Posted by Wolf on February 16, 2009, 6:36 am, in reply to "Re: Common Sense as opposed to Theory"
Extremely well said. Because they are a different species than humans, and we should be thankful for this, they do not have the human qualities we possess and so our higher thought patterns enables us to think in a forward manner and make decisions as to what exactly we expect from this trainable creature. We can set this dog up to be a marvel in the eyes of the world by establishing habits that work well within our life styles. A dog can be taught almost any habit or task if you work with it. By repeating a given task the dog will understand and by a reward system will perform when called upon. This covers almost any behavior we choose. Its called imprinting.
When I worked at the wildlife refuge with migrating birds one had to be very careful not to imprint the birds as ducks, geese, swans were very willing to follow a human lead. Storm will have no problem with making her Silkies pets as birds imprint quickly.
So setting your pup up for failure is not the fault of the dog but of the human not using its high end brain.
In the wild animals follow their instincts but in a close relationship with a human they will follow the human lead.
My dogs yell for their breakfast at the same time every morning because I have set it up that way. You can set your clocks by them. It is an imprinted behavior.
Dogs do have special quirks at times but once again if you examine the behavior you will probably find that you have been the cause. With the clothes it is your scent that attracts them. Their desire to be close to you. Things they see you do all the time. If you give your pup an old sock to play with you are establishing the sock syndrome and do not get angry when the dog takes your socks.
Again, it requires human thinking. So before you take this puppy with a clean slate be aware of what you are writing on this slate as it will be a lifetime behavior.
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