Are There Left-handed Dogs?
As with humans, there are left-handed and right-handed dogs, and this influences their personality and character. Thus, knowing if your dog is left-handed or right-handed is of total importance to have a good relationship and to be able to understand it fully.
This fact can even influence the type of work that a dog can perform, such as being a guide dog or a police dog. If he uses his right or left paw more, training can be more or less intense.
To get to that point, we first need to find out if our dog is left-handed, but how do we do that?
How do I know if my dog is left-handed?
It is common to have dogs that use their left paw with more dexterity, in fact, there is a 50% chance of this happening.
Knowing whether our dog is left-handed or right-handed is important, as this influences his personality, creativity and character. This is not something that can be learned or blossomed, but, just as with humans, a dog is born left-handed or right-handed.
Being left-handed could impose limitations on the performance of activities or hinder the development of some skills.
Are left-handed dogs more aggressive than right-handed ones?
As we have already seen, aggressiveness is also a factor that influences the birth of a left-handed or right-handed dog. A team of researchers aimed to find out whether left-handed dogs were more aggressive than right-handed ones.
In order to find out if this happens, 73 dogs were chosen, which were submitted to the Canine Behavior Assessment and Survey Questionnaire. This analysis consists of examining and evaluating the behavior of each dog.
What they found through this analysis was that left-handed dogs have a predisposition to be a little more aggressive than right-handed dogs. However, this does not mean that all left-handed dogs are aggressive, nor the other way around.
This caused controversy, as many dog trainers did not agree with the survey. Even if the saying goes: “It is not possible to please Greeks and Trojans”.
How to know if my dog is left-handed
How do I know if a dog is left-handed or right-handed? This may not seem like such a simple task, but it’s very easy to find out.
It’s best to use the Kong toy and keep an eye on which paw he uses first to catch it. Of course, he could use his left paw by chance. Therefore, it is recommended to repeat the movement at least a few hundred times over several days.
That way, there will be a more reliable stat, knowing how many times he used each paw.
Are left-handed and right-handed dogs different from each other?
We’ve already seen that using one paw more often than the other can influence dogs’ abilities. A left-handed dog tends to be more creative than a right-handed pet.
When a dog that uses his left paw more has difficulty or wants to pick something up in a more difficult area, he will always have better ideas than other dogs.
However, right-handed dogs seem to find it easier to train, and to perform tasks such as being guide dogs.
But regardless of whether it is a left-handed or right-handed dog, it will always be a loving animal that needs love and affection. Therefore, whether they are right-handed or left-handed should not influence how we treat them.
Although it is, yes, important to know if your dog is left-handed or right-handed so that we can better understand and find out why they react one way or another. But that shouldn’t harm our relationship or the games we engage in with them.
Once you know if your dog is left-handed, there is only one big truth that you should never forget: “Your dog is still the same”.
