Comments on: Episode 74: Dog Myths

By: Chloe

Chloe — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 03:52:43 +0000

I never actually watched this episoide but it is intersting… @ Paul Malley – It comes down to training. No dog knows that a gun is dangerous until it is proven so if the dog is trained either to ignore the danger/fear or is never taught the danger it will charge (if taught to charge).

and kicking ANY animal is abuse. Taking pleasure in it is cruel and sadistic, having said that, the last person who tried to kick my dog ended up with stitches in their leg. Turns out she takes offence to people moving towards her rapidly.

By: John C

John C — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 01:19:05 +0000

I trained my 14 year old Basset to sneeze on command in a week. Her sneezes sounded fake but so do my phony sneezes. I was never able to train my daughter’s cat for 15 years to stay off the counters except when someone was in the room. Old dogs are just as trainable as younger ones and any dog is 100 times more trainable than any cat.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 04:35:40 +0000

At the end of this episode just as the theme music started it said dedicated to the memory of or it could have been something similar but it went to quick to read & was wondering what it actually said….

By: Dragonfyre

Dragonfyre — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 00:56:37 +0000

I agree with Sian…obviously a female guard dog would not react to the bitch in heat urine…but guard dogs are vigorously trained to ignore certain things, German shepherds learning faster. Electric collars are used to teach dogs that certain actions result in punishment, such as going after treats and such…law enforcement takes the training of canines very seriously…or it seems they should…

By: Sian

Sian — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 21:50:18 +0000

aggressive dog story: There were a pair of huge Great Pyrannees (sp?) on our country road who perked up at any vehicle/cycle etc and raced out of their property to chase it. I read a technique to deal with it and tried it. Whenever they raced out, I hit the brakes and backed up, effectively chasing them. By the third day, they would lift their heads when my car appeared, then lower them in digust. I could almost hear them sigh. My family did the same thing on their bikes, and we had no further trouble. My husband has since used the technique successfully while riding his bike on other assorted country roads.

By: Sian

Sian — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 21:31:27 +0000

I found this episode quite interesting (loved Kari’s hamster ball), but no one has raised the most obvious problem with the ‘bitch in heat scent’ guard dog distraction: would the results have been the same if the guard dog was a neutered male or a female?

By: Pro-K9

Pro-K9 — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 04:55:29 +0000

To many of those here :

Ever heard of when the US Army needed to train dogs to sniff out land mines which were then being made from a plastic and therefore something their metal detectors couldn’t find?

The dogs were trained for the trial. The land mines were buried. The ground was covered in oil and then burnt. They spread live and spent ammunition shells all over the area. They left the grounds ‘sit’ for a good period of time.

Yet when the dogs were finally brought in, they were able to detect where they were.

Also, water ‘traps’ scent. Scent is carried along water. Scent doesn’t just disappear and then carry on over the other side of the embankment. The trouble with water is that, subject to wind/breeze conditions, it can carry the scent downstream for a long way. Of course, any scent dog handler worth his salt will be able to work out to a good degree how weather conditions may have influenced the scent and narrow the target field down somewhat.

Scent comes off your head as well. If a person was wearing “air-tight clothes” (which wouldn’t work anyway), the person would be dead through suffocation. Breath carries scent. If you even put on new gum boots, your scent permiates the rubber in a matter of only minutes.

There was also the matter where it was necessary for dogs to detect the presence of naturally occurring chlorine in the ground. The laboratories didn’t believe the dog when a sample of soil (at which a dog indicated positive) was sent in. They measured it at 1:1millionth part. And the labs did not detect the substance. On being recommended that they retest, they found the dog had detected the substance at 1:1billionth part!!!

I could go on.

NEVER EVER underestimate the dog’s cabability of scenting.

There is no equipment on earth that can measure scent as well as a dog can.

By: Matthew Plunkett

Matthew Plunkett — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 17:23:30 +0000

I think the best way to trick a bloodhound is by wearing air-tight clothes because, like you said in the show, people give off skin cells in which bloodhounds can track and follow the trail of skin cells to the person. So in my theory, the air-tight clothing will prevent the skin cells from escaping, preventing trails of skin cells.

By: larry

larry — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 03:16:31 +0000

in the car repo world a bigmac works evertime on pitbulls–hes your freind after he smells it,its being brave enough to open the door to have the dog smell it.heheheh

By: Kimione

Kimione — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 05:15:06 +0000

What happened to the Alaskan malamutes after the show was taped? Did anyone adopt them?