MYTH:Giving your dog “people food” will make them beg at the table. Read the ingredients in any bag of dog food or dog treat, and see if you can find an ingredient that isn’t in human food. There is NOTHING special in dog food or dog treats that is different than people food. What is different is WHERE the food comes from. If you have a plate of food on the table and you give your dog food from that plate, the dog learns that food is delivered in that situation. It doesn’t matter if that food is lettuce!
MYTH:You must be “dominant” over your dog for it to obey you. Leadership in dogs is about controlling the resources (food, resting places, access to freedom). You don’t need to prove to your dog that you are bigger and stronger. You only need to prove to your dog that he has to work for a living. When you create an economy for your dog, your dog will respect you.
MYTH:The best way to teach a dog not to guard it’s food is to “mess with the dog” while it is eating. The only thing that teaches your dog is that he should eat faster and hover over his dish to protect his food. This outdated advice actually makes resource guarding worse! Instead, you need to re-program your dog to sit and wait for you to drop one piece of dog food in his dish. When he finishes that piece, wait until he lifts his head up and looks at you to say “please”, and drop another piece in the dish. Utlimately your goal is to get your dog to WANT you to approach his dish because YOU are the one who brings food. A dog taught this way (that hands near a dish are good) won’t bite that hand that feeds it. However, a dog that is teased by a hand while eating, is much more likely to bite that hand.
MYTH:The best way to stop a dog from barking is to yell at the dog. When you yell at a barking dog, you only sound like you are joining in. The best way to stop a dog from barking is to first identify the reason the dog is barking, and address the root cause of the barking. There are many different reasons dogs bark…and many different types of barks in the same dog.
MYTH:The best way to stop a dog from jumping up is to knee him in the chest. Dogs like to greet people by jumping up because they are emotional creatures, like we are and are often happy to see a person. Kneeing a dog in the chest only makes a dog fear people, and can escalate aggression. Instead, drop treats on the ground for a dog that is greeting a person. It will re-direct the excitement of greeting into the excitement of searching for treats. This will calm the dog down, while the person greeting the dog also calms down. Then, after the dog finds all the treats, ask the dog for a sit before petting.
MYTH:Using food rewards in training will create a dog that will only work when food is around. When positive reinforcement training is properly done, the food is presented as a reward (AFTER THE BEHAVIOR) not a lure (before the behavior). In addition an educated positive reinforcement trainer knows how to use the power of variable reinforcement to strengthen behavior chains and increase duration of time or the number of behaviors before a reward is given. The difference beween an animal who is taught to work for its food and an animal who is given food without any work being required for it is significant. Even more so, the difference between the enthusiasm of a dog who loves to work for food and the demeanor dog who works out of fear of the trainer is so striking that it is evident even in a shelter dog with no known history.
MYTH:Positive reinforcement doesn’t work for all dogs or all behaviors. Positive reinforcement training works for killer whales, elephants, and birds of prey. While there may be a tradition of not using it, that tradition is based in ignorance. Positive reinforcement, combined with environmental management or antecedent arrangement, can be used to achieve the most complicated of dog behaviors.
MYTH:Once a dog “tastes blood” (kills a squirrel) he is not safe around children. To debunk this myth, I often ask people if, after they have eaten a juicy steak, are they safe around small children? All dogs have some predatory drive. There are breeds like terriers that were selected to kill rodents. This does not automatically mean that same dog will kill every living being it meets. Each dog “draws a line” where its predatory drive does not cross. Unfortunately, we don’t know where that line is until we have data from the dog’s experiences.
MYTH:You can “socialize” an adult dog that doesn’t like other dogs by simply putting it in a large pack of dogs. The window for dog-dog socialization in dogs closes at 5 months of age. This means that during the first 5 months, a puppy will define what it considers “safe” and “normal” with regard to its dog-dog interactions. If your dog had scary experiences during this time, or very little socialization with other dogs, you can only “acclimate” your older dogs to other dogs. Flooding a dog by immersing in a pack will only result in a dog showing something called “learned helplessness”, where the dog feels overwhelmed and “shuts down”, rather than trying to fight what would be a losing battle. The anxiety produced by flooding a dog will only creat a more intense reaction to dogs in the future.
MYTH:Letting your dog on furniture, letting your dog eat first, or letting your dog walk ahead of you on walk is bad. This is ancient advice. IF your dog guards resting spaces, allowing the dog up on furniture is not a good idea. However, if your dog willing gets off of furniture on command and would never growl at a human who sat on the same piece of furniture, there is nothing wrong with that behavior.
We eat three times a day. Most dogs only eat two times a day. It doesn’t matter to a dog when you eat compared to when they eat. It matters more if the dog has to WORK for its food, or is given that food for free.
While having your dog pull you on leash can be problematic, simply having the dog one step ahead of you is not a sign of a “dominant” dog. Your dog’s nose is so incredibly powerful, that he might not even realize you are behind him. Not only that, but your dog DOES have FOUR legs and you only have TWO. You walk pretty slowly, compared to a 4-legged creature. Get yourself an Easy Walk Harness to help your dog understand that pulling on leash isn’t cool…and reward your dog for staying with you.
