Indestructible Myths

by Malcolm Riordan

Grass eating equals sick pet.  

While a fraction of truth might be contained within this myth, both dogs and cats have a variety of reasons for eating grass - a common behavior unrelated to illness that does not even necessarily lead to vomiting. Grass eating can be due to hunger, curiosity, or pets may just like how grasses taste. Perhaps they are not feeling well and eating something to see if that helps (owners do this too), and certainly some pets have learned it works when they feel they need to vomit.

Scooting their bottom along the ground means your pet has worms.

This behavior is more likely—by a mile—to be due to a pet's anal glands being full and uncomfortable. It is fairly straightforward to get these glands emptied, relieving the discomfort. Another, but much less common cause of bottom scooting behavior is due to a dog or cat being so overweight, or so arthritic they cannot otherwise reach to clean the area; and so resort to scooting.

A wet nose is a sign of a healthy dog.

Although it is normal for a dog to have a cool and wet nose, a warm and dry nose never automatically means that a dog is ill. Interestingly, it has been theorized that an evolutionary advantage of a wet nose is that dogs can immediately feel with their nose from which direction the breeze comes, helping to locate the scent it carries.

Milk is good for cats.

Not true! Once weaned, milk is not required in a cat's diet. In fact, as they age cats have less and less ability to digest lactose (the sugar found in milk). With this relative degree of lactose intolerance being normal in cats, our felines can react with digestive upsets and diarrhea. Sometimes this can be dramatic. Adult cats should be offered either limited milk or none at all. 

Cats always land on their feet. 

We all try to land on our feet!  All species have a righting reflex. What's true here is that cats, being exceptionally quick and agile compared to others, are simply more likely to land on their feet . . . they don't always!  In any case, cats are not supernaturally immune to injuries when falling from  heights.

Puppies shouldn't go to puppy classes until they have had all their vaccinations, or they will get sick.

A fact to consider is that more of our pets are likely to die because of behavior problems than the infectious diseases such as parvovirus or distemper virus. Behavior problems continue to be the leading cause of relinquishment and euthanasia of pets in the United States.

The importance of proper socialization and obedience training for puppies is thus critical! There are plenty of effective ways to ensure that puppy classes are safe for pups still going thru their vaccinations than to delay something so time, age, and stage sensitive as puppy socialization and obedience training.

See how guilty he looks? He knows what he did was wrong!  

This myth probably results in more unintended animal abuse than any other. Most dogs have, as a matter of routine, committed the sins of spreading the garbage around, destroying items by chewing, or having accidental rug soiling events. So our dogs come to learn this (and only this): My humans get angry every time they find any of those type messes on the floor!  After a few seconds, it is no longer in the dog mind that they just created the mess. Most owners will be quick to insist that the dog acts guilty—the lowered head, tucked ears and tail, and other avoidance behaviors that most owners label as guilty looking are, in fact, appeasement behaviors. The dog is demonstrating submission in an attempt to turn off the anger that it is either reading in the owner's body language or expecting from the owner because of their previous experiences in the same situations. Punishment even a mere few seconds after the misdeed will fail.  Pet owners need to know that dogs make associations between events that consistently occur in immediate association with each other. Punishing a dog for something that it did even a few minutes ago (no matter how the dog is acting) does not teach the dog what you intend. It simply teaches the dog that you are to be feared when the trash is spread about.

Tegan

Mimi Geneva

Chocolate is poisonous to dogs.

Ok, this is true. But it is amazing to me the degree to which this has captured the collective imagination of the human population of  North America. This belief persists while simple, old school, everyday fence and leash deficiencies kill or injure more dogs in an hour than chocolate does over the course of a full year.

For sure, do not leave out chocolate where you dog can score it. Right there, front and center in their dog DNA it is mandated "Eat all you can as fast as you can when you get a chance, who knows when the next score will be."  This is point one about chocolate and dogs—by nature, they are inclined to hurriedly gorge themselves when an opportunity presents itself.

Chocolate is poisonous to humans.

This one is true too! It's a matter of degree.

On a per pound basis, humans would have to consume 1.6 to 3.3x as much chocolate as a dog for a human to get toxic symptoms or to get a lethal toxic dose. And this then is point two about chocolate and dogs—they are 1.6 to 3.3 times more sensitive to the toxic effects of chocolate than their human companions.

Woods Rafter Cat image on banner by Malcolm Riordan.
All pet pictures are owner submitted photos from the HSUS Spay Day 2011 Photo Contest.