Book: Dog Sense


I recently "read" Dog Sense by John Bradshaw. I really listened to it through Audible.com.

He is an anthrozoologist (??) and presents an interesting perspective on dogs. He is pretty down on pure-bred dogs, pointing out that the amount of inbreeding that has to happen to make pure-breds guarantees they will have health and behavioral problems. He is mostly down on breeders who only breed dogs for their looks so they can win dog shows.

He also goes to great lengths to debunk the whole "alpha dog" theory. The idea that dogs want nothing more than to dominate their packs (including we humans) is based on bad science. The theory stems from observation of wolves in captivity. Two problems here: First, wolves in the wild behave differently, they are families, not strangers thrown into with each other artificially. Second: Dogs are not wolves. While there may be some dna shared, it has been many centuries since the separation was made.

Bradshaw promotes training using techniques that have been proven in research to work, with an emphasis on positive reinforcement, rather than dominance techniques.

He recommends relying on professionals with credentials behind their name to get help with training your dog, pointing out that neither Cesar Milan nor Victoria Stilwell have any credentials to back up their techniques.

Emotions? Yes, your dog loves you. Yes, he can get angry. He may even feel shame if you are scolding him. But guilt? There is no evidence they feel guilty about anything that they may have done while you were gone. That guilty look is probably anxiety or fear in response to your look of anger.

There is a lot more, and I recommend the book.
 
One more thing:

I was thrilled to read that it is OK to play tug of war with your dog! And it is even OK to let your dog win. Someone has actually done research on this. Dogs who played tug of war, and dogs who played and won were not more likely to have behavior problems than those who didn't.

In fact, this kind of play seemed to enhance the dog-human relationship.

Surprisingly, dogs know the difference between play with humans and play with other dogs.

Oh! And given a choice? Dogs prefer play with people.
 
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