A Scruff Shake Mimics A Mother Dog’s Reprimand To A Puppy
If a scruff shake mimics anything, it’s the shake-by-the-neck portion of a hunt and kill. I wouldn’t be surprised if it scared the living daylights out of a dog to be shaken like this, at least the first time it happens.

Mother dogs don’t shake their puppies by the neck – period, end of story. You might see an adult dog’s especially stern reprimand to a puppy end with the puppy on the ground exposing its neck while the adult stands over it and growls.

Whether it makes sense for an animal that looks and moves and speaks like us to try to imitate the behavior of an animal that looks and moves and communicates like a dog is a question well worth asking. Remind yourself that dogs are much faster and, pound for pound, much stronger than people, have a good look at your dog’s teeth, and ask even harder whether you seriously want to be imitating behaviors that arise out of danger or conflict. I could never work up much enthusiasm for this, myself, even though I lift weights.

What to do instead? Get a good guide to dog body language and study it to better understand what your dog is trying to convey. It’s hugely useful to know the subtle signals of tension and happiness, wariness and weariness. And for fun, sometimes laugh at your dog or squint at him or get down on the floor with your butt in the air and your head down and see what happens. Yes, okay, some of those cross-species communications get through! Just don’t depend on them as training tools or use them as reprimands.