Posted by Wolf on February 17, 2009, 7:24 am, in reply to "Re: Common Sense as opposed to Theory"
I do hope people are reading this stuff and taking notes. Many owners have a misconception of what a dog is or can be.
It is a carnivore with instincts for survival that has chosen to live with humans. The decision was theirs not ours.It is all any human could ask for in a friend but keep in mind it is a dog. It may well choose to die for you (key word here being choose) but it is a dog nevertheless. Try taming any other wild animal and see how close you can come to the dog.
In light of the above I cannot reinforce enough what Cathy has said about being alert when working with your dog. Most owners underestimate the ability of the dog to make decisions and to estimate the timing and use it to their advantage. The dog is always on!!! It does not turn off. You may have a laid back dog that is easy but never think for one moment that this dog is not capable. It is only using a method that works. The dog, any dog, has a light switch reaction to any situation. Living with a dog should make us more reactive and hone our skills to almost everything if we listen and pay attention. The problem is we have a cluttered brain and are self serving therefore we do not pay attention but instead expect things to work for us. We are not geared to react in the nano-second although we can be. Its called paying attention to the task at hand. Thinking about what we are doing at the moment (dogs live in the moment) instead of thinking about things that might be or were. I have a phone in my kennel but when I am working with my dogs I will not answer it. If you call other than at night I will most likely be working with dogs and I will not respond. I have eight individual personalities to manage and it takes a lot of concentration and also the ability to switch in a moment. I have had failures on my part and therefore am able to learn from them. My dogs do not make mistakes, I do. Many people my age are vague in thinking and therefore succumb to addled brains. Mine is a steel trap. I attribute this to living with large bully headed intelligent dogs that spend most of their time trying to outsmart me. I cannot make a mistake or it may well cost the life of a dog. That is a price I am not willing to pay. This is why I also have very little patience with humans that do stupid things. I will be the first to tell you and when I see you doing something that could develop into a dangerous situation I will let you know and if you do not listen I will cut you off at the pass. In the same vein I also listen to those who have great ideas and utilize those ideas. This has kept me functional and has brought me to the place in my life where I now exist. This is also why some of us are so admant about training. Know your dogs, watch your dogs, they will let you know what is going on with them. If you have respect for them then you will be aware of who they are. They are all a bit different. Its not so much about trusting the dog but about training them and then trusting the training methods and continuing to reinforce it. They are instinctive and will do what is best for them. It is called survival of the fittest.
It is also a reason for a board such as this to be helpful. This is a learning process for all of us and why it is not a place for personal issues.
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