ask jo dog myths busted

Top Ten Dog Myths BUSTED!

Once you get a dog – or are even thinking of getting a dog -- it starts: stories and advice from everyone you meet. Whether or not they've ever even had a dog, everyone has a a story to share about dog behavior or training. How do you separate truth from invention? I'm going to examine some of the more often-heard 'myths' in this article.

“Don't play tug with your dog – it will make him aggressive!”

This is one of my favorites myths to bust! Contrary to popular belief, tug is 100% safe to play with your dog; as well, it's a great way to burn energy on these rainy spring days. It's such a popular myth that researchers in England decided to study whether or not tug games made dog act aggressively or 'dominant'. Guess what? It doesn't. As a matter of fact, after playing tug, dogs scored higher in obedient attentiveness, regardless of whether they won or lost at the tug game – and the games enhanced the bond between the dog and the owner. BUSTED.

“Don't let your dog walk in front of you / go through doors before you / lean on you / eat before you do / get on the furniture – he's trying to dominate you!”

Comments like these make one think that dogs are trying to take over the world, don't they? <grin> Well, they aren't – and these statements do more harm than good to the dog-human relationship. There is no evidence at all that these or other procedures prevent aggression or 'dominance' issues – because dogs aren't trying to dominate us! Dogs know we aren't dogs – dog hierarchies exist within groups of dogs only, and don't really include us humans. As well, dogs don't look at these procedures when deciding the social status of another dog; their social structures are far more fluid. BUSTED.

“An all-meat or raw food diet makes dogs aggressive.”

Although dogs are not true carnivores, there is no evidence that a raw or all-meat diet makes a particular dog any more or less prone to aggression. However, a raw or all meat diet is not necessarily the best choice for every dog, so before making changes in your dog's diet, do your research – there are some great books for owners about canine nutrition by Dr. Pitcairn, Volhard, etc. that can help you make an educated decision on what's best for YOUR dog. BUSTED.

“Puppies should leave the litter at 49 days or else they won't bond with humans.”

In the 1950's, researchers Scott and Fuller produced a landmark study that outlined all of the critical periods of development of dogs. The discovered that dogs were most open to learning about humans around the 49th day (or between 7-8 weeks). They also discovered that the period between 8-12 weeks was when puppies learned two very important things: dog language and bite inhibition. They also discovered that if dogs were taken from their mom and litter-mates before they had a chance to learn these two things, it was more difficult for these pups to learn how to communicate safely with other dogs. These pups were also much 'mouthier' than other pups, and nipped harder. Now, neither of these issues are 'written in stone' – but they do require far more socialization of these pups in order to reduce the incidence of behavior issues later in life (such as dog aggression and 'nippiness'). BUSTED.

“If a dog food is expensive, and sold by my vet, it must be good!”

Not necessarily! While some vet clinics carry an excellent array of high-quality foods, they are few and far between. Even the 'prescription' diets may not be the best thing for your pets' particular needs long-term, as they were designed to be used for acute symptoms. READ THE LABELS. Remember that dogs can't metabolize corn products, and cannot derive any nutrients from them. if your dog has a particular health issue such as diabetes or uric crystals, do your research! There are some excellent sites affiliated with major vet schools that deal with pet diabetes or kidney issues, such as the Pets With Diabetes site, that have great information on the nutritional needs of pets with chronic illnesses. BUSTED.

“Positive (treat) trainers are nothing but cookie pushers!”

WRONG. Positive does NOT equal Permissive. Positive training refers to the use of two portions of the operant conditioning quadrant – positive reinforcement and negative punishment. Positive reinforcement means that you add (positive) something in order to increase (reinforce) a particular behavior (such as sit or down); negative punishment means that you take away (negative) something in order to reduce (punish) a particular behavior (such as when you turn away when a dog jumps on you – you take away your attention). Treats are NOT the only reinforcers you can use to train with – on the contrary, there are a zillion things that your dog finds reinforcing! Things like going out, taking a walk, playing, getting up on the sofa, being patted, etc. are all highly reinforcing to a dog, and taking these away can be quite effective in reducing or eliminating a behavior. Dogs do what works, and if something stops working, they stop doing it. Positive reinforcement and negative punishment work together to train quickly and effectively, without the fallout associated with traditional methods. A dog trained correctly with positive-based methods will learn quicker and retain what he's learned for far longer, too. BUSTED.

“To teach my dog to stay close to me while walking, I should 'choke up' on the leash to show him he needs to stay by my side.”

This is an excellent way to teach your dog how to PULL on the leash even more! Dogs have a band of muscles around their necks and shoulders, and when you pull on the leash, you kick in a physiological event called the 'opposition reflex' – the pressure backwards on the dogs' neck causes him to reflexively push forward against the collar. Folks who run sled teams teach a command called 'line out' which serves to keep the necklines taut and out of the way – but it also kicks in the opposition reflex and gets the dogs pumped up to pull and run. So, if you want to teach your dog how to pull you even harder, keep choking up on the leash! BUSTED.

“I don't need to train my dog – once he gets out of adolescence, he'll be better behaved because he'll be an adult instead of a pup!”

WRONG. It's much better to teach a puppy good basic manners from day one, in order to build strong habits that will last him through the trying times of adolescence and into adulthood. If you wait until the dog is past adolescence, he will have already developed very strong habits – and some will be habits you really don't want! Once a habit is formed, it takes longer to retrain a new behavior to take it's place. BUSTED.

“Don't get into staring contests with your dog – he'll bite you, because you're challenging him!”

Under-socialized dogs will sometimes feel threatened by a hard stare from a human – but that occurs only in situations where the dog fears or does not 'trust' that person, for whatever reason he may have. Assuming that your dog has no reason to mistrust or fear you, there is no reason why calm eye contact can not be a rewardable experience – but if your dog is shy or under-socialized, you may need to work with building soft eye contact when training, as a part of teaching your dog to pay attention to you. BUSTED.