On a group page I belong to personally, I got myself into a bit of hot water over a bit of a rant I had on an Info Sharing page. Some one had asked a genuine question and someone else had posted a comment that absolutely horrified me. I am an avid dog lover and have spent many years educating myself about dogs, their behaviour and how to train them. I am on the pages of many well - known dog trainers and behaviourists and dog rescue organisations from around the world, and believe that I do know a thing or two about dogs... I own 8 of them, have worked at vets, SPCA and the local dog training club. And so, I decided, that instead of letting various posts and comments alarm me (partly because the full story is not always divulged and one can only make assumptions) I was going to periodically post on these info sharing groups... well, some information. My aim was not to criticise, or to point the finger at anyone, but to educate (they are info-sharing forums after all). Sometimes that education might be a little uncomfortable, but that is only because I am passionate about making my point, and sometimes to make a point uncomfortably means that you will think about it and remember it. Too often as a dog trainer I get (a) called in as the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff when some training should have taken place years prior; (b) hear stories in the news about children being bitten out of the blue by the family dog (I can assure you it is never out of the blue); (c) get posts from all kinds of well meaning people/companies/pages with cutsie pictures or videos of children interacting with what I now know to be some very stressed and almost at breaking point dogs; or (d) get phone calls wanting help with rehoming the dog because there is some kind of a problem that the family can no longer deal with. After all that work, I thought that perhaps I should also share it to my own dog training Facebook Page, because some of the thoughts and discussion coming out of it was good. It also tested my own knowledge and helped me unscramble my knowledge and try and put it into a form that everyone could understand. (Well, I hope): So here is a copy of the first post: First up I want to bust a few myths about dogs, so for tonight here is Myth # 1. Dogs are descended from wolves (with the assumption that they are like wolves). 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. Think about the implications of that.
Posted on: Thu, 28 Nov 2013 19:49:08 +0000
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