There are so many myths that circulate about dog behavior. Many of them are accepted as true, especially by unsuspecting pet owners and even by some veterinarians, when they are in truth totally false and misleading.
Recently, Dr. Patty Khuly on her blog Fully Vetted took on some of these myths in her two part series, Top Ten Behavior Myths All Veterinarians Should Know About and Top Ten Behavior Myths All Veterinarians Should Know About Part 2. Both of these posts are well worth your time to read.
These are a few of my favorites:
- Puppies shouldn’t go to puppy classes until they have had all their vaccinations, or they will get sick. This simply isn’t true. Socialization is so important for puppies and it is most effective when done at an early age (i.e. before your puppy is 3-4 months old). Early socialization classes can and should be done safely for all puppies. These classes, if planned and supervised properly, protect your puppy from diseases like parvovirus while still providing a perfect environment for socialization and learning.
- Dogs that are aggressive are acting dominant. While this may be true in some circumstances, it is not true in most. Most of these dogs are actually fearful or anxious, not dominant. They have learned that assuming an aggressive posture often makes the “scary thing” go away and so they use aggression as means of handling their fear.
- See how guilty he looks? He knows what he did was wrong. Wrong! What he knows is that you’re mad at him. But that’s a far cry from knowing what he actually did to deserve your anger.
- If you use treats to train a dog, they’ll always be needed to get the dog to obey your commands. This one really bothers me because it’s one of the most common excuses used to “explain” why positive reinforcement won’t work and it’s simply not true. The treat is used to teach a new behavior. Once the behavior is learned, you don’t need to provide the treat every time you ask your dog to perform the behavior. And don’t forget that once the behavior is learned, a simple “good dog” and a scratch behind the ears can be considered a reward also. Rewards don’t always have to be food-based treats.
You’ll have to visit Dr. Khuly’s posts to read the rest of these myths. I won’t more spend time rehashing what she’s already written. But I agree with her on all ten myths.
Photo Courtesy of _tar0_/Flickr.com
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