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The doghouse

If you're worried about your pet's health, please speak to a vet or qualified professional.

Original poster

What are dogs myths that just will not die?

183 replies

IngGenius · 12/12/2023 19:36

What dog myths are you told that are a load of rubbish:

Can not teach an old dog new tricks

Picking up a dog when it is frightened makes it more anxious

My dog peed on the floor to annoy me

Small dog syndrome

My dog looked quilty - he knew he had done wrong

OP posts:
Increasinglyfrazzledteacher · 13/12/2023 13:56

A cat will eat its dead owner, but a dog would sooner starve.

The first part is true and, in the discussions I’ve seen, cat owners are quite happy to have their corpse eaten by Tibbles if it helps keep him alive. As for the second part, well just google ‘dog eats owner’.

margotrose · 13/12/2023 14:09

noooooooo · 13/12/2023 09:44

These are funny and sad and informative. Our dog definitely does look guilty though, if she comes tippytapping into the room with her ears tucked back like she’s wearing an Alice band I know something’s gone awry😂

That's not guilt, it's appeasement.

Retirenejean · 13/12/2023 14:55

Sholkedabemus · 13/12/2023 13:40

Our golden loved bringing gifts, especially socks and pants. She loved her soft toys and was never happier than when she had a teddy in her mouth. None of her toys were ever chewed.

Mine would eat socks if given the chance … and chewed underwear. Very possessive. Just shows that they are all individuals and don’t necessarily have all the common breed traits. I think it’s that they are so gorgeous and gentle looking which can deceive. Certainly I was surprised.

CharliesAngels81 · 13/12/2023 15:20

Who said it's a myth dogs are stubborn.

Come and meet my Shih Tzu he's as stubborn as can be , he sometimes goes 2 days without eating if he doesn't want that dog food.

I know he's not ill as he walks sniffs and then walks away. He would happily eat other food.

margotrose · 13/12/2023 15:29

CharliesAngels81 · 13/12/2023 15:20

Who said it's a myth dogs are stubborn.

Come and meet my Shih Tzu he's as stubborn as can be , he sometimes goes 2 days without eating if he doesn't want that dog food.

I know he's not ill as he walks sniffs and then walks away. He would happily eat other food.

That's not being stubborn, though.

Illness aside, most dogs who refuse meals do so because it benefits them in some way - normally because their owners have fed them something better in the past when they haven't eaten their regular food.

MercyIsEliminated · 13/12/2023 15:54

Great thread. So many myths about dogs. Here are a few more:

All young puppies should spend 18-20 hours a day in a crate and you should ignore their crying. A crate can be useful in certain circumstances (recovering from surgery, etc.) but I think far too many people overuse crates. In any case, ignoring a puppy in distress is cruel.

Dogs love crates because they see crates as their "safe space." Not in the least true for many dogs.

Breeders of purebred dogs are all completely ethical. Alas, far from true. Selective breeding for certain physical characteristics has increased health problems for many dogs.

All dog behaviour can be attributed to breed. Nope. While genetics play a role in some behaviour (especially things like herding, retrieving, etc.), dogs are individuals.

hermioneee · 13/12/2023 16:02

Great thread -
Can I add "my dog bit completely out of the blue" - no I'm afraid he didn't. You just didn't notice the signs leading up to that point.
Dogs need crates for a safe space/ training to be in a crate in case they go to a vet/ for his safety
If a dog is tearing up your house when left alone then thats a behaviour issue not a crate issue
A safe space could easily be a dog bed or a kennel that he can get in and out of and it's his own choice to stay in there - not locked in
When a dog has to be in a crate at the vets it's once in a blue moon and he'll be so out of it he'll be fine anyway - no need to put your dog through months of crate training he doesn't like for that one or two nights in his life time.

Bingandbang · 13/12/2023 18:05

Agree about biting out of the blue. My collie was a snappy reactive dog who gave very subtle signals he wasn’t happy. Most people would miss them but they were there.

Frequency · 13/12/2023 18:17

A dog who growls is dangerous.

Nope. It is the dogs who have been punished for growling and learned not to growl that you need to watch out for. Growling is good. It is a clear, unmistakable sign that the dog is uncomfortable. Listen to it and never, ever, ever punish a dog for growling.

Once you take away the dog's willingness to display their discomfort by growling the only escalation they have is to snap or bite.

Also, anyone who has ever had a terrier knows that growling can mean anything from "OMG, this is the best game ever, I love you soooo much" to "I despise this and, I intend to kill you dead."

Frequency · 13/12/2023 18:44

Actually, on the growling subject...

My dad found a lurcher straying once. He was estimated to be around 10 months old when we found him. After trying to find his owner (and finding a witness who saw three dogs, including the one my dad had being thrown from a moving van and abandoned) my dad kept him.

We had no clue where he had come from or what his background was. He would growl when he was content. I was studying for my degree at the time so was really attuned to watching/reading body language and this really confused me.

The rest of his body language was relaxed. It wasn't a terrier's playful growl. It was a low, quiet growl. If I heard it without seeing the dog I would have said it was a warning growl but as I said, nothing else about his body language displayed anything to suggest he was frightened/aggressive/in pain.

He would do it every time you gave him affection. There was no particular trigger eg touching his ear or neck. I recorded him doing it and showed it to my tutors and fellow students who also agreed the growl was completely at odds with the rest of his behaviour and that he was relaxed and happy.

Someone suggested he had been raised around cats and had copied their purring, which is possible, but he had a very high prey drive and would have killed the neighbourhood cats given the chance. We had that dog for 13 years and he never showed any aggression to people other than this growling but he never stopped doing it.

It still confuses me to this day and I would love to have worked out why he did this. If anyone has any suggestions or has ever come across this before?

EdithStourton · 13/12/2023 18:56

IngGenius · 13/12/2023 10:55

Hey best to study the dogs then ......... and forget the wolves

Show quote history

Well, other than that dogs have a massive behavioural overlap with wolves. There is a whole branch of anthropology that studies the great apes for insights into human behaviour and evolution.

EdithStourton · 13/12/2023 19:03

Frequency · 13/12/2023 18:44

Actually, on the growling subject...

My dad found a lurcher straying once. He was estimated to be around 10 months old when we found him. After trying to find his owner (and finding a witness who saw three dogs, including the one my dad had being thrown from a moving van and abandoned) my dad kept him.

We had no clue where he had come from or what his background was. He would growl when he was content. I was studying for my degree at the time so was really attuned to watching/reading body language and this really confused me.

The rest of his body language was relaxed. It wasn't a terrier's playful growl. It was a low, quiet growl. If I heard it without seeing the dog I would have said it was a warning growl but as I said, nothing else about his body language displayed anything to suggest he was frightened/aggressive/in pain.

He would do it every time you gave him affection. There was no particular trigger eg touching his ear or neck. I recorded him doing it and showed it to my tutors and fellow students who also agreed the growl was completely at odds with the rest of his behaviour and that he was relaxed and happy.

Someone suggested he had been raised around cats and had copied their purring, which is possible, but he had a very high prey drive and would have killed the neighbourhood cats given the chance. We had that dog for 13 years and he never showed any aggression to people other than this growling but he never stopped doing it.

It still confuses me to this day and I would love to have worked out why he did this. If anyone has any suggestions or has ever come across this before?

One of our dogs does this. You start to give her a fuss when she's lying down somewhere and she starts to grumble. The first time she did it I thought, 'Are you growling at me because you're on the sofa and you want me off?' But she was relaxed, her eyes were soft, she leant into my hand, and it has happened repeatedly since and there's never any sign of escalation, no hackles going up, nothing. The older dog does something similar, but that is more an 'mnmnmn' of contentment, whereas the younger dog sounds as if she's growling.

We've had them both since puppyhood, and the growly-sounding dog had a lot LESS contact with cats than the older one.

I think it's just that some dogs' contented mutter sounds very like a growl.

Frequency · 13/12/2023 19:06

EdithStourton · 13/12/2023 18:56

Well, other than that dogs have a massive behavioural overlap with wolves. There is a whole branch of anthropology that studies the great apes for insights into human behaviour and evolution.

Show quote history

I agree, behaviourally, there is some crossover between wolves and dogs, however, social structure/pack hierarchy is not one of these, so using any kind of pack theory with a dog is pointless at best.

Studies into packs of feral domestic dogs have shown they have a very loose, flexible social structure that changes according to the individual dog's current needs and past experiences.

There is no clear pack structure or leader. It's more that they will cooperate with each other to fulfill their own, individual needs. They don't stay in family packs like wolves do and whether a dog will submit to another dog varies from dog to dog and interaction to interaction based upon their past experience with the other dog and the value of the resource they have or want.

Original poster
IngGenius · 13/12/2023 19:34

EdithStourton · 13/12/2023 18:56

Well, other than that dogs have a massive behavioural overlap with wolves. There is a whole branch of anthropology that studies the great apes for insights into human behaviour and evolution.

Show quote history

but if the professional studies bug you and it doesn't bare a lot of relevance to how the domestic dog is trained....

Very short version wolves can not be trained by humans - even hand reared wolves of several generations. Domestic dogs rarely live in a hierarchical society if they do all the evidence shows that it is a fluid society with no dominant or alpha members.

OP posts:
Original poster
IngGenius · 13/12/2023 19:37

I worked with dogs all my life so I am a behaviourist Confused

All behaviourists will have an appropriate Masters degree in relevant subject

Dont be taken in by the I've worked with dogs all my life

Remember trainers train behaviour
Behaviourists alter emotions

OP posts:
BeeKeeping · 13/12/2023 19:47

So interesting!

The other day my DH was keeping our dog waiting while the cat ate the first bit of her dinner out of the bowl- before giving the dog the signal to eat. He thinks this is a brilliant way to teach her to share and avoid resource guarding... I think the opposite! He's lucky the dog didn't try to eat the cat! I'm right yes?

EdithStourton · 13/12/2023 20:05

IngGenius · 13/12/2023 19:34

but if the professional studies bug you and it doesn't bare a lot of relevance to how the domestic dog is trained....

Very short version wolves can not be trained by humans - even hand reared wolves of several generations. Domestic dogs rarely live in a hierarchical society if they do all the evidence shows that it is a fluid society with no dominant or alpha members.

Show quote history

It's not the professional studies of wolves that bug me. I find the science fascinating. That's why I read the YNP wolf reports.

hermioneee · 13/12/2023 20:15

BeeKeeping · 13/12/2023 19:47

So interesting!

The other day my DH was keeping our dog waiting while the cat ate the first bit of her dinner out of the bowl- before giving the dog the signal to eat. He thinks this is a brilliant way to teach her to share and avoid resource guarding... I think the opposite! He's lucky the dog didn't try to eat the cat! I'm right yes?

Yes that sounds very stressful for the dog.
Dogs resource guard due to fear of losing a resource - so allowing a cat to eat from his bowl or take food away is more likely to cause it.

If you want to turn being near a dogs food into a good thing for him rather than a bad (and ACTUALLY prevent guarding) a sensible thing would be to add more food to his bowl whilst he's eating. Ie human near food = good.

EdithStourton · 13/12/2023 20:22

@Frequency
Regarding canine hierarchies, the review article 'The Indispensable Dog' by Clive Wynne (2021) is very interesting. He quotes a number of studies showing that dogs will form social hierarchies, in one case (amongst feral dogs) stable enough to influence breeding success.

The article as a whole is worth a read. It's open-access here:
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.656529/full

The Indispensable Dog

Dogs’ remarkable success in living in a human-dominated world rests on a set of adaptations to cohabitation with humans. In this paper, I review the nature of these adaptations. They include changes in reproductive and foraging behavior from their ance...

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.656529/full

Motorina · 13/12/2023 21:07

This will be controversial, given some of the posts, but my pet hate is 'beagles can't go off lead'.

I currently have four. 3 are off lead with reliable recall. Number four is 9 weeks old, and will be off lead as soon as she's old enough. It 100% is doable with time and practice and really good treats.

Riverlee · 13/12/2023 21:26

My dog growls when he wants to play. It’s a low growl. I have never heard him growl in anger.

HappiestSleeping · 13/12/2023 21:55

hermioneee · 13/12/2023 20:15

Yes that sounds very stressful for the dog.
Dogs resource guard due to fear of losing a resource - so allowing a cat to eat from his bowl or take food away is more likely to cause it.

If you want to turn being near a dogs food into a good thing for him rather than a bad (and ACTUALLY prevent guarding) a sensible thing would be to add more food to his bowl whilst he's eating. Ie human near food = good.

Show quote history

@BeeKeeping my rescue was a bit defensive about food. No cats involved and likely due to the unsettlement of moving. I hand fed him for a while. Had his empty bowl in front of me, fed him handfuls of food from my hand, then placed it in his bowl. The did as @hermioneee suggested and added more food. Obviously, this was done in stages over a number of meals.

He is fine now in the sense that I can move around happily without him grumbling, but I never try and take his food away from him. I don't see the point.

@hermioneee - what would your view be on my approach?

Original poster
IngGenius · 13/12/2023 22:15

HappiestSleeping · 13/12/2023 21:55

@BeeKeeping my rescue was a bit defensive about food. No cats involved and likely due to the unsettlement of moving. I hand fed him for a while. Had his empty bowl in front of me, fed him handfuls of food from my hand, then placed it in his bowl. The did as @hermioneee suggested and added more food. Obviously, this was done in stages over a number of meals.

He is fine now in the sense that I can move around happily without him grumbling, but I never try and take his food away from him. I don't see the point.

@hermioneee - what would your view be on my approach?

Show quote history

Personally I would just let them eat their meal in piece, stay away and let them relax when eating knowing they will not be disturbed. Especially if food is an issue to them.

Yes adding food is an idea with a dog without food issues, but if food is an issue let eat their food safe in the knowledge that they will be undisturbed.

OP posts:
vicobarbie · 13/12/2023 22:15

@Frequency and @Foxblue not to derail thread but would love some advice on slow sniffy walks/ other springer related mental stimulation things. I never managed to get my springer walking nicely on the lead so i use a haltie around his nose (but only to get from say car park to park). His recall is fantastic so he's off lead almost all of the time. When he's on lead he's so stressed and pulling so hard he wouldn't dream of stopping for a sniff. I do throw handfuls of little chicken bits/hot dogs around my back garden most days too and that keeps him busy for about 20 minutes. I have a snuffle and licky mat too. But guilty of killing myself getting him out for 2 hours a day off lead which can be torture at this time of year.

margotrose · 13/12/2023 22:40

Motorina · 13/12/2023 21:07

This will be controversial, given some of the posts, but my pet hate is 'beagles can't go off lead'.

I currently have four. 3 are off lead with reliable recall. Number four is 9 weeks old, and will be off lead as soon as she's old enough. It 100% is doable with time and practice and really good treats.

As with any breed, it depends on the dog.

I walk dogs of all breeds - some can go off lead, some can't. The breed is rarely the issue - it's all down to the individual dog.