I have a bone to pick. Wow!  I really hadn't planned a dog metaphor, but it works.

When a dog behaves badly...for example... growls at a child that walks by the food bowl. The person pulls the child far away from the bowl and says in a nice, sweet, sing-song voice "Now, now... fluffy.... don't do that!"  They have just done 2 things. Number One.... taught the child to be afraid of the dog. Number Two... told the dog that their behavior is O.K. A dog can learn a lot of our language. They can certainly learn the most commonly used words: sit, stay, outside, no...(etc.). However, they ABSOLUTELY can read your body language, your tone of voice and your emotions. When you are using a baby voice to reprimand your dog, you are doing the exact opposite. In the previous example, here is what your dog heard…. “Oh what a good dog! What a great behavior!” Now, we know dogs learn by getting praise for good behavior, so you have just started down the wrong road. Have you ever seen a tiny terror… like a Chihuahua growl at someone? Same thing! They initially growled because they were afraid of a person… they were “doggy praised“ for the bad behavior…rinse and repeat for every person they see. And if you are lucky, they will try to bite that other person for good measure! O.K. yes, that was sarcasm, but it doesn’t mean it isn’t true.

And as for the younger two-legged human that visits your pack…. PLEASE , PLEASE, do not tell them on introduction to a dog “Oh! Are you afraid of this dog?” Because you just gave them the emotion to have. They may have been afraid of the new situation, or people watching them, or startled by seeing something their own size , eye to eye.. (which just happened to be a dog). Yes, of course, this child may have some history with being hurt by a dog in their past. That is different conversation. However, in the past years I have had little nieces and nephews visit our house and see our dogs walk by. The child is startled and starts to cry… someone says “Oh! Are you scared?”… Immediately, calmly and clearly I say,  “No you’re not.”   Nine times out of ten. They look at me with that “Oh… O.K.” look on their face.  Moving on…….