06/08/2026
Treat your dog like their mother would.
It’s a phrase constantly used to justify harsh handling, intimidation and punishment.
“Mother dogs scruff their puppies.”
“Mother dogs correct their puppies.”
“Dogs need firm physical corrections because that’s what their mother would do.”
So, I have been lucky enough to breed a litter, keep the whole litter and have mum, dad and aunty here also. So ive had the pleasure and privilege of watching this firsthand ( although I acknowledge, its only one time....so far 😉)
I find humans are incredibly good at selecting the parts of a story that suit the outcome they want.
We take a small observation, remove all context, ignore everything else happening within the relationship, and use it to justify doing something to a dog that we wanted to do in the first place.
A mother dog may carry a very young puppy by the scruff. But carrying a tiny puppy is not the same as grabbing or lifting a four-month-old puppy by the scruff to punish or “correct” them.
A four-month-old puppy is not a newborn being carefully transported by their mother. Context matters. Age matters. Purpose matters. The relationship matters.
And jabbing a dog in the neck, grabbing them, pinning them down, shaking them, or using a prong collar does NOT mimic a mother dog correcting her puppy.
It is a human choosing to use pain, discomfort, fear or physical intimidation and then creating a story to make that choice sound natural.
Dogs are not stupid.
They know we are not dogs.
They know we do not smell like dogs, move like dogs, communicate like dogs or behave like dogs. They understand that humans are a completely different species, and they learn how our communication differs from their own.
So why do we keep pretending that a human using a tool to apply pressure or pain is somehow recreating a natural interaction between a mother and her puppy?
It isn’t.
A mother dog’s relationship with her puppies is far more than the moments humans choose to use as evidence for punishment. It includes care, warmth, feeding, protection, play, social learning, guidance, reassurance and communication that develops within an ongoing biological relationship.
You cannot take one behaviour out of that relationship, distort its meaning, ignore the context and then use it to justify hurting or frightening a dog.
And while we are giving mothers credit, let’s also give dogs credit.
Dogs are capable of learning through clear communication, repetition, reinforcement, guidance, choice and safe boundaries. They do not need us to pretend to be their mother. They need us to understand that we are human and to communicate with them in ways that are fair, ethical and appropriate.
The “mother dog would do it” argument has become a convenient excuse for behaviour that humans want to justify.
It needs to stop.
Because jabbing a dog in the neck is not mothering.
Using a prong collar is not mothering.
Dragging a dog by the scruff is not mothering.
Hurting or intimidating a dog and calling it “natural communication” does not make it natural.
It simply gives a human justification for causing discomfort and then blaming biology for the choice.
We need to stop selecting the stories that suit us and start looking at the whole picture.
Dogs deserve better than myths dressed up as science.
(Picture of a di****ad, grabbing a dog, speaking nonsense and getting a tv series to share this BS)
