What are dogs myths that just will not die?

[IngGenius]

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

@vicobarbie ashamed to say we are the same, she's brilliant off-lead but a pulling nightmare on! We are lucky enough to have a woods nearby with loads of wildlife so are spoilt for sniffs, as she does want to stop and sniff. We took a sniff search class, and she learnt to seek a particular scent, so we will do that sometimes, you can then hide the scent box around the house or in the garden and they have to look for it. Might be worth seeing if there's a scent class nearby? Ours is a cocker, not a springer, but there were a couple of springers in our class and they took to it extremely well, and one of the owners commented that she'd never seen him that tired before (9 month old pup)

I will note here that I can really tire her out with a ball, but balls are 95% banned because she gets so hyper and stays like that for hours after. Her behaviour nosedive as well. Now, some dogs are ball driven and react well, so if that's yours then feel free to ignore, but if you do use a ball I'd be tempted to cut ball use cold turkey so that he's not constantly adrenaline seeking for it, so his mind has time to wandering onto smells.

What happens if he doesn't get the two hours -is he destructive? Have you taken him out that much his whole life, how old? Long term it worth you very gradually decreasing the time he goes out at any time of the year by 5 minutes a week until an hour is his 'baseline' (then anything else can be a bonus)

I’ve just seen a smashing video of a beagle doing agility. Noisy boy with ears flying. Absolutely wonderful.

agree it depends on the dog.

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

As you can tell I have a basset. I hate how people say they are untrainable and can’t be off lead. Mine can be off lead, it’s just recognising the scent hound brain. Mine has a ‘what’s in it for me’ attitude that I work with.

That said, I recognise her behaviour. I do not let her off lead in woodlands because the smells etc are more interesting, she’s a scent hound so of course they are.

My controversial MN opinion (based on real life encounters) is that dogs love playing and being together. All supervised and well trained dogs. There’s nothing more joyous than dogs recognising their doggy pals and having a good play.

Why don’t you think that dogs don’t need exercise daily? Mine appear to, but I’m not disagreeing, just curious.

I’m dog sitting this week and last night he cuddled up to me, licked my nose, then started to growl contentedly… just like a purr! It lasted for about 40 minutes!

@MissingMoominMamma days off can be very beneficial - especially if your dog is anxious or reactive.

Yes, dogs need exercise but most importantly they need company and stimulation. Skipping a walk can help them focus on other things.

@vicobarbie you need to play to your dog's breed traits and individual personality.

Slow, sniffy walks and massive off-lead hikes are not the only options. Anything that uses a dog's brain will be stimulating and more tiring than physical exercise alone.

For a spaniel look into things that play to their strengths like fly ball or disc dog. With disc dog or frisbee, you can start teaching the basics inside the house. Not many dogs will instinctively chase and catch a frisbee, you usually have to get their interest first and teach them to hold the disc in their mouth before you move to teaching chasing and catching. And once they nail the chase and catch pay attention to form. Make sure the dog always returns to a sit by your right side before you throw the frisbee. This is gonna use up much more energy than simply running or walking for the sake of it.

If you want to cut walks down in the winter but need your dog to burn energy try starting with clicker training/obedience. So, if you normally walk for 90 minutes outside do a 15-minute training session, a one-hour walk, and another 15-minute training session when you get home. Do some training while on the walk. The more you get the dog to use its brain the more tiring the walk/play/training will be. Always be teaching something new as well as proofing and reinforcing existing commands.

If your dog is in a fixed routine of walking for 2 hours a day I would gradually reduce this rather than suddenly changing up the routine.

We need a photo of the puppy to prove your hypothesis 😜

'Put your hand down to a dog so they can sniff you'.
Dogs have a keen sense of smell. They can already smell you. If you want a dog to meet and accept you, let them come to you and don't invade their space with your hand ffs.
Mine hates hands being shoved in her face.

Whenever I meet a nervous dog I kneel down and gently offer my hand. It can take months, but when that dog finally lets me stroke them it’s worth the effort.

Ooh yes this bugs me too. It's totally unnecessary and will just make an anxious dog even more anxious and likely to bite!

@HappiestSleeping thing is it sounded like it worked for you so I don't want to be too critical BUT hand feeding could have been stressful for a dog that just wants to eat in peace. Clearly he trusted you so it's fine but if you said you were going to hand feed in order to make him more relaxed around food I would have said DON'T. But it worked so 🤷🏻‍♀️

If a dog comes in wearing ‘appeasement face’, he knows he’s done something you won’t like so appeasement is needed. That’s pretty close to guilt, I feel. I mean, when we do things we know we shouldn’t, we feel guilty afterwards.

And what is stubborn, if not a dog who’d rather do his own thing? Mine looks over his shoulder as if to reassure me he does know what I want, and also knows what he wants is better.

We occasionally have a stand off at corners, where he wants to do a different walk from the one I have in mind. That one is getting worse with age, whereas the others are getting better.

If a dog comes in wearing ‘appeasement face’, he knows he’s done something you won’t like so appeasement is needed.

That makes the leap that he knows your behaviour is linked to something he did earlier. i.e. that HE caused your behaviour (indirectly).

Instead of him using a series of cues that tell him you are likely to behave badly. Such as you being silent for a few microseconds when you walk in, while you see and assess the damage of a torn sofa. i.e. Your behaviour just happens and is not indirectly caused by him - usually after you've walked in and usually after you stand quietly for a few microseconds.

Dogs will appease regardless of fault. So appeasement is not an admission of guilt.

It does not necessarily transpire that he....
a) remembers tearing the sofa
b) is aware that the torn sofa is going to be an issue
c) believe he did something he shouldn't in tearing it

Stubborn is a different matter (imo) and can be useful shorthand so long as you do away with the human-value judgement we often place on the word 'stubborn'. We often use it to mean someone who refuses to do something for the sake of refusing. Dogs never do that. And we often use to make a negative judgement on someone's character - that shouldn't apply to dogs wither, imo.

My own dog is clear in his communication when he would prefer we take a different corner on a walk. I may call him a stubborn bugger in the moment, but the reality is he is just using communication to express a preference because experience has told him that doing so sometimes delivers what he wants (I give in!).

The fact that his communication goes on for several seconds while I try to walk one way and he stands there, is simply a by product of the training I have inadvertently given him: that persistent pays off. The fact that he is getting 'worse' with age is just because he has greater levels of experience and knowledge at the behaviour (and probably a bit more patience) and so he's getter better and better at the stand off game.

I may just as (in)correctly call him a patient bugger or an experienced bugger, but that doesn't make me chuckle quite so much, so I don't

So I don't automatically bristle at the word stubborn, except where it is being used to seriously explain a behaviour that it would be far better to explain more accurately. eg. a behavioural consultation. In every day language we use all sorts of short hand to explain our dogs. I may say mine 'loves opening presents' but, of course, I don't really know if he loves it or even if opening the presents are the cause of his excitement - it could just as easily be the chance to chew some paper or the general joviality that humans tend to display around them. Or the attention he gets when opening them. Or the resulting treats that he has just unwrappped. Or all of the above. But the short hand works in most situations.

When the PP said her dog enters the room with his ears like an Alice band, that was the first sign something had ‘happened’. So the dog was coming in to confess, if you like.

I had a similar dog. She’d greet you with a ‘guilty’ face before you knew anything was up. You’d go looking and find whatever ‘offence’ had been committed.

Mine has a truly adorable habit now- if he finds anything he shouldn’t have, like a mars bar out of someone’s bedroom, he brings it to me with a very excited ’Oh no, look what I’ve got! I’m not allowed this am I?!’. He throws it at me and snatches it back up, pretends he’s going to eat it, then lets me have it in return for a lovely ‘good boy’ fuss. Unless it’s a pencil. If it’s a pencil or wooden knitting/crochet needle he can’t quite restrain himself and chews it up before bringing it for inspection.

No interest in sticks on a walk though.

If a dog comes in wearing ‘appeasement face’, he knows he’s done something you won’t like so appeasement is needed.

Dogs' brains don't work like that. It's why it's totally pointless to tell a dog off for toileting in the house when you've left him alone.

They don't understand that they've done something wrong, just that you're upset or angry with them.

I also know dogs who will try and appease you because they're anxious or scared.

I had a similar dog. She’d greet you with a ‘guilty’ face before you knew anything was up. You’d go looking and find whatever ‘offence’ had been committed.

But that still doesn't prove a sense of regret or guilt.

It may indicate (for example) the dog has learned that rubbish on the floor from the kitchen bin + owner coming home = owner behaves negatively unless I behave appeasingly.

Again, the dog does not recognise their own input into that chain, they have just learned the chain.

Guilt may well be a uniquely human emotion - which explains why we would interpret the word with it in mind. Now, maybe dogs DO feel guilt - but until there is evidence to show it, I think it can be damaging to use it to interpret their behaviour because it creates a sense that the dog knows they did something wrong when...

a) they may not know
and
b) they may not have any understanding of right vs wrong

In terms of the mars bar example, I do tend to think dogs have a sense of humour. Or, rather, they get some enjoyment out of having something you want and 'teasing' you with it. Is it instinctual or is it learned through interaction with us? I don't know. But it definately appears to be fun for the sake of fun. But humour (unlike guilt) has been observed in many species, so that seems more likely - to me, anyway.

I’m sure they learn from people, and try hard to imitate what they can. I think my dog attempts to give me kisses. As in, make pah sound of a kiss. As others have said, their dog has learned to ’smile’. Mine hasn’t, he just has some staffy in there somewhere, so when he’s very relaxed and happy he ‘smiles’ widely.

The mars bar, I can tell from the noise as he comes towards me- he’s so excited about his forbidden item.

Happy to take criticism / suggestion. In my instance, he was grumbly when I went nearby when he was eating. It wasn't a full growl, and I took it that he was registering his displeasure and warning me away while he was eating. I would never interfere with a dog eating, but he didn't know that and I wanted to make him more comfortable having people in the room. There are no children here, but they do visit so I wanted him to be more confident. I think I mentioned that he was a rescue and was probably feeling a little unsettled.

So, when it came to meal time, I sat with bowl on lap, and some food in hand, he bounded over without any hesitation and I gave him some from my hand, put some in the bowl, and he ate it where it was. Couple of these and I am now able to move freely around him while he eats.

I am working on my level 6 behaviour course now, and although I'm not that far in, I haven't encountered anything that would suggest this wasn't appropriate, so very interested in your opinion.

As with all things, and what makes forums like this challenging, is that there are so many signs we see and take into consideration before taking action that either we don't think about consciously, or can't articulate in short order in a post. In my example above, I didn't have any suspicion that he didn't trust me as his recall was good, he would happily sit with / on me, etc. No signs other than him finding his feet in the house. Also, he'd been with us for 2 months before I bothered to do anything as I wanted him to just get used to his new home.

Context is vital.

I would not be hassling a food reactive dog when eating its meal at all.

Unless there is a real need for the dog to have to eat around people and I can not think of any reason why this may need to happen.
Always give the dog peace to eat.

Dog relaxed no need to food guard and the dog becomes comfortable around food.

We dont always need to "fix" things, just making the dog comfortable and relaxed is enough for the dog.

Giving treats can also be done without conflict for the dog.

Who are you doing your Level 6 with?

That dogs can't understand more than 200 words.
I know for a fact our beagle can understand full sentences, I'm the crazy lady who talks to him and gives him long explanations when he can't find his friends on walks...

I had a similar dog. She’d greet you with a ‘guilty’ face before you knew anything was up. You’d go looking and find whatever ‘offence’ had been committed.
I have this experience: coming home to a dog who looks 'guilty' or 'appeasing' or whatever you want to call it, to the extent that I thought, 'Uo-oh, what has he done?'

I don't know if dogs can feel guilt or embarrassment (though they can feel love and anger).

I also suspect that some of them are clever enough, with enough theory of mind, to manipulate other dogs. I've watched one of my dogs employ tactics on repeat that are complex enough for them to have been very difficult for her to recall if they had occurred by chance. If they didn't occur by chance, it looks as if she deliberately planned what she was going to do to get the reaction she wanted from the other dog, and thus end up with the outcome she wanted.

@wobblyweasel

Mine is intelligent and was easy to train but he's the laziest collie you could meet and prefers his own space, if you work from home he ignores you, he was most disappointed at lock down when the (adult) dc descended and his preferred desk (for sleeping under) got used daily

@Foxblue i live near a huge park (Phoenix park in Dublin) where there are wild deer and rabbits so i suppose his off lead walks are full of sniffs.

He loves playing fetch but will not drop the ball for love nor money, he enjoys me trying to wrestle it off him. I tried training drop the ball with treats and of course he drops it but once the treats are gone he won't drop the ball.

To his credit he is the calmest springer ive ever met and is not destructive, i just feel guilty if he's been lying around and he also has the saddest face.

I actually love walking him but two hours a day feels unmanageable some days. He's 4 and yes ive always walked him loads since he was old enough for that level of activity.

Based on the advice of yourself and @Frequency have give re: clicker training/scent work etc i know you're right, he's a working job and wants to be busy, in an ironic way the excessive exercising is the lazy way out.

@EdithStourton my dog has some manipulative tendencies- he has various strategies to get DH to stand up, then he nicks his seat on the sofa.
He’ll go outside and bark, or tap on the back door, and when DH goes to see why …
I’ve seen DH wandering around wondering where the dog is, while the dog is comfily settled in his spot!