April 17th, 2011
By Eric Letendre
I was driving home from a meeting the other night listening to “Nights with Alice Cooper.”
It’s a good radio show and I always like his freaky facts and commentary. Good stuff like:
Kentucy Fried Chicken’s slogan, Finger Licking Good, in Chinese translates to, “Eat your fingers off.”
Thinking about Alice Cooper’s freaky facts got me thinking. You see, everyday I get loads of questions via email, Twitter and Facebook.
Some of the common ones are:
Do Pit Bull’s jaws really lock when they bite?
Does a Doberman’s brain become enlarged as they get older and make them aggressive?
Is it true that a dog wagging his tail will not bite you?
So, in the spirit of Alice Cooper, I am going to give you Eric Letendre’s Freaky Dog Facts:
1. President Lyndon Johnson had two beagles named Him and Her – I once had a client that had two choclate labs named “Hershey” and ”Squirts.”
2. A dog’s mouth exerts 150-200 pounds of pressure per square inch with some dogs exerting up to 450 pounds per square inch – Pit Bull’s jaws DO NOT lock but with that much pressure, you are not going to open their mouth. I have seen this in many breeds, once they clamped their jaws shut there was no opening them.
3. Basset Hounds cannot swim – I know this is true. A client of mine had to jump out of his canoe to save his basset hound. His basset got excited, and fell out of the canoe and sank like a stone. (I don’t completely believe this one because if you’ve ever seen the movie “Smokey And The Bandit” there is a scene with Fred the Basset Hound swimming in a pond.)
4. Dogs have no sense of “time” – I don’t believe this one. Feed your dog every day at 4:00PM for three months. At the end of the third month, watch what your dog does when no chow is given at that time.
5. 70% of people sign their pet’s name on greeting and holiday cards – do you do this?
6. 58% put pets in family and holiday portraits – I do this one.
7. Dogs can only learn about 20 words – WRONG! Dogs can learn way more than 20 words.
Think about it, if you teach your dog just basic commands you have sit, down, stand, stay, come, wait, let’s go, heel – 8 words.
Then you teach some simple tricks: Shake, roll over, sit pretty, speak, crawl, wave, play dead, high five, and circle – 9 words.
17 so far 17 words. Then if you throw in some behaviors that are very easy to teach like go to your crate, back up, get busy you easily get to 20 words.
In Stanley Coren’s book, “The Intelligence of Dogs,” he states: “Sure, most dogs understand the basics –”fetch,” ”sit” and “stay.” But if you have the motivation and patience, you will probably be able to teach your dog even more than 100 words.”
Mr. Coren adds, “That average trained dogs know about 160 words. Some dogs even show a vocabulary as vast as a human toddler’s.”
So don’t beleive that your dog is limited. You can teach your dog a boatload of words that will impress your friends and family.
Best,
Eric
P.S. Need help teaching your dog some commands and tricks. You can still get the Fun Dog Tricks program as a special gift from me when you become a member of the Dog Training Inner Circle. Become a member today!
Eric Letendre is a professional dog trainer from the United States and has been training dogs for over 20 years, teaching regular, average, every-day owners all over the world how to get the training results they want as fast as possible. Eric is also the author of numerous reports, the E-Book “101 Ways to Improve Your Dog’s Behavior,” “The Amazing Dog Training Man Book,” and produced and stars in his DVD “Secrets of a Professional Dog Trainer.”
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Eric Letendre is a professional dog trainer from the United States. For more than 20 years, he has been developing dog training "hacks" that have worked for dog owners all over the world. Eric operates from a home office or a laptop while traveling and draws on his experience and passion for dog training to show others how to develop a dog that is truly “Man’s Best Friend”.
Eric is the author of numerous reports, the E-Book “101 Ways to Hack Your Dog’s Behavior,” “The Amazing Dog Training Man Book,” and produced and stars in his DVD “Secrets of a Professional Dog Trainer.”
