Ann Hohenhaus:
"One human year equals seven dog years." Myth. Myth.
We could cut it right there. Carly Fox: "Certain dog
breeds are hypoallergenic because of their fur." This is a major, major myth. "Only male dogs hump." Hi, I'm Dr. Ann Hohenhaus,
I'm the staff veterinarian at the
Animal Medical Center here in New York City. My name is Dr. Carly
Fox, and I'm an emergency and critical care
staff veterinarian at the
Animal Medical Center. Hohenhaus: Today we're
debunking dog myths. Fox: I think, honestly, the majority of male dogs do like to hump,
but I guess female dogs also can be seen to
exhibit that behavior. Hohenhaus: But males
hump more than females. Fox: Definitely, yeah.
But, I mean, I guess female dogs
can also hump, I mean, if they're
in the mood. Hohenhaus: Next myth:
"Dogs are colorblind." Dogs are
partially colorblind. People used to think they
were totally colorblind. Dogs have a little bit
of ability to see color, and so they see things in kind
of blue, yellow, and gray. But they don't see
a lot of color. Fox: "Dogs don't like
to be hugged." I mean, biggest myth. Physical touch is
one of the things that makes a dog a dog,
so I can't imagine that dogs don't
like to be hugged. I mean, dogs will literally
climb onto your laps in order to be hugged, so
this is an absolute myth. You can't and shouldn't just go up to any dog and hug it. Dogs still are different,
just like people are. Some people are huggers,
some people are not. So some dogs don't love
that very direct attention from someone perhaps
they don't know, so be sure to
ask the owner if you can pet or
hug their dog, and read the dog's signs. Hohenhaus: Next myth:
"One human year equals seven dog years." Myth. Myth.
We could cut it right there, but there's some really
interesting research behind this question. So, the seven years
probably comes when people lived
to be about 70 and dogs lived
to be about 10, so 70 divided
by 10 is seven. That's where that number
maybe comes from. Nobody knows, it's a myth, so there's
no data behind it. Then, a number
of years ago, a group of researchers
at Purdue University looked at developing
a formula for dog age based on the
size of the dog and the dog's
chronologic age, or how many calendar
years it was old. And that formula might
actually be the best. This is a myth,
but there are ways that you can calculate
your dog's age based on a complicated
mathematical formula. Next one.
Fox: Oh, OK. "You should shave fluffy
dogs in the summer." This is mostly a myth. A lot of people will shave
their dogs in the summer because they think it
will make them cooler. That's not necessarily true. Dogs have adapted
to all types of weather, and they actually will shed different coats at
different times of the year in order to sort of be comfortable in
that weather. Hohenhaus: I think they
don't like to be shaved because they feel naked. Fox: Yeah, probably.
I mean, why wouldn't they?
They have no idea. Hohenhaus: Yeah, they've
never not had hair before. So I'm not sure
that shaving them is always a good thing
either, so myth. "Dog saliva
can heal wounds." When's the last time
you got bitten by a dog? Fox: Probably,
like, last year. Hohenhaus: And it's ugly. It is not healing wounds;
it's making wounds worse. This is a total, total myth. Dog bites are really
nothing to laugh about, and most veterinarians
get bit on the hand, and so we're
always worried because we work
with our hands, so any dog bite needs
to see a veterinarian because it's a potentially
infected injury, and you need to go
to your physician to have that bite looked at. Fox: "Certain dog breeds
are hypoallergenic because of their fur." This is a major, major myth. So, all dogs
produce allergens, and some dogs
will produce more allergens than others. Dogs that don't shed,
like poodles, or smaller dogs
that shed less are less likely to produce
a large amount of allergen that can cause allergies
in the environment, and it really has to do
with how often they shed or if they shed at all. But definitely all dogs
produce allergens, and all dogs
could be allergenic, but some dogs
will produce less. Hohenhaus: And now we
have a different myth: "You can't teach
an old dog new tricks." I think that's an idiom
rather than a myth, isn't it? Some famous saying. I think that that is a myth. Training a dog
is never easy, and it involves repetition and persistence
and rewards in order to
successfully train a dog, but I don't think
age is the problem. I think we're
more of the problem in not sticking with
training a dog. Fox: Yes, they actually
did a study about this, and they did the same
teaching of a trick to young dogs
and old dogs, dogs that were
six months to a year and then dogs that
were 10 years old. And they
actually found out that both sets of dogs
can learn a new trick. However, the dogs
that were older, it took them twice
as long to learn it. So they can learn it,
it's just something that requires more time, and that's definitely
something that you are going to
have to commit to. But it's possible, and they definitely
can learn new tricks. Hohenhaus:
"Dogs feel guilt." I think that humans
want the dog to feel guilt for making a mess,
chewing the furniture, taking the fringe
off the sofa, destroying the pillows, 'cause we want
them to be like us. So, I don't think dogs necessarily can
really feel guilt, but since
they're not talking, it's really hard to know
if that's true or not. Fox: Our dogs will display
guilt-like behavior when they do
something wrong, like, they'll put their
ears back, they'll hide, they'll look very guilty. But I think in most cases, that's really a
reaction to you and your tone of voice or your anger at them and your body language rather than true guilt. Hohenhaus: One of
the reasons that dogs have been so effective in integrating themselves into our lives, the lives of
humans for millennia, is because they
are very good at picking up
on social cues. Fox: "When dogs
wag their tails, it means they're happy." I would say in
a lot of times when dogs wag their tails, it seems like
they are very happy. However, tail wagging
is a behavior in dogs that can mean
many different things, not necessarily happiness. Hohenhaus: And I think
the wag matters. So you've got a dog whose
tail is quivering like this, that is not a happy wag. Think about the Labrador,
swish, swish, swish, swish, they're pretty much
always happy. And then there's the dog
who their tail quivers and then it curls under. That's not a
happy wag either. That's a
"I'm really upset" wag. So in addition to
looking at the ears and the eyes and
the body posture, ask yourself, what kind
of wag is this dog doing? Because that's gonna
give you an indication on the mood of the beast. Fox: "Human food
is bad for dogs." Well, there are
very particular types of human food that are definitively
bad for dogs. For example, chocolate is
obviously bad for dogs. Grapes, raisins
are toxic to dogs. Onions, garlic, those
things are bad for dogs. However,
human food in general is not necessarily
bad for dogs. We do wanna always
limit the quantity of human food for dogs. I usually tell people less
than 10% of their diet should be human food. Just human food
in moderation is not bad for dogs. Hohenhaus: Well,
dog food is good balanced
meal for a dog. I interpret it to mean,
should I cook for my dog? And that is a bad idea
because what we eat is not a balanced
diet for a dog. And so home-cooked
diets run a huge risk of being deficient
in nutrients that are critical
for your dog, mostly deficient in
calcium phosphorus. So cooking for your dog,
unless you've had a diet made by a board-certified
veterinary nutritionist, is a bad idea. "Dog mouths are cleaner
than human mouths." No.
Human bites are supposedly worse, although we don't see
a lot of human bites at the
Animal Medical Center. But all of us have
been bitten by a dog, and we know that those can get really
badly infected. What I've read
is that if a human bites another human, it's awful, it's a terrible
infection that you get. So, no, I don't know
that either is better. Fox: Dog mouths
and human mouths are actually, it's interesting, they're sort of similar. Both humans and dogs
have over 200 types of bacteria in their mouth. However, because disease is not
really transmissible between dogs and humans, or there's not that
much zoonotic potential between dog saliva
and human saliva, they're clean in that,
you know, making out with your dog, you won't contract
the common cold, but making out with a
person, perhaps you can. So, in that case, they
sort of are cleaner. However, they still have
tons and tons of bacteria, just like people mouths do. Hohenhaus: "Dogs are
afraid of their reflection." This is...just no. Just Google
"puppies in mirrors," and you'll see
that dogs love, they're so enamored
of that other dog that they never met before. They're really cute. "Dogs can't digest grains." So, this is a major,
major myth. Dogs can absolutely
digest grains. And not only can
they digest grains, but recent research shows that they need
grain in their diet. Dogs on a grain-free
diet are predisposed to developing a very serious
type of heart disease called DCM, or
dilated cardiomyopathy. And dogs that are on
a grain-inclusive diet are not as likely to
develop this heart disease. So if your dog is on
a grain-free diet, it absolutely needs
grain back in its diet, and you should speak to your veterinarian
about doing so. "Putting a dog's
nose in their mess will break a bad habit." This is definitely a myth. I think this is,
like, a training method that people introduced
a long time ago. However, I think with a
lot of research and time we found out that
negative reinforcement is very bad for dogs, definitely doesn't
correct bad behavior and can actually
breed bad behavior, as well as breeding
aggressive behavior and fear in our pets, and that's definitely not something that
we wanna do. Ideally you should
always reward your dog with positive behavior,
like treats or playtime or feeding rather
than punishing, which is never
recommended in dogs. Hohenhaus: So, we talked
about dog myths today. And it turns out there
are a lot of myths. In fact,
Dr. Fox and I didn't agree with hardly any of the cues
that we were given today because most
of them are myths. So beware of Dr. Google. Beware of what
your friends tell you, or the nice passerby on
the street who tells you you're not taking care of
your dog the right way. And get an expert opinion
when it comes to your dog.
Somebody in the comments said that dog licks do heal wounds and vets are wrong. XD we have devolved.
when I first read the title "Veteranarians Debunk Dog Myths" I read it as "Vegetarians Debunk dog myths" and I was like "WHAT? Am I missing something here? :D"