# Top Ten Myths About Dog Behaviour



## davetgabby (Dec 29, 2007)

October 30, 2008, By Jean Donaldson, ARTICLE, BEHAVIOUR 
There are a lot of myths about dog behaviour so I whittled it down to ones that were pervasive and that made myth criteria, which are:
a) there is no (zero) scientific evidence supporting the contention;
b) there is scientific evidence against the contention and/or scientific evidence supporting alternatives.

1) Dogs are naturally pack animals with a clear social order. This one busts coming out of the gate as free-ranging dogs (pariahs, semi-feral populations, dingoes, etc.) don’t form packs. As someone who spent years solemnly repeating that dogs were pack animals, it was sobering to find out that dogs form loose, amorphous, transitory associations with other dogs.

2) If you let dogs exit doorways ahead of you, you’re letting them be dominant. There is not only no evidence for this, there is no evidence that the behaviour of going through a doorway has any social significance whatsoever. In order to lend this idea any plausibility, it would need to be ruled out that rapid doorway exit is not simply a function of their motivation to get to whatever is on the other side combined with their higher ambulation speed.

3) In multi-dog households, “support the hierarchy” by giving presumed dominant animals patting, treats, etc., first, before giving the same attention to presumed subordinate animals. There is no evidence that this has any impact on inter-dog relations, or any type of aggression. In fact, if one dog were roughing up another, the laws governing Pavlovian conditioning would dictate an opposite tack: Teach aggressive dogs that other dogs receiving scarce resources predicts that they are about to receive some. If so practised, the tough dog develops a happy emotional response to other dogs getting stuff – a helpful piece of training, indeed. No valuable conditioning effects are achieved by giving the presumed higher-ranking dog goodies first.

4) Dogs have an innate desire to please. This concept has never been operationally defined, let alone tested. A vast preponderance of evidence, however, suggests that dogs, like all properly functioning animals, are motivated by food, water, sex, and like many animals, by play and access to bonded relationships, especially after an absence. They’re also, like all animals, motivated by fear and pain, and these are the inevitable tools of those who eschew the use of food, play, etc., however much they cloak their coercion and collar-tightening in desire to please rhetoric.

5) Rewards are bribes and thus compromise relationships. Related to 4), the idea that behaviour should just, in the words of Susan Friedman, Ph.D., “flow like a fountain” without need of consequences, is opposed by more than 60 years of unequivocal evidence that behaviour is, again to quote Friedman, “a tool to produce consequences.” Another problem is that bribes are given before behaviour, and rewards are given after. And, a mountain of evidence from decades of research in pure and applied settings has demonstrated over and over that positive reinforcement – i.e., rewards – make relationships better, never worse.

6) If you pat your dog when he’s afraid, you’re rewarding the fear. Fear is an emotional state – a reaction to the presence or anticipation of something highly aversive. It is not an attempt at manipulation. If terrorists enter a bank and order everybody down on the floor, the people will exhibit fearful behaviour. If I then give a bank customer on the floor a compliment, 20 bucks or chocolates, is this going to make them more afraid of terrorists next time? It’s stunningly narcissistic to imagine that a dog’s fearful behaviour is somehow directed at us (along with his enthusiastic door-dashing).

7) Punish dogs for growling or else they’ll become aggressive. Ian Dunbar calls this “removing the ticker from the time bomb.” Dogs growl because something upsetting them is too close. If you punish them for informing us of this, they are still upset but now not letting us know, thus allowing scary things to get closer and possibly end up bitten. Much better to make the dog comfortable around what he’s growling at so he’s not motivated to make it go away.

8) Playing tug makes dogs aggressive. There is no evidence that this is so. The only study ever done, by Borchelt and Goodloe, found no correlation between playing tug and the incidence of aggression directed at either family members or strangers. Tug is, in fact, a cooperative behaviour directed at simulated prey: the toy.

9) If you give dogs chew toys, they’ll learn to chew everything. This is a Pandora’s box type of argument that, once again, has zero evidence to support it. Dogs are excellent discriminators and readily learn with minimal training to distinguish their toys from forbidden items. The argument is also logically flawed as chewing is a ‘hydraulic’ behaviour that waxes and wanes, depending on satiation/deprivation, as does drinking, eating and sex. Dogs without chew objects are like zoo animals in barren cages. Unless there is good compensation with other enrichment activities, there is a welfare issue here.

10) You can’t modify “genetic” behaviour. All behaviour – and I mean all – is a product of a complex interplay between genes and the environment. And while some behaviours require less learning than others, or no learning at all, their modifiability varies as much as does the modifiability of behaviours that are primarily learned.

By Jean Donaldson
Canadian Jean Donaldson is the founder of the San Francisco SPCA Academy for Dog Trainers. Her books include The Culture Clash, Dogs Are From Neptune and MINE! A Guide to Resource Guarding in Dogs.

(Appeared in January, 2008 issue)


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## lfung5 (Jun 30, 2007)

Thanks Dave. You always have some interesting articles.


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## HavaneseSoon (Nov 4, 2008)

Thanks Dave! I always enjoy reading more of Jean Donaldson on dog behavior.


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## leelee805 (Mar 1, 2010)

You seem very knowledgable. Can I ask you if it is normal for my 8 week old puppy to eat her kibble on the run? What she does is, she takes a mouthful, walks awa from the dish, (kibble spilling all around her) she then eats what is left in her mouth and walks back to her dish eating what spilled. Just wondering if there was some explaination for this.... Thank you


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## luv3havs (Jul 27, 2007)

I think that's a Hav trait. Mine do it sometimes.


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## Poornima (Jun 29, 2007)

leelee805 said:


> You seem very knowledgable. Can I ask you if it is normal for my 8 week old puppy to eat her kibble on the run? What she does is, she takes a mouthful, walks awa from the dish, (kibble spilling all around her) she then eats what is left in her mouth and walks back to her dish eating what spilled. Just wondering if there was some explaination for this.... Thank you


I too think it is a Hav trait. Some do it, others don't. Benji has always done it while Lizzie's mouth doesn't leave the bowl until the last morsel is licked!

Dave, thanks for the information. I always find your posts regarding dog behaviour and related studies interesting.


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## DorothyS (Aug 11, 2009)

Good article, and confirms what I believe about dog behaviour and motivation. With our first dog, we were taught that rewards were good, but that correction and punishment (such as time-outs) were also good. In the last 16 years since our first dog was a pup, it seems that there have been some interesting changes in dog-training/communicating attitudes. We've approached our dog training from a much gentler, more positive-reinforcement angle this time around, and the whole experience has been so much better. Happier dogs and happier people!


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## Leslie (Feb 28, 2007)

Excellent, Dave! Thanks for posting this.


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## mintchip (Apr 19, 2007)

Poornima said:


> I too think it is a Hav trait. Some do it, others don't. Benji has always done it while Lizzie's mouth doesn't leave the bowl until the last morsel is licked!
> 
> Dave, thanks for the information. I always find your posts regarding dog behaviour and related studies interesting.


Oliver always did it 
Thanks Dave for sharing that article


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## davetgabby (Dec 29, 2007)

leelee805 said:


> You seem very knowledgable. Can I ask you if it is normal for my 8 week old puppy to eat her kibble on the run? What she does is, she takes a mouthful, walks awa from the dish, (kibble spilling all around her) she then eats what is left in her mouth and walks back to her dish eating what spilled. Just wondering if there was some explaination for this.... Thank you


Yeah I answered it on your other post. It is a form of resource guarding. Dogs and a lot of other animals will take food away to eat it so no one can get it. What you want to watch out for with food is that they don't start to develope a strong guarding behaviour. I have a great article about this if you want to email me privately at [email protected] It's too long to print here.


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## davetgabby (Dec 29, 2007)

DorothyS said:


> Good article, and confirms what I believe about dog behaviour and motivation. With our first dog, we were taught that rewards were good, but that correction and punishment (such as time-outs) were also good. In the last 16 years since our first dog was a pup, it seems that there have been some interesting changes in dog-training/communicating attitudes. We've approached our dog training from a much gentler, more positive-reinforcement angle this time around, and the whole experience has been so much better. Happier dogs and happier people!


Yes Dorothy ,dog training has come a long way in the past twenty years. Unfortunately not everyone has adopted it. We'd all be further ahead if we concentrated on rewarding appropriate behavior instead of "correcting" bad behaviour. Happy dogs learn better when they are not stressed by strong aversives. Stress inhibits learning and dogs are no different than humans when it comes down to it.


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## davetgabby (Dec 29, 2007)

HavaneseSoon said:


> Thanks Dave! I always enjoy reading more of Jean Donaldson on dog behavior.


Thanks Linda, if you want to read the best dog book ever ,in my opinion, read Jean's Culture Clash.


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## luv3havs (Jul 27, 2007)

You know, I've read lots about positive reinforcement and believe in it and use it. But I wonder if corrections are effective sometimes.
In Sandy's thread about bringing her dog back to balance, her trainer is having her use corrections and it seems to be working well.
I'm sure Sandy has done lots of positive training but she has had continuous problems with dogs barking on the leash etc. and now is having success with using corrections. What do you think Dave?


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## davetgabby (Dec 29, 2007)

luv2havs said:


> You know, I've read lots about positive reinforcement and believe in it and use it. But I wonder if corrections are effective sometimes.
> In Sandy's thread about bringing her dog back to balance, her trainer is having her use corrections and it seems to be working well.
> I'm sure Sandy has done lots of positive training but she has had continuous problems with dogs barking on the leash etc. and now is having success with using corrections. What do you think Dave?


It depends what is meant by effective. Here is a great explanation ,written by one of our IPDTA members and a trainer for Dog Star Daily. http://www.dogstardaily.com/blogs/seen-tv


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## boo2352 (Dec 18, 2006)

Thanks, Dave -- you always post things just when I need them!


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## good buddy (Feb 20, 2007)

Dave, you must have a gigantic collection of articles saved on your computer! l like Jean Donaldson. She has some interesting ideas.


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## Evye's Mom (Dec 16, 2008)

What a relief to read this. Thanks for the info.


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