Training dogs is not an easy challenge.
In reality, professional trainers use specific sounds or words to help dogs recognize and respond to commands. Thinking it was simple, a man attempted to learn dog language to communicate directly with his pet. However, the outcome was not what he expected. During his first practice, he was bitten by the dog.
Mr. Ho, who lives and works in Wuhan, communicated with his pet Alaska dog after learning dog language from videos online: “Scrolling Douyin, I saw a blogger communicating with a dog, and I felt that the dog had been tamed by them. I wanted to interact with my dog like that too.”
He decided to apply this self-learning method to communicate with his dog.
By mimicking sounds, he hoped to improve his relationship and training ability with his pet. However, during practice, an unexpected situation occurred: his dog, unfamiliar with the strange sound, reacted by biting his face: “During that process, I made a sound like ‘wu…’, meaning ‘I am better than you, you have to listen to me.'”
As soon as he gave the command, the puppy beside him immediately lunged at him: “Normally my puppy is very gentle and friendly with me. At that moment, I was lying on the bed while it was next to me. Therefore, the situation happened so quickly that I couldn’t escape. It bit my face. There was a lot of blood.”
Surely this was not the result that the man wanted. Experts explain that dogs can feel threatened when they hear unfamiliar sounds. Mimicking dog sounds might lead them to think that a “stranger” has appeared. This can lead to panic or defensive reactions, such as biting.
According to the recollections of the doctor who treated Mr. Ho: “When we examined it, the wound was relatively large. It was about 8cm long on the lower jaw. The wound was quite deep, with subcutaneous tissue punctured. It felt like a cut from a canine, a deep wound.”
“The first step, we will disinfect and bandage normally. I will give Mr. Ho medication to help kill bacteria in the wound. Once the condition stabilizes, we will perform aesthetic stitching in the second stage.”
According to the doctor, many dog lovers wish to train their pets themselves. However, this is indeed a task fraught with unpredictable risks. In a worst-case scenario of being bitten like Mr. Ho, try to clean the wound with water or soapy water. If bleeding occurs, use gauze or a cloth to wipe, bandage the wound, and go to the hospital promptly and get a rabies shot as soon as possible.
Although the idea of learning dog language sounds interesting, in reality, it is not an effective method. For those looking to train their pets, using scientific methods and structured training will yield more sustainable and long-lasting results.