Welcome to the second part of my Busting the Myths series. A few days ago I posted Myth #1: Dogs are descended from wolves (with the assumption that they are like wolves). So here is my answer and a second Myth to Bust: Well yes, they are. Just as we are descended from chimpanzees. But they are no closer in relationship to wolves than we are to apes. What I wanted you to consider was that even though we share more than a majority of our DNA with our chimpanzee cousins we are nothing like chimpanzees. So it is with dogs. In fact, dogs actually have a little less DNA in common with wolves than we do with chimps. You may find that scientific fact interesting or not, but it does beg the question, why then do some trainers insist on using a wolf pack heirarchy (which actually in itself is a myth to be busted later) and pasting it over our domestic dog. They have sweet F-A in common other than they have a very similar language which we all need to learn. And even if you wanted to hang on to this outdated wolf pack heirarchy theory, lets just posit here that your dog is not living within a pack of wolves. It is living with a family of humans and as such has to learn (a) to speak human; and (b) that humans are really bad at learning to speak dog. In fact, humans are really bad at teaching human-speak, especially those English-speaking humans who use so many different sounds to mean the same thing, whether it is the same word said differently or different words to mean the same. The poor dog!!! No wonder he stares blankly at you from time to time and when he doesnt get an answer walks off and loses interest! You wouldnt leave your children to swing through the trees and hope they learn like the chimpanzees and orangutans. So dont do it to your dog. At best he is going to learn dog, but he wont learn human. And dogs will learn what works for them: from their perspective, regardless of whether you are teaching them or not. We are the leaders in the dance of the partnership between you and your dog and as such we need to give clear and consistent signals and ensure those signals have been given meaning in all situations. Dogs are very good at noticing everything that is around them and assigning that picture to mean one thing. When the picture changes, it quite often means something totally different to the dog. So when I get well he does it at home in class. Yes, I agree. He does! So does mine. But you need to teach your dog to generalise. At first it is hard, and it takes a lot of work, a lot of repetitions and a lot of time, but, the more you put in the more you get out, as your grandmother would have said, and so it is with training your dog. He will learn to generalise and the more he is taught the easier this becomes - on both of you. So for tonights myth buster: Myth # 2: Playing tug with your dog will make him aggressive.
Posted on: Mon, 02 Dec 2013 19:48:01 +0000
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