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Dogs are as good as owners
And many times, dogs are great in spite
of humans, says behavioural expert Coren
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| By
RICK CONRAD / Petpourri - |
| The
Halifax Herald Limited - |
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I'M JUST a tad crushed as I write this.
We were at the Metro SPCA's annual Dog
Jog fundraiser on Sunday and I had a
chance to interview psychologist and
dog behaviourist Stanley
Coren, the event's featured guest.
(By the way, despite the weather, it
was a great afternoon.)
The University of British Columbia psychology
professor and dog lover has written
many books during his celebrated career,
including How
Dogs Think: Understanding the Canine
Mind, Why
We Love the Dogs We Do and The
Intelligence of Dogs.
It was Coren who famously rated the
border collie as the most intelligent
breed and the Afghan hound as the "caboose"
when it comes to working and obedience
smarts. He asked every dog obedience
judge in North America to complete a
detailed questionnaire and then analysed
the results.
But I forgot, until we spoke on Sunday,
that he also found that the basset hound
was the third-last car on that great
train of intelligence.
Luckily, Coren isn't a cuckoo about
this stuff.
As the proud papa of a Nova Scotia duck
tolling retriever, a Cavalier King Charles
spaniel and a beagle, he knows from
personal experience that different breeds
have different strengths.
"One of my dogs is a beagle. Beagle
is seventh from the bottom. I've had
people say, 'Whoa, why do you want a
dog that's so stupid?' Excuse me, are
you gonna take your kid and turf him
out because he flunked a math test?
I like the beagle because he's a nice,
sociable dog, he's got a pleasant disposition,
he's friendly and I like his look.
"We pick our dogs for any number
of reasons."
Each week on his television show, Good
Dog!, on The Life Network, Coren demonstrates
a keen understanding of the relationship
between dogs and their people.
One of the most respected experts in
his field, he realizes that dogs are
usually only as good as their owners.
And many times, dogs are great in spite
of their humans.
"In about 75 per cent of the cases,
when people are dealing with behavioural
problems, the behaviour problem either
was triggered by, or exacerbated by,
the human."
For example, terrier owners occasionally
complain to Coren that their dog barks
all the time.
"Well, terriers have been bred
specifically to bark when they get excited,"
he says. "So if you wanted a dog
that didn't bark, you don't get a terrier."
With that kind of common sense about
canines, Coren seemed the perfect person
to ask about breed-specific legislation,
the current rage among some municipalities
(see Guysborough) and provinces (see
Ontario) to create a false sense of
security among its citizens by singling
out certain breeds of dogs for banning.
"Generally, I'm against breed bans,
because ultimately if you follow that
particular slippery slope, you're going
to ban all the breeds. You have to understand
that the 'devil dog' changes from one
time period to another."
In the 1930s, the Chow was considered
evil because of its Chinese heritage
and the rampant anti-Asian racism at
the time; in the '40s, it was the German
shepherd because of anti-Naziism; in
the '50s and '60s, it was the Doberman.
"Right now it happens to be the
pit bull," Coren says. "But
you have to understand that a lot of
the problems you have with these dogs
are really problems associated with
the people who keep the dogs. They want
a tough dog, they want it so that they
can have a dog that fits their image."
He says if you ban the pit bull, irresponsible
owners and breeders will pick another
breed that fits that macho bill.
"So you take away the pit bulls,
they're going to switch to Rottweilers;
you take away the Rottweilers, they're
going to switch to bullmastiffs; you
take away the bullmastiffs, they're
going to switch to Dobermans.
"You take away all those dogs,
and they're going to bring in some dogs
which do scare me.
"You can breed a dog to be either
a pussycat or a surface-to-surface missile."
Instead of breed bans, which in the
end solve nothing, Coren says lawmakers
should concentrate on banning breeders
who persist in producing aggressive
dogs.
"What you do is if a breeder starts
to produce dogs who are aggressive,
then you pull that breeder's right to
breed the dogs, or you run the legislation
against the breeder."
Making basic dog obedience classes mandatory
for new owners would also help reduce
acts of aggression, he says. A basic
sit-stay-down course cuts the risk of
biting by 90 per cent, he says. And
giving kids a one-hour bite-proof lesson
in school reduces their chances of being
hurt by 80 per cent and their families
a 60 per cent less chance.
"Instead of teaching our kids all
this neatsy keen stuff about tree frogs
and killer whales, which they're never
going to live with, but put in one hour
worth of bite-proofing, we would cut
down the bite incidents in the country
by 95 per cent without breed-specific
legislation," Coren says.
Some places cut dog registration fees
in half if a pooch has some obedience
training. Some schools in the U.S. give
young kids that one hour of bite-proof
education and some cities require dogs
and their owners to pass a test before
they're allowed in off-leash parks,
he says.
It takes only a little creative thinking,
common sense and some genuine goodwill
to make things better for dog and human.
As for Hubert, it doesn't bother him
that he and his breed don't score highly
in the ol' obedience game. In fact,
Hubert revels in his independence.
It certainly didn't keep one of the
continent's foremost dog experts from
giving him a cuddle.
In response, Hubert yawned. |
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LATEST NEWS!
March 23, 2007
"Pit bulls still under ban in Ontario after law survives constitutional challenge."
READ FULL ARTICLE
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