[QUOTE=meupatdoes;6484083]
Oh yeah, your motivations along with several others’ were TOTALLY to kindly help the OP.
You were just being constructive and helpful when you said you don’t turn your dogs into robots.
I wonder how effective you guys would all be as professional dog trainers if your tactic was to yell at your clients about how abusive and incompetent they are, try to make them feel as sh*tty as you possibly can, yell at everyone else for how abusive and incompetent THEY are, and then flounce off feeling satisfied at scoring several great hits without ever actually addressing the dog in question.
A+ training advice![/QUOTE]
Yes, I am. Just because I am not being politically correct does not mean it is not constructive. Because you take offense at the word robot does not make it less of an observation. You are doing just what you accuse others of doing, reacting instead of thinking through the response. You are speaking out of both sides of the discussion because you too are confused. I just said I do not like automatic dogs, others may need that degree of control. I just need good recall, civilized manners in the house, a cessation of barking when I say so, all of my dogs do that and always have. I also can recall my very upland hunter lab and jack russell terrier from bursting after deer, the lab always, the jack not always. I used to train field trial beagles and you do not need that kind of control nor do you want it. They did not run deer because they got a leash across their butts when they did (they could have been dead otherwise because deer running dogs could be shot or killed on the road). Is that abuse? I use very strong body language, I do also swat the dogs on the butt, sometimes they get a knock on the nose. I use vocal effusive positive praise, not always because some dogs as soon as you praise they get up. It is a matter of timing and understanding the animal, thus the observation phase.
They are not cringing and I have had probably 100 or more dogs under my care over the years because I ran a small rescue when in Virginia. Multiple mixed breeds that other more specialized groups would not take. I spent hundreds of hours on open group walks in 150 acres of land, I never lost one dog. My Jack was so hard to recall train maybe because I do not use shock and never have, I would run him down when he refused a recall and flip him over. He got to the point because he loves to be rolled and fight (he is a good Jack), that I could point my finger at him say “pow” and he would roll over and play dead because I wished he were dead so many times when he ran away. Running miles and miles and never knowing if you would hear the squeal of brakes and the thump is not a fun thing to do. All of my dogs always can run off leash reliably.
We go into remote and strange areas, dogs that have been with me for more than four months sometimes less always know how to track me down without me screaming my head off. The only time there is a delay is when the Jack is “busy” eating something. Once he hears the I am going to tear your legs off if you don’t come voice, oddly, he comes. My husband can never understand it because I sound like I am going to kill him sometimes. I tell him that is what the Jack likes, he is feisty, and he loves me so he comes. Need to know more? Ask me how I train for dual water retrieves, or did. Or maybe how I could downstay a beagle who was in hot pursuit in the middle of field trial when they would call out “pick them up”!?
People would hunt me down who took dogs from me because my dogs were so easy to integrate into the house and home. Combination of freedom and good sensible discipline. No clickers, no wands, few treats, no special effects, no New Age verbiage to explain auto-neurological behavior in dogs. Might be nice for a Piled Higher and Deeper degree but not necessary unless the dog is undernourished and you need to know how to correct that, or if that might be hindering the training process. Dogs learn through repetition, kindness, sometimes stern handling with the right degree of control and no anger. That is the way I strive to train.
