ohmidog!

Forbes, the magazine best known for listing the world’s richest people, now brings us a list of the riskiest dog breeds.

Or at least what insurance companies say are the riskiest dog breeds.

The magazine, to its credit, makes a point of saying the breeds aren’t the likeliest to bite, but, as the article points out, that often doesn’t matter to your insurance company.

The list starts out with Rottweilers, pit bulls, Doberman pinschers and German shepherds — the breeds that most seem to frighten insurers.

And when insurers get frightened, you, the insuree, usually pay the price.

Fearing lawsuits from people hurt or bitten by dogs, companies offering homeowners and renters insurance are pickier than ever about which types of dogs they’ll insure, said Jeff McCarthy, an agent with Harrington Insurance Agency in Woburn, Mass.

Insurance companies, the article points out, may deny you a policy, or drop you like a hot potato if your “risky” dog causes harm, or even if he doesn’t.

That leaves you having to find a carrier that will cover your dog, which could cost more. It could also mess up your bundling discount.

While some people try to skirt the issue by not telling their insurance company about a new dog, insurers say that is risky.

“If something does happen with your dog in your home and you didn’t disclose this information, the insurance company may deny your claim,” one said. “That could cost you thousands and it’s better to be safe than sorry.” Spoken like a true insurer.

Most commonly,  insurance companies tend to resist covering these 11 types of dogs — or any mix of these breeds:

1. Pit Bulls & Staffordshire Terriers
2. Doberman Pinschers
3. Rottweilers
4. German Shepherds
5. Chows
6. Great Danes
7. Presa Canarios
8. Akitas
9. Alaskan Malamutes
10. Siberian Huskies
11. Wolf-hybrids

The article concludes:

“This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t get a pit bull — those little guys can be pretty darn lovable! — or another kind of ‘risky’ dog, but you should call your insurance agent to find out whether they cover the breed, and if not, what it will cost to get a homeowners or renters with a company that does.”

Do dogs have self control? Yes. Can they run out of it? Yes.

Is there a convenient place they — or for that matter, we humans — can go to lap up a little more? Sadly, no.

A new study, by Holly Miller and others from the University of Lille Nord de France, takes a look at doggie self control, and what happens when it’s depleted.

Dogs can  “run out” of self-control, the study says, and when they do, they are more likely to make more impulsive decisions that put them in harm’s way.

Sound like any other species you know?

I find this quite interesting — even though it runs counter to my assumptions about self control, and about dogs. I’ve always been under the impression that self control, like abs, could be built up if one exercised that particular part of oneself enough.

It was just a theory, because I’ve never exercised them enough — either self control or abs — to find out.

While I know people and dogs have varying amounts of self control, and that both are prone to losing it,  I thought self control was more like  a muscle that could be built up — that the more you practiced it, the more you’d have.

I reasoned that the more one made their dog practice self control, which is of course far easier than making oneself practice it, the better their dogs would become at it.

It’s why, when I put Ace’s dinner down for him, I make him wait for a nod from me before he can eat it. But is that teaching him self control, or just letting me exercise control over him?

And if his supply of self control is limited, should I not be using it up on that silly tradition, and instead letting him save it up for when it’s really needed? Unfortunately, there is no self control gauge to let us know how much we, or our dogs, may have left.

The new study, recently published online in the Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, is described as the first to demonstrate that  “self-control depletion” has significant behavioral implications in animals.

The researchers recruited ten dogs. Some were left in a room but ordered to sit still for ten minutes; others were caged, yet allowed to move around. Afterwards, the dogs were taken to a room where a barking, growling dog was caged.

Those dogs who had exerted self-control by sitting still spent more time in close proximity to the aggressive dog than did those who had not exerted self-control, according to the study.

“The present research provides evidence that the phenomenon of self-control depletion, once believed to be uniquely human, can be found in dogs,” Miller’s team concluded.

Their study can be downloaded here.