I have been thinking about 'proofing' whilst walking my friends dog 'H' he has NEVER had any proofing in his life and he is 8 years old. He can be taken anywhere on a walk even a new one, never pulls on the lead, never sniffs whilst on lead, never runs off, never leaves you, can stay with anyone and has, never chases wildlife, he is just the easiest dog ever. I know his owner has never really taught him anything other than recall. So does that mean some dogs are just so layed back they just get on with life or their owners are just SO relaxed they just don't think about it? whilst other dogs are more highly strung, everything is just so exciting or their owners overthink everything causing themselves some problems? I wonder if we relaxed would our 'challenging' dogs be completely different? xx
I do find that the best behaved dogs appear to be the 'weekend dogs' who come out with the family, children, pushchairs, grannies etc and never put a foot wrong! So frustrating!
I have said many times that my first Lab was born already trained. So, so many things we are advised to teach them she did naturally. I remember walking her at a car show when she was three months old (we figured it was safe, no dogs there) and when we stopped to talk to people she lay down and waited of her own accord. Her whole goal in life was to please me and she practically asked permission to breath. Every day it was, "What would you like me to do now, Mum?" We mightily disappointed our obedience club when we did not trial, she was the star dog in our classes. She excelled at agility too but life got in the way of those trials. I had read and prepared for the hellion puppy so many said a Lab puppy would be, I knew she was not the norm. As if to make up for her along came Oban whose attitude was, "Yeah? What's in it for me?" Oban, the puppy his Grandma dubbed a Holy Terror. Oban the puppy, who as one trainer said, was the one who taught me the most because he needed the most training. It was a shock to go from being the top dog in class with virtually no work to working darn hard. Ironically Oban is the one who did trial and did get a few titles on him because he needed constant work. And no, I don't think I could have relaxed, certainly not till he was about 6 years old.
I do believe some dogs are easier than others and don't require such high input, or perhaps it's that the owners of the laid back dogs have different expectations? I have to put my hand up and say I haven't done any proofing of Juno's recall as such we just went from the house and garden to the big wide world after her vaccination and have just called her. I've not done lots of training with her either, just concentrated on what I regarded as the essentials for every day life and for a well mannered dog.
No, no it's just my observations whilst walking my friends dog, I don't think he's bored at all, he certainly has a ball with Hattie I don't believe all dogs have to be training all the time to have a lovely life, as @MaccieD said good doggie manners and the important training is maybe all some dogs need and that doesn't make them bored
Could it be aversive training was used on these well behaved weekend dogs ? We may never know, so don't be too frustrated
Don't get me started.... someone has just been practically shouting at me (drunk) about how he had the best trained dogs in the world, who would stop and wait on command, never had to be on lead yada yada yada and all he did was hit them a few times with a stick. He wasn't even part of the conversation, someone else was asking me about how my dogs were doing, and he came out with that. It seems everyone has a very loud opinion when it comes to how dogs should be trained. It's a good job I'm off the booze otherwise I might have gone and found a stick myself...
Sounds like the powers that be brought H and his owner together to just be. Us on the other hand have been brought together with our dogs because we still have many lessons to learn
I use to get this quite often, 'put a slip lead on and give a bleeping hard yank on it'! That stops pulling on lead Sorry, didn't mean to get you started
For sure, all dogs are different - but, some dogs are pretty low drive about anything is really what I meant (unlike your Charlie, Helen, or my Charlie). That is, they don't seem to have any big passions. A dog without big distractions isn't, well, going to get distracted. Imagine if someone said "my working spaniel never needed any of his cues proofing against game, I just took him out and he calmly watched bunnies, pheasants, ducks, flap and hop across his path without a bother on him". Most people would ask whether the spaniel in question was actually alive....
Or it could just be that they have been trained by positive reinforcement methods and it's only the weekend that the family get to enjoy walks together due to busy working lives. With our last dog you would not have seen my husband walk him during the week due to commuting to work, or me due to working hours so was the dog trained with aversives?
Some dogs are definitely easier than others. My cocker spaniel, Jessie, was amazing - I could even have her loose with my pet rabbit - and I certainly didn't use aversives, and she wasn't dull but full of beans when playing with me. By contrast, while I love Molly to bits and she's fairly well behaved now, I've spent hours on training.
My point was that we may never know how other dogs are trained, so not to be frustrated by them. I wasn't intentionally having a pop at people who appear to only walk their dogs at weekends. Many working people walk their dogs very early in the morning or very late in the day and are not seen together by the general population until the weekend due to their working hours.
@Newbie Lab Owner it's true that we don't know how other dogs are trained, but I don't think it's right to suggest/question that "weekend walkers" use aversive methods if they have a well behaved dog.
Jessie sounds the same as Hattie. When she arrived as a puppy my daughter Grace had rabbits guinepigs, ducks, chickens, a cockerel and a cat all free in our garden, Hattie was allowed in the garden with all the animals and never chased or touched any of them and we didn't train her not to which I think is pretty good going and she is full of life and enjoys it to the full It's very much down to the nature of the dog whether it's a Spaniel or Yorkie and the owner must have something to do with it, in my opinion x
I didn't proof my old lab murphy against anything it just happened. He was the complete opposite to S&S. The traditional way of keeping working gundogs is kenelled and the only time they really see their owner/trainer/handler is for training or to work. This was thought to make the dog more biddable, more willing to please and follow instructions so maybe there's something in your theory Stacia I do think there's something in the being relaxed and not over thinking. Unfortunately I find that very difficult and can quite easily anticipate the worst and tense up just at the thought of what might happen. The laid back dogs I know do seem to have laid back owners
I was lucky with Sam , he was very much like @charlie Helens Hattie , just accepted everything and relaxed . Millie was more of a challenge , I certainly found that when we first had her and I was on pins when she was off lead , it reflected in her behaviour. Once I had worked on her training , using tennis balls and sausages , I relaxed more and so did she , still a work in progress at times
