By: Ilana Reisner, DVM
Don’t worry about spoiling your dog.
We’ve all encountered
that person who insists that indulging our dogs (or children) is the
devil’s work. But whether you're spoiling your dog or just treating him
with kindness is really a subjective assessment. To spoil is “to impair,
damage, or harm the character (of the dog, child etc.) by being too
indulgent.” An additional connotation, though, is “to treat with great
or excessive kindness, consideration or generosity.”
In an
interesting study, “Is there a relationship between canine behavior
problems and spoiling activities, anthropomorphism, and obedience
training?” (Voith et al, Applied Animal Behaviour Science (1992)
34:263-272), the authors summarize, “The purpose of this (survey-based)
study was to determine if dogs that were treated ‘like a person’ or that
had not been obedience trained were more likely to exhibit
owner-reported behavior problems than dogs not treated in those ways.
Results…failed to reveal that problem behaviors were related to
obedience training, ‘spoiling’, or anthropomorphic activities. Further, a
discriminant analysis was unable to identify any variable (item)…that
distinguished between dogs engaging and not engaging in problem
behaviors. Eight variables were then factor analyzed, resulting in four
factors which counted for 71.15% of the variance. The factors, which
pertained to owners sharing food with their dog, taking the dog along on
trips or errands, dog comfort or resting places, and anthropomorphic
attitudes, were analyzed along with the obedience training and behavior
problem variables in an ANOVA. The results showed that dogs whose owners
interacted with them in an anthropomorphic manner, ‘spoiled’ them in
certain ways, or did not provide obedience training were no more likely
to engage in behaviors considered a problem by the owner than were dogs
not viewed anthropomorphically, ‘spoiled’ by their owner, or given
obedience training.”
Thank you, science! Yes, this is only one
study, of a convenience sample of dog owners/guardians in the waiting
room of a veterinary teaching hospital, but it is an impressive analysis
of the owners’/guardians’ perception of their own dogs’ behavior.
Again, this is subjective, but isn’t that all that matters?
The
divide that separates “spoilers” from “nonspoilers” is similar to – in
fact, it might be the same as –the difference between handlers who use
force and intimidation for "obedience" vs. those who rely on humane,
positive-reinforcement-based training. To critics, feeding dogs human
food (even leftovers) and inviting them to share our beds is
unconscionable and can lead only to impolite, aggressive and just plain
rotten behavior. After all, these are just animals who will take every
opportunity to "dominate" us (face palm). However, to those who view
“indulgence” as simply assimilating the dog into the human family and
treating him or her with warmth and kindness, that word never did make
any sense -- and the purpose of training is much more interesting than
simply creating an obedient pet. So don’t listen to the spoil-sayers –
if you want to, go ahead and invite your dog on the sofa tonight and
share a bowl of popcorn. Season 3 of Broadchurch is streaming.
http://www.reisnervetbehavior.com/
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Tuesday, December 5, 2017
Spoiling Your Dog
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