Do you take your dogs to the pub with you?
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When taking their dogs out to social gatherings like the bar, owners frequently make a very big mistake, according to a canine behaviour specialist.
There are pubs that allow dogs inside and those that don’t, and customers’ opinions on the matter can be very divided.
But occasionally, bringing your dog to a public venue like a pub can go horribly wrong and spiral out of control.
William Atherton, a canine behaviourist, clarified that dog owners frequently make a major error that is “coming from the right place” but producing the incorrect outcome.
Among the scenarios he outlined were taking your dog to the pub and things getting out of control because there was another dog nearby, which resulted in the dogs barking, yanking on their leads, and attempting to get at each other.
Therton clarified that a common mistake people do while trying to settle their dogs is to hold them close, stroke them, and wait for them to calm down.
The expert claims that reassuring dogs results in rewarding particular behaviours, which is a major mistake made by dog owners.
He said: “Our human nature is to always reassure the people or things that we care about when we can see that they’re in any kind of distress.
“The problem is we cannot reassure dogs, they do not understand our language let alone our communication psychology.
“The owners may believe they’re trying to reassure the dog and help them understand they don’t need to be worried, they don’t need to be fearful, they don’t need to be anxious.”
“What they’re actually doing is reinforcing those behaviours. Reinforcing behaviours is the basics of dog training. What we believe to be reassurance is actually rewarding that behaviour.
“When the dog is next in that situation they’re going to repeat that behaviour, and not just repeat the behaviour, that behaviour will happen quicker and most likely happen in a more severe fashion.”
Essentially, trying to appease your dog when it misbehaves will likely only make it worse, thus trying to diffuse the situation at the bar runs the risk of making it a problematic place for people’s cherished animals.
Regarding the remedy, Atherton clarified that it was far more successful to tell the dog to “stay” and “down.”
Once you’ve trained your dog to remain still and stay put until you give it the command to move, you can reinforce the desired behaviour in it with treats.
