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TODAY, 26 AUGUST is International Dog Day and what better day to celebrate the little furry friends in our lives who bring us so much joy and unconditional love?
There are believed to be around 900 million dogs in the world and over 400,000 in Ireland. Most dogs are treated very well by their carers, some are not, but all could benefit from a greater effort by us to understand and care for them. It is so important to remember that if you’d love to have a dog, it is a life-changing decision that requires a lot of dedication and commitment. The rewards, when it works are wonderful – dogs can be a fantastic addition to the family/home, but they deserve to be cared for and trained in the right way. And they can be trained properly, it just takes a little focus and consistency.
This year, on the back of the increase in dog ownership during Covid and the rising cost of living, we are seeing a worrying surge in dogs being abandoned in this country. If you have thought the decision to get a dog through and have done your research, then please consider adoption over shopping for your new pet. The dog pounds are full at the moment with dogs who deserve love, protection and a safe home.
Today, in the interest of improving the lives of our dog and our relationship with them, we look here at five famous dog myths and explore the facts behind them:
Unfortunately, when it comes to dogs a wagging tail doesn’t necessarily mean a friendly dog, tail wags are far more complicated than you might think. While it is true that friendly dogs tend to wag their tails, it is also true that dogs wag their tails when they are not in a good emotional state.
So what does a wagging tail really indicate? The most precise answer is that the animal is willing to engage. However, “engage” can mean a variety of things, from greeting and petting to fighting and biting.
A single tail wag, unfortunately, does not give enough information to figure out what a dog is trying to communicate. You need to observe the whole dog.
To determine the friendliness of a tail wag, pay attention to the range, the speed of movement, and any tension in the tail.
A full-body wag that starts at the shoulders and extends all the way to the hips usually indicates welcoming intentions. If hips are also swinging with greater enthusiasm, this is even more likely to be a sign of sociability.
When only the tip of the tail moves and the body is stiff it indicates the dog is not friendly.
Sometimes dogs wag their tail in a rotating motion known as a “helicopter tail”. It is one of the positive signals that we look for when evaluating dogs because it is so strongly associated with dogs who are in a friendly mood. This tail motion is particularly common in dogs who are greeting a close friend, especially after a long absence.
Of course, you can! While it’s wonderful to be able to teach a dog from a young age it’s absolutely possible for them to learn once they reach adulthood and even into old age.
The University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna undertook a study of 95 border collies that spanned over three years and ranged in age from five months to 13 years old, in order to evaluate the effect of ageing on cognitive processes, such as learning, memory and problem-solving.
The first, and most important, finding was that all of the dogs were capable of learning. However, that is not to say that there weren’t differences in learning ability depending on the age of the dogs.
The younger dogs outperformed the older dogs in straightforward learning tasks, but the older dogs did better than the younger dogs in reasoning tasks.
However the ultimate test was to see how well the dogs were able to remember what they had learned after a period of six months, and the results showed that there was no significant age-related variation in the long-term memory test.
You may have to be more patient with a dog who has never had any formal training or indeed to help them change a long-established behaviour but it absolutely is possible in both cases.
As human beings, we like to assess dogs by attaching our own feelings and emotions to a dog’s behaviour. On one hand, guardians do not believe that dogs are as intelligent or emotionally sophisticated as humans and on the other hand we have a tendency to place very complex narratives to explain why dogs behave the way they do. This is commonly the case with the feeling of guilt.
Alexandra Horowitz, a Professor and acclaimed writer from Barnard College, set up what is known as the guilty dog experiment to test and see if dogs can experience the emotion of guilt. The experiment included commands to the canines from their owners to not touch a delicious snack and then the individual left the room.
Once the owners exited, some of the dogs were presented with a tempting snack which they ate; others, however, simply waited patiently for their owners’ return. What the researchers reported afterwards sometimes differed from what had actually happened during the exercise.
Owners who were told truthfully that their dog had disobeyed them and who scolded their dogs accordingly, received a guilty look from the canine. But when researchers falsely accused the dog of eating the treat and the innocent pooches were scolded they surprisingly displayed a much guiltier look than all other dogs in the experiment who hadn’t been able to resist the treat.
This suggests that the guilty look is probably caused by the scolding, rather than a reflection of the dog’s innocence or guilt. But more research is needed to really discover what range of emotions our dogs experience.
Many people label their dogs’ behaviour as being stubborn while in fact that is probably not the case. In reality, a dog might be finding a task difficult to understand, there may not be any motivator for the dog to carry out a request or a dog might be fearful or in pain and unable to comply.
Always make sure you make an effort to rule out the possibility that your dog may be in some pain or discomfort especially if your adult dog is showing a new undesirable behaviour. Always seek the advice of a qualified veterinarian or behaviourist.
In the earlier stages of the training, it’s important to make sure that the rewards you use in your training match the difficulty of the task you are asking your dog to perform.
Maybe a food reward is not the right choice for your dog and maybe a toy is a better choice or maybe the task is just too difficult for your dog because their environment is overwhelming and distracting.
Different breeds (and breed mixes) of dogs are bred for different purposes. For instance, breeds such as Huskies have been bred to pull sledges, so they may be less likely to walk on a lead without extra training. Sighthounds may be more likely to chase prey, requiring additional recall work. While herding breeds usually nip and control other’s movements, and might need additional help in stimulating environments.
Finally, if you’re having trouble getting your dog to listen, please don’t think that your dog is trying to be “dominant”. Such theories stem from outdated thinking from the 1930s and 1940s and have since been proven false. The study of captive wolves from which these ideas originated is completely irrelevant, as they were displaying highly artificial behaviour not seen in a wild family of wolves.
Dogs understand that humans are a different species and therefore do not treat us in the same way as canine companions. These hierarchies are fluid, with no fixed alpha in any social structure; social circumstances change depending on context.
Give your pup love, help it deal with its emotions, and recognise that its struggles to listen don’t imply stubbornness – your dog simply doesn’t understand! With patience and attention from you, your dog will love to learn and listen to you.
When it comes to what a dog can see, they can see more than just black and white. Research tells us that dogs are able to distinguish two colours, blue and yellow. They are also able to differentiate between shades of grey and they also can see brown hues. This means that your dog is unable to recognise the colours green, orange and red.
However, dogs see a lot better than humans do at night. They have many adaptations for low-light vision. Along with superior night vision, dogs have better motion visibility than humans.
Because of the large number of rods in the retina, dogs see moving objects much better than they see stationary objects. They can see moving objects much better than stationary objects, and they have 10-20 times greater motion sensitivity than humans.
There is an abundance of information available about dogs and their behaviour, but we must remember not to believe all we read without careful consideration. Dog-related literature can range from expert advice to personal anecdotes, each with its own perspective on the subject matter. What works for one dog might not necessarily apply to another; every pup is unique with distinct needs and characteristics.
The most important thing is to be kind to your dog, you can never go wrong with being kind to an animal and kindness will never cause a behavioural problem in your dog.
Suzi Walsh is an expert dog behaviourist and dog trainer. She has an honours degree in Zoology and a Masters in Applied Animal Welfare and Behaviour from the Royal Dick School of Veterinary. She has worked as a behaviourist on both TV, radio and has also worked training dogs in the film industry.
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He sounds like an inspirational man.
A talented engineer with a great cause.
Always a recipe for success.
I wish Enda and his team, the best of luck.
Well done to Enterprise Ireland for backing them.
Excellent idea. Hope he publishes his data. In terms of language use here, it would be preferable to say ‘children with autism’ rather than ‘autistic’.There is so much more to these children than just their diagnosis.
Typical Irish we’d find something wrong in everything, even a good news story like this. Very cynical of you to assume people fail to see the child beyond the diagnosis. It is what it is, I don’t think worrying about how it’s put is up there on the list of priorities. And yes I have an autistic family member.
By that logic it would be preferable to say human of lesser years rather than children.
Richard, you make a lot of assumptions there. I’m a child psychologist and am very enthused about this project as I stated in my comment. As I work extensively in the area of special educational needs, it is common place to refer to children as such. You may disagree, but I know that some professionals, families and children themselves prefer less categorical descriptions.
Sounds like he knows his stuff, can’t fault anything he said.
I’m also delighted children with language disorder are also included.
It is factually incorrect to say that all children diagnosed with ASD or language disorders are highly intelligent individuals. This program costs €100 per week and its efficacy is unproven by proper research and evaluative studies…
He did not say ‘all’ children. Straw man.
He left it to the common sense of the reader to determine the meaning. A dangerous assumption, with respect, to the miserati Irish.
The program costs €100 per week. And?
It’s a company. It has to charge to make a profit, to keep it in business. Jesus wept.
It’s a company that has convinced enough people to invest in it, with their results and the possibility of results.
They are constantly researching which is where results come from. It’s where all engineering and scientific progress begins with.
Now, to go back to bed, son.
Read back on your comment David and ask yourself should you have really posted such a moronic response.
You find it acceptable for a company to convince people to invest in their programme, ( nay, in the future of their children), because they need to make a profit!….?
” The program costs €100 per week. And?It’s a company. It has to charge to make a profit, to keep it in business. Jesus wept. It’s a company that has convinced enough people to invest in it, with their results and the possibility of results. ”
They have NO EMPIRICAL RESULTS whatever as to the efficacy of the program.
You say, “They are constantly researching which is where results come from. ”
I suspect that you’re a low-life trollix, or an investor in said company.
Before I go back to bed as you suggested, I’d like to inform you that I’ve been deeply involved in the welfare and education of children with ASD for the past fourteen years and have learned during that time to view ALL ” sure cure programmes” with a very jaundiced eye.
I personally would be very reluctant to pay €100 per week for a program, not shown by proper research to be in any way effective, the sale of which is based solely on the assurance by the CEO of the company that it helped his children.
Basing a business on the hopes and dreams of people who struggle to cope with ASD and its impact on their daily lives, without proof of success, leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
I have expertise in this area…what do you have, “son”?
You cannot even get the basics right.
1. It’s €100 per month, not per week. You were corrected already.
“You find it acceptable for a company to convince people to invest in their programme, ( nay, in the future of their children), because they need to make a profit!….?”
Another straw man. 2 in the one article. Maybe you are just confused.
1. Consumers don’t invest, they pay a price for a product/service.
2. Investors, invest, to make a profit or else they invest to make a loss. Anything else is charity. Profit is the indication of efficiency. It’s what pays the wages and brings the product to the market.
“I suspect that you’re a low-life trollix, or an investor in said company.”
Ah, the Irish use of the word, Troll. i.e for anyone whose points, you cannot refute.
I am not an investor in this private company although I wish I was.
‘Jaundiced eye’ means bias. You are taking an opinion before appraised of the facts. Page one of the scientific method. You have made statements that you have no evidence to back up. You know nothing about this company yet have already condemned it.
Pixar have put their name behind it. Whose due diligence is better, yours or theirs.
Enterprise Ireland have put money into it but you know better.
“ot shown by proper research to be in any way effective, the sale of which is based solely on the assurance by the CEO of the company that it helped his children.”
Gee, if only EI and Pixar had thought of that.
More supposition. Do you understand the difference between a commercial product and a scientific experiment? I have an Iphone and Imac, not backed by peer review, yet for some strange reason, they perform excellently. I can see they perform excellently hence I buy them.
Their product and their internal tests are empirical results. What you mean is that they have not been independently peer reviewed(even that, is only an assumption) Stop using words that you don’t understand.
‘Without proof of success…’
Why the did Pixar, EI invest then?
“I have expertise in this area…what do you have”
12 HL Languages, 5 Assembly languages and years of successful product implementation.
Anything else?
No, well get out of the way then and let the engineers go to work, making the world better.
Ireland. Unbelievable sometimes.
Rather than waste time pointing out the multiple inaccuracies in your response I will merely remark that your whole view of this business is based on a sociopathic “greed is good” premise, showing no concern whatever for the welfare of the ASD children.
Oh, and by the way, there’s actually nothing wrong with charity. Perhaps this is where our opinions diverge…
I met this man and he is a genius.When you have a child who cannot communicate you have behaviour issues and frustration.I wish this project was there when my child was non verbal.
In starting this with my son next week and its not €100 a week, it’s €100 a month. Well worth the money considering one 45 min session with speech therapist is €65+. This is exactly what my son needs. And those with the negative comments, it’s obvious that this is not an everyday worry for you and if ye knew what it was line , you would realise this is a god send. Just think about all the proof that would of had to be given for Pixar to put their name to it.
Talked to Enda myself and he is a lovely man. A gentleman and a big thank you to him for this. He has experienced all sides of autism so knows what he is talking about.
Go Enda!!
Best of Luck, Emma, to you are your son.
It is an exciting prospect.
This is great news.
Well done to Enda Dodd, his team and Enterprise Ireland.
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