What’s the first thing you learned in basic obedience class? Not the first thing you taught your dog (which was probably sit) but the first thing you learned?
If I remember correctly, it’s not to repeat your command. I ask my dog to sit, if (s)he does not sit, I use a treat and lure the dog into a sit. When I am walking Delilah and call her to me, I reward her when she comes, if she does not come I say, “Too bad” and I put the treat away. I wait a few seconds and I try again, usually the next time she’s very quick to respond.
For a long time Delilah and I went to a drop in obedience class and there was this couple that had a pair of labs and they about drove me to drink. Okay truth here. It doesn’t take much to drive me to drink, but that’s entirely NOT the point. The point is these people would say, “Sit, sit, sit, sit” and then “Stay, stay, stay, stay” until it took all my energy not to swing my leash and whap them upside their head with the clip.
When I’m out cruising the neighborhood with the dogs, I naturally notice the houses with dogs. There’s one house we pass that has a German Shepherd dog and the dog barks incessantly. She hears us from about two to three houses away and she barks until we are at least two three houses beyond her.
Do you want to come and play with me?
Now don’t get me wrong, my dogs bark when other dogs walk past, but not to that degree. AND if my dogs are barking like lunatics, I go and check the situation out and typically call them away from it. Unless of course it’s something that requires my attention.
So this dog is barking her fool head off as we walk past and the owner comes outside and I hear, “Chloe come, Chloe come, Chloe come, Chloe come, Chloe come, Chloe come.”
I wanted to scream, “Chloe is not coming. Walk over to your dog and get her.”
In the truth is stranger than fiction category, yesterday when we were walking past that house the woman stopped me to compliment me on how beautiful the dogs are. As we stood chatting for a few minutes she informed me that Chloe always alerts her when dogs are walking by and that she can’t walk Chloe because Chloe loses her mind when she sees another dog. Of course, “she only wants to play.” But I wonder if she actually had the opportunity, if she would even know how.
How do you explain proper socialization to people? Or the importance of exposing your dog to many situations to help them become a well-rounded dog?
How do you handle situations like this?
We live in town so we have to get on and usually most are OK. The ones that are not have bad owners and usually the wrong type of dog. Animal control is on the whole quite good. Socialisation is so important. Have a marvellous Monday.
Best wishes Molly
In Bailie’s obedience class the teacher did a take on that with the owners by repeating directions like six times so they would get the point. Some people just will never get it, it may be best for you to just drink in this situation 😉
I so agree with you on say the command once then re enforce it. I tell people from day one as a puppy to socialize socialize.
WE are Stubborn… and we make MOM repeat stuffs… BOL
I have wondered more than once, how do you educate people? Maybe we could carry a pamphlet with training and dog etiquette tips to hand out.
Good question. It is a hard one to answer though because really, so many people would get offended if you tried to educate them about these things. I know a lot of people seem to think they know everything! haha! And that never makes for a very good conversation.
Hope you enjoyed your weekend
ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!
You’re describing my hubby — Mr Know-it-all — God bless him.
Ya know, I can’t really say anything because I haven’t done a very good — make that just good — job of socializing any of my 3. Partly because I feel guilty taking one without the other two; and mostly because not having a paying job to go to has made me lazy instead of busy.
That said, I used to be like Chloe’s owner. And sometimes I have to almost literally bite my tongue to break the old habit. Not that I don’t know better — I do — but old habits die hard. Callie and Shadow are easy — they’re a lot slower than they used to be — but Ducky not so much. She’s FAST, and when I go to clip her leash on to her collar, she takes off like a turbo jet. Little stinker! I really do need to work with her more consistently.
I think you should try the slapping them round the head with the clip end of the lead technique – bet that would work! I saw a dog run in front of the car I was in to try and get at another dog yesterday, the female who was with the dog sauntered after her (not hurrying in the slightest) calling the dog, another man stood and laughed. When the dog had finally finished ‘arguing’ with the two border terriers (who were on lead with their owner) it came back to the owner, after walking almost in front of the car we were driving in (which we had stopped until the dog was back under control) and the owner whacked it one – I just wanted to get out the car and say “no, you don’t deserve a dog and until you do you will not have one” and take the poor dog home with me!!
I don’t know!
Here is much much anticipated comment…lol.
You better not come and train with us because we are using the Hillmann method to reinforce sit and it has us saying “sit, sit, sit” several times. 🙂
Well, in our own situation, Morgan wasn’t always like she is now. No, she wasn’t properly socialized and I couldn’t to anything about that since we got her as her fourth home when she was eighteen months old. As much as we’ve taken her places, gone to training with her and worked with her, she’s just become increasingly more reactive as she’s gotten older. I truly believe that there’s a misfire in her brain. If she were able to be with other dogs who like to play the way she does, she’d do great, but if they showed any aggression towards her, she wouldn’t take it well.
A lot of German Shepherds, particularly females, bark as a sort of warning. And in their minds, it works. They see trouble approaching and they begin to sound the alarm. Eventually, the trouble passes by and they have won because they’ve scared the intruder off. Their behavior is reinforced by the natural workings of the world. The intruder leaves every single time, so their barking must be an effective tool. Trust me, we have tried about every kind of training under the sun to stop this behavior and we haven’t found anything that works for us.
I always want to say “Say Chloe come again!” (in my best Pulp Fiction voice). People are crazy.