Roadrunner Animal Hospital

Myth #1 Puppies shouldn't go to puppy class
until after they get their vaccines.

Although you should be cautious, withholding puppy classes until after a puppy is fully vaccinated misses the prime socialization time period from 4 to 14 weeks of age. Unsocialized puppies do not learn to discriminate between things truly dangerous and those that are not. These puppies are more likely to become increasingly fearful of new places, people and things. To prevent disease, however, early puppy classes should be held indoor in easy to disinfect areas and the class restricted to puppies of the same age and all puppies should be receiving vaccines on schedule. Carry puppies to and from the class area.

Myth #2 "My dog is aggressive/fearful/shy
because she was abused as a puppy"

Certainly when as dog is acquired after the age of 6 months, no one can know for sure it was not abused. But when we blame abuse for the problem we oftentimes overlook more common causes. It is well documented that fearful or shy behaviors are highly genetic traits. Believing a pet's behavior is solely the result of abuse that happened before they got the pet enables many pet owners to deny responsibility for the pet's behavior. Fear or anxiety based behaviors, when ignored, nearly always worsen with time.

Myth #3 A medication will treat your pet's behavior problem.

Medications used in behavioral modification rarely, if ever, cure a behavior problem. Sometimes they can suppress the behavior temporarily but positive results are often transient unless a behavior modification training protocol is included. Research shows pets on these medications may respond more rapidly to behavioral training by reducing anxiety and fear.

Myth #4 Aggressive dogs are dominant dogs.

Aggression is more likely due to fear or anxiety than dominance. Punishment based training techniques are not appropriate for treating a dog with any type of aggression and can make the aggression worse.

Myth #5 "He looks guilty so he must know he did something wrong."

Lowered head, tucked ears and tail and avoidance behaviors that most pet owners incorrectly label as "guilty looking" are appeasement behaviors. The dog is demonstrating submission in an attempt to turn off the anger that it is reading in the owner's body language or expecting from the owner because of previous experience in similar situations.

Myth #6 If you train your pet with treats, you will always
have to use treats to get your pet to behave then.

When used appropriately, food rewards are excellent and effective ways to teach a dog new behaviors. Once learned, treats can be used intermittently. The problem is most pet owners assume a pet knows the behavior long before the pet actually does.

Myth #7 Dogs chase their tails from boredom.

The cause of repetitive behaviors such as tail chasing and pacing are often combinations of underlying medical conditions, environmental factors and learned behavior. Also, pain related discomfort is often overlooked as a cause of such problems.