A Very Informative Blog.

[persephone]

CANINE CORNER

an excerpt from one article

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How Well Can Children Interpret a Dog's Emotional State?

....

One of the reasons why the adults seem to do better overall appears to be that they are paying attention to more features of the dog's behavior, while the young kids focus on one or maybe two aspects of what the dog is doing or sounding like, and nothing more.

The fact that the four and six-year-old children do most poorly at recognizing fearful emotional states in dogs may help to explain why the dog bite rate is so high in their age groups. A fearful dog may become aggressive and bite if it feels threatened. That fear motivated bite will be initiated without any growl or bark. Since the kids are dependent upon the sounds the dog might make to accurately identify aggressive behavior, that fear motivated bite will occur unexpectedly and from the child's point of view without any warning.

[BarbedWire]

Thankyou for drawing my attention to this blog. It looks really interesting and I have added it to my favourites.

[Simply Grand]

Looks good, thanks Perse :)

Excerpt from another article on there:

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/canine-corner/201403/dog-aggression-is-predicted-training-methods-and-breed

Dog Aggression Is Predicted by Training Methods and Breed

'One very interesting finding concerned the positive effects of puppy socialization classes. According to these data such classes seem to impart a protective effect against aggression. Attending puppy classes on at least two occasions before the dog was 12 weeks of age was associated with a 1.4 times reduced risk of aggression toward unfamiliar people entering the house and a 1.6 times reduced risk of showing aggression to unfamiliar people out of the house.

While on the issue of dog training, one of the most practically significant findings found in this research has to do with the effect that the type of training has on a dog's risk of aggression. There have been a number of studies that have reported that training procedures based on punishment can have negative consequences (click here for an example). In this study the researchers defined such punitive training techniques as including things like physical punishment (hitting the dog), verbal punishment (shouting), electrical or citronella collars, choke chains and jerking on the leash, prong collars, water pistols, electric fences and so forth. Such punitive techniques apparently increase the risk of aggression in dogs. They are associated with a 2.9 times increased risk of aggression to family members, and a 2.2 times increased risk of aggression to unfamiliar people outside of the household.'

[persephone]

Yes, it is an interesting read - and I have shared it around :)

[Ranga]

Thanks persephone :) Looks like an interesting read

[Scottsmum]

Thanks for the link. It's on the list now :)