to regain internal coherence, we move beyond training. We become companions in regulation.

Let’s take this further. In our next exploration, we’ll examine how dogs and humans engage in dynamic feedback loops—how one being’s perception shapes, stabilises, or destabilises the other’s. We’ll unpack the concept of interpersonal control loops and look at how co-regulation happens in real time, across cues, emotions, and shared experiences.

Understanding Interpersonal Control Loops – How Dogs and Humans Co-Regulate in Real Time

Introduction: The Dance of Mutual Influence Dogs don’t live in isolation. Neither do we. Every shared moment—every glance, pause, cue, or gesture—creates a feedback loop where one being’s internal state affects the other’s.

This isn’t metaphor. It’s regulation in motion.

Perceptual Control Theory (Powers, 1973) teaches us that behaviour is the control of perception. But what happens when two control systems meet?

When your need for calm collides with your dog’s alertness?

When your dog’s distress spikes your own?

We call this an interpersonal control loop: a real-time exchange where perception, emotion, and behaviour feed back and forth between dog and human. This term is adapted from Perceptual Control Theory as a model to describe mutual regulation in dyadic systems.

What Is Co-Regulation? Co-regulation is not calming your dog down. It’s a two-way process of mutual adjustment. It means your nervous system, body language, and emotional tone affect theirs—and vice versa. This loop can become stabilising (shared safety) or destabilising (shared dysregulation).

Examples:

You tense up before your dog reacts. They feel your tension and escalate faster.
Your dog begins to settle, and your breath slows in response. The calm amplifies.

Understanding these loops helps us intervene not just in behaviour, but in the shared perceptual experience that drives it.

Three Types of Interpersonal Loops

Synchronising Loops: Where both dog and human regulate together. Calm invites calm. Attention invites attention.
Conflict Loops: Where each party’s control goals interfere. Your need for stillness versus your dog’s need to bark.
Repair Loops: Where rupture is followed by reconnection. This builds relational trust and perceptual safety over time.

Case Insight: The Rescue Dog and the Rushing Handler Luna freezes in doorways. Her human pulls slightly on the lead, anxious to keep moving. Luna resists. The handler’s urgency triggers Luna’s freeze system more deeply.

Here, both systems are trying to control incompatible perceptions:

Luna: "I need time to assess safety."
Human: "I need forward movement to feel successful."

Resolution doesn’t come from correcting behaviour—but from changing perception. The human learns to pause. Luna starts to trust. They synchronise.

Strategies for Supporting Co-Regulation

Start with self: Your breath, posture, and pacing matter.
Use rhythm: Predictable patterns in speech or movement signal safety.
Mirror gently: Match their energy, then gradually guide it.
Repair openly: After a rupture, reset the loop with calm, attuned presence.
Recognise feedback: What is your dog responding to in you?

Two Systems, One Connection Dogs and humans are not separate entities interacting through command and compliance.

We are co-regulating systems—intertwined, adapting, perceiving. The more we understand this, the more fluent we become in the shared language of emotional safety.

In every moment of mutual perception, there is opportunity: to anchor, to soften, to sync.

Next time your dog responds “out of nowhere,” pause and ask—not just “what are they perceiving?” but also “what am I bringing into the loop?”

Final Reflection: From Inner Landscapes to Shared Loops

Throughout this piece, we’ve explored how perception—not just behaviour—shapes the lives of dogs. From the developmental turbulence of adolescence, to the shifting thresholds of aging, to the perceptual dissonance shaped by trauma or rehoming, dogs continuously adjust their internal reference points in response to experience. And they rarely do it alone.

What emerges is not a fixed map of behaviour to interpret or correct, but a dynamic landscape of perception to witness, support, and occasionally co-navigate. Whether we’re offering stillness to a fearful adolescent, patience to a midlife boundary-setter, or presence to a disoriented elder—our role remains the same: to stabilise without controlling, to partner without overwhelming.

And as we’ve seen, we are not merely observers of these systems—we are participants. Our own internal states, our nervous systems, our timing and tone, become part of the dog’s perceptual world. To support our dogs is to know ourselves—not just as handlers, but as nervous systems in conversation with theirs.

May this understanding move us not just toward better training, but toward deeper attunement.