Issue with the dojo.date.locale.format method

[guest]

when calling the dojo.date.locale.format I am getting a javascript error

The following is the sample code

alert(dojo.date.locale.format(dojo.byId("encDate").value, {selector:'date'}));

The encDate is a date text box. The following is the error that I see in the firebug console

dateObject.getMonth is not a function (no name)("M")dojo.js (line 76) formatPattern("1/8/08", Object dateFormat-medium=MMM d, yyyy, "M/d/yy")dojo.js (line 42) toString()dojo.js (line 20) (no name)("M/d/yy", 0)dojo.js (line 494) toString(M/d/yy?, function(), undefined)dojo.js (line 20) _processPattern("M/d/yy", function(), function(), function())dojo.js (line 490) (no name)("1/8/08", Object selector=date)dojo.js (line 236) fetch(Object queryOptions=Object query=Object start=0)patControler.acti... (line 40) (no name)("")dojo.js (line 513) (no name)(mousedown clientX=0, clientY=0)dojo.js (line 496) toString()dojo.js (line 20) [Break on this error] undefined