Doggone mistakes about dogs’ behavior & water skills

True or false: You’re heading to the beach and decide to take your new dog swimming too.  No worries: dogs can swim.

True or false: You avoid getting too near that pit bull in the park with his people – those dogs are vicious.

Both statements are false, as are many other assumptions about various dog breeds.  Pit bulls can be needy cuddle pups, and not every dog automatically knows how to swim (or even like the water).    

A couple recent media stories about dogs have featured some startling canine news.

First, according to one study, “Don’t judge a dog by its breed.”  (Are you reading this, people who bar renters with pit bulls?)  The findings indicate that “on average, a dog’s breed only accounts for about 9% of the variations in any given dog’s behavior.” 

Mystique

That result alone is surprising and casts doubt on breed stereotypes of aggressive dogs like pit bulls, who, BTW, scored high on human sociability!  

Yes, dog behaviors are strongly inherited, but, “the genes that shape whether your dog is friendly, aggressive or aloof date from long before the 19^th century.”  Most recent dog breeding has been mainly for physical characteristics -- a practice that led to various discomforts and deformities that dogs now must endure.      https://tinyurl.com/2p8acvb8

Doggie paddlers

Q: Can all dogs swim?  A: No!

While some dogs are bred for the water (think: Labs and Portuguese water dogs), others have body types that make swimming hard for them (think: bulldogs and dachshunds).

These facts lead to tips for getting dogs used to water and teaching them to swim.  Possibly the most important tip of all: show your dog how to get out of a pool or body of water via the entrance ramp or the beach. 

Further, for any dog commonly around water – near a pool or in a boat --  a doggy life jacket with handles will help ensure safety and a spray sunscreen will protect the animal from sunburn.  (And get a load of the dog swim vests, life jackets and other floatation devices available for dogs.  One, patterned like the US flag, resembles a long mailbox when worn.)    https://tinyurl.com/5n6zwy47

An exotic, aromatic pet?

Some of us have clucked over images of baby groundhogs (“Awwwww”!), but can we resist pictures of spotted skunks?  Not only pretty, they can also do spread-eagled handstands . . .before spraying us. Now, that’s a picture!

Unlike everyday striped skunks, the spotted ones are smaller and decorated with white blots -- but they still pack “a fanny full of foul-smelling liquid” they know how to use.

It’s recently been determined that there are actually seven species of spotted skunks, half found in the east and half in the west – with some overlapping – while the seventh is native to Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.

One scientist who studies these “malodorous mammals” says it’s possible to sneak up on a spotted skunk and not get sprayed, while admitting that “skunks are like people. Some of them are just jerks.” 

So much for the “pet” idea.    https://tinyurl.com/22d3hsuh

Pigs don’t have a prayer           

Greeting card seen in local store with an image of browned bacon strips on the front: “I like you more than bacon.”  Then inside: “That’s the highest compliment. . .”  

Not long ago, it was a pig’s heart in a man, prompting talk of breeding pigs for that purpose, and now this bacon-obsessed mentality about love.   

Enough!

#

To comment, go to 1moreonce.blogspot.com