there is a big difference between "expert" and "on the radio and especially on the
TV". As I live in Wisconsin and catch the show every now and then I can say I am not
impressed.
there are dogs called "hunting dogs" genetically wired to be stubborn (or the dog
dont hunt!), pleasing people is secondary to their "job". I have both hard headed
hunting stock Springers and soft little toy dogs, Poms and Paps that are bred to
PLEASE people. It is like the two groups are from different planets. SkippyPB the
Pom poor baby was my first toy dog ever. I soon learned that the training
techniques I used with springers, like hauling them around, yelling at em, rewarding
with food, etc. wasnt going to work with the little guy. Hunting dogs are incredibly
pain tolerant, physically and emotionally. I dont even raise my voice to the little
ones. Yelling "what did you do" to a little un sends them nearly into shock.
OTOH, if I dont go over the top physically and emotionally with Harry Potter my 9 mo
ESS, he WONT LISTEN. example: Harry has squashed Foxy my 15+ yo Pom to the floor
using one of his big paws and is using her to dust the floor. She is making what
little crying noises she can in her compressed state. I dont talk nicely to Harry
...... I come out screaming like a banshee and chase him into the other room where I
grab his collar and drag him back to his cage yelling NO, NO, NO.
example: my slippers. He got em, he's chewing. I get the slippers away from him,
whack him with the slippers yelling NO, NO, NO. Then I offer him the slippers and if
he makes a motion to touch them he gets whacked while I yell NO, NO, NO. Then I toss
him the slippers and try every way I can to tempt him to touch the slippers until he
shows big eyes and backs off. This is called aversion training for big stubborn
hunting dogs. And guess what, he hasnt tried to sneak one of my slippers in 2
months. Dragging a big stubborn hunting dog to a hole and screaming at em is called
aversion therapy. It would be better to follow this up every day with the dog on a
leash dragging them up to the flower beds and yelling no... play catch for a while
and throw the item into the flower beds do everything possible to temp her to STEP
INTO the flower beds and make her very very averse. this is also how to teach em not
to jump up, how to stay indoors with a door open, how to stay within the properly
line, and a whole slew of other behaviors.
It is not a good idea to call the dog and then punish, this is true. But with hard
headed hunting dogs all you gotta do is give em food when called once outta every 10
times and those dogs will always come (unless they got a nose on game). Aversion to
coming is more likely to happen with what passes for hunting dogs at dog shows. They
been bred for "looks" and everything else has been allowed to slide until they have
become these neurotic, peeing all over themselves dogs that cant be left alone for 2
minutes without tearing the whole house apart. And worse yet is what comes outta
puppy mills. They are physical, emotional and temperamental horrors of dogs.
Marilyn was doing exactly what was necessary to get the big lug to stay outta her
gardens. Ingrid
Frogleg wrote:
Her training advice is almost
universally directed toward encouraging good behavior and training
animals out of bad habits. Unless they're 'caught in the act' (or
preferably just as the idea is forming :-), it is virtually useless to
punish them for a prior (even a couple minutes prior) act.
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http://puregold.aquaria.net/
www.drsolo.com
Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame
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