What am I doing wrong? o.o

[welsummerchicks]

Me, I don't end the game unless it was a real unattenuated bite. If a tooth just gets into the game sort of by accident, I don't just say no, I take ahold of the lips, press them into the teeth, and say, 'OW'! and get the dog to back away. I want the dog to back away immediately from anyone, if they ever hear 'OW!'.

Check this out - This is a seven year old girl working this dog:

 

[elizabethbinary]

Quote:
GREAT video and great advice!! This is motivating me to do some more evolved training today...

 

[arabianequine]

Amazing relationship....a lot of work and dedication.

 

[BeccaB00]

Wow amazing video.

I loved it.

 

[welsummerchicks]

I met a guy once who had trained dogs for 50 years. He was retired and was watching an obedience trial. I sat down and started talking to him. And he said something I've heard many, many times(I don't recall the exact words but here's the meaning):

'You know, I've been training dogs for fifty years, and you know what? The first dog I trained was the stupidest, most stubborn idiot I ever met, I can't believe how stupid that dog was. The next dog, he was a lot smarter. The dog after HIM was a lot smarter than that. And it just kept going on that way, until the last dog I trained was the smartest dog in the world'.

And of course, you understand, that is a joke, and it was just a matter of him learning to train better.

The old saying with dressage horses is, 'Every horse you train, you ruin a little bit less'. Much of what we train horses to do in dressage is muscle memory(like flying lead changes), and once done wrong, is nearly impossible to un-do. Dogs are a lot more flexible and mistakes can be re-done. But fact is, if we're learning and growing, every dog we train we train better than the last.

Once I watched my trainer, work with an 'agitation trained' dog that had been irretrievably, horribly, ruined. I have never seen such a messed up, terrified, dangerous, dog.

Now this trainer. I took a number of classes from him with different dogs. He is a master at simplifying what you're supposed to do and when and how. I swear, he could take a person who had never trained a dog before, and have them working a happy, obedient dog in a very short time, I saw him do it over and over. His dogs and his student's dogs were happy, eager workers. If the students listened to him, he could get them to solve any problem they might run into. He has, I believe, worked schutzhund, as well as regular obedience and breed shows. He worked with sharp dogs and with very very soft dogs, and I worked with a very, very soft dog with him, as well as one that was a little sharper. He never had any problem adjusting to any type of dog. I worked with him over a period of time, and he, as good as he was, I could see changes in his methods over time, as well. Even he, as good as he was, he made changes.

In other words, with thirty, forty years of experience training hundreds if not thousands of dogs a year, he was still learning. So what about the rest of us mortals? We need to improve how we are doing things - it's that simple.

Back to this dog.

The former owner kept the dog in a basement in the dark, and would go down and beat it every once in a while til it freaked out and started attacking back. Then he would feed it, turn off the lights, and leave. The dog didn't see any other dogs, people or even a vacuum cleaner, the sun, or a tree, its entire life, since it was taken from its mother(at probably a very early age, that's what they do). The new owner brought it in, it was about 3 or 4.

This dog was having a complete and total meltdown. The owner couldn't even get it in the door, I have never seen such an incredible combination of terror and aggression in my life. The entrance was normally congested with dogs and owners and he CLEARED A SWATH, let me tell you. A class was going on, people were chatting, bright lights were on, sitting in chairs watching, and this dog had never even seen a ROOM, let alone a big roomful of dogs.

I'm not going to describe what he did, because I'm afraid someone would then try it themselves. But he worked with the dog, briefly. Just briefly.

In about ten or twenty minutes, Jack had joined the class with the dog, and was heeling it around the class. It was relaxed and paying attention. Jack would stop and pat the dog. The dog was panting anxiously, but if you could see the difference between that and what it was when it came through the door.

That dog will probably never recover 100% from THAT level of abuse. It will never be 100% normal. BUT, for a dog's behavior to change THAT MUCH, THAT QUICKLY, I have to tell you I was stunned. If I hadn't been there, if someone had told me that, I would have called them a liar.

A dog is the most 'plastic' of all animals. That may very well be why and even how it became a companion of man. But it also means, that if we make the effort, we can have just about any kind of dog we want.