Can A Dog Be Left Handed?

Like us humans, dogs can be left-handed or right-handed, and this affects their personality and character. Therefore, knowing if your dog is left-handed or right-handed is of vital importance to enjoy a good coexistence and to be able to understand him better.

This fact could even affect the type of work a dog can do, such as being a guide dog or a police dog. Depending on whether you use your right or left paw more, training can be more or less difficult.

Before we get to this, however, we need to find out if our dog is left-handed. But how?

How to know if my dog ​​is left handed?

It is more likely that there are dogs that use their left paw more easily. In fact, there is a 50% chance that this will happen.

Knowing if your dog is left-handed or right-handed is important, as this affects his personality, creativity and character. It is not something that is learned or developed but, as happens in people, a dog is born already left-handed or right-handed.

Being left-handed may limit him in certain activities or make it difficult for him to develop certain skills.

Are left-handed dogs more aggressive?

From what has emerged, aggression can also be a factor in whether a dog is left-handed or right-handed. A group of researchers wanted to understand if left-handed dogs were more aggressive than right-handed ones.

To find out, they selected 73 dogs that were subjected to the Canine Behavior Assessment and Research Questionnaire. This test consists of examining and evaluating the behaviors of each dog.

What has been found is that left-handed dogs have a greater predisposition to be more aggressive than right-handed dogs. However, this does not mean that all left-handed dogs are aggressive – quite the opposite.

These findings sparked controversy, as many dog ​​educators disagreed with this research. After all, we cannot please everyone.

Is my dog ​​left handed?

How to know if a dog is left-handed or right-handed? While it may not seem simple, verifying it is actually easy.

The best thing to do is to use a toy like the Kong and observe which paw it uses to catch it first. Of course, if he uses the left it could be a coincidence. It is therefore advisable to repeat the attempt at least a hundred times, obviously over several days.

This way you can build a more reliable statistic by knowing how many times he has used each paw.

Are left-handed dogs different from right-handed dogs?

We have already seen that using one paw instead of the other can affect the abilities of dogs. A left-handed dog has a greater tendency to be creative than a right-handed dog.

When a dog who uses his left paw more gets into trouble or wants to get something from a complicated area, he will always have better ideas than the others.

Undoubtedly,  right-handed dogs seem easier to train, for example to become guide dogs.

However, whether your dog is left-handed or right-handed, he will always be a loving pet that needs to receive your love. So, it’s not about something that should influence your behavior towards him.

However, it is important to know if your dog is left-handed to understand him better and to find out why he reacts one way rather than another. But that doesn’t have to affect your relationship or the games you normally play together.

Once you find out if your dog is left handed, there is only one big truth that you must never forget: “your dog always stays the same.”