Puppy, Honey!

[racinghamster]

Cocker Spaniels are game dogs, like Labradors, so they can be highly strung types and need that energy run off! Not easy, I know! Jack Russell`s can be great little dogs. I`ve known a few in my time (not my own, other people`s) and one was a licky little lap dog, while the other would leap a fence to, `get at you`. So both the same breed, but with different owners. The loveable licky one belonged to a lovely old man I knew who adopted her from a shelter. I could have kept her myself because of her lovely sweet nature. The other one was a male dog who wasn`t walked or given any boundaries except the back garden, so I suppose he only knew to guard what was his.

I stand at my window sometimes and see people walking their dogs and shake my head in disbelief at some of the ways they do things. One woman walks her large Labrador on a harness (no head control) using one of those extending leads with a plastic handle. I`ve seen her twice trying to convince the dog to walk through the school gate and it parks itself. She become irrate and starts pointing at the gate and pulling the poor dog until it`s obvious she`s lost the plot.

See, it`s not the dog, but the owner who can`t control the dog because she`s using the wrong apparatus and hasn`t any leadership. The dog is basically saying, "we`re going this way so lump it"! She usually stands there for five minutes with this dog sitting (or should I say standing it`s ground and won`t budge an inch) and she ends up looking huffy and giving in to the dogs wishes and off they go, dog wagging it`s tail, woman following and looking defeated. So she`s walking the dog, but on who`s terms? I saw the same woman only a few weeks ago holding this dog in a corner because another woman was walking her dog across the road and both dogs were uncontrollable. The noise was terrible! I wouldn`t like to have seen the consequences if one had got loose. x

[Shannonmcn]

I absolutely agree with you that it's the owners and not the dogs, my Nanny has had 3 dogs since I've been around, a rough Collie, a mongrel terrier mix and now the cocker and only the rough Collie was in any way trustworthy regarding being off leash and returning and that was because she was technically my mums dog and she had trained her (using positive training methods) but had to move away to university. The other two have exactly the same problems despite vastly different upbringing and personality. It doesn't take a genius to figure that one out.

I think domination-type training is so attractive to people because you only have to pay attention when your dog does something wrong, it's a very reactive training method whereas when you train a dog positively you have to pay attention and reward all good behavior, not just the behaviour you specifially ask for. For example you can't just punish your dog for getting up and barking when someone calls to the door, you have to also praise the dog every time he doesn't do that, it's much more work to watch how your dog reacts when he realises someone is approaching and to intervene before negative behavior happens.

In your example there is a good reason why the dog doesn't want to go through the gate, maybe he's been caught in it before, maybe he doesn't like the school yard because it's noisy and stressful for him, maybe he just wants his familiar route and doesn't like the unknown, who knows. If it was a child you wouldn't pull the child through the gate with brute force, you would ask why the child didn't want to go that way and you have to do the same with a dog, it's just harder. Aggression towards other dogs (And aggression in general) is a sign of insecurity a lot of the time, he doesn't need more control he needs more confidence. Reward him every time he ignores another dog, it keeps his focus on you and soon when he sees another dog approaching he's going to look straight to his owner saying "watch me ignore this guy" instead of getting stressed. You're still telling him to ignore that dog but now he's doing something else instead of just suppressing himself.

[racinghamster]

[QUOTE]
I think domination-type training is so attractive to people because you only have to pay attention when your dog does something wrong

Yes and no. People who react to bad behaviour don`t see it coming. It`s about reading the dogs body language before it happens and I admit, that`s not always easy unless you learn to do it. Cesar will watch a dogs body language and know within seconds whether it`s fine, or whether there is an imminent attack about to happen and that takes skill. There are so many different scenarios when training a dog (Cesar doesn`t train dogs he rehabilitates their behaviour that has turned bad) and gives the owner some insight to where they are going wrong. That`s all he does. People usually only ask for his help when they are in desperation, or they have tried other methods and they havn`t worked. Probably not because of the methods, but because they initiate them wrong or are not consistent.

A few of the Chihauhaua`s featured on his show have been little monsters! Yet with a few simple actions, they learned to stop dominating and became a little more like a dog.

[Shannonmcn]

That's the issue though, it's not "domination" it's insecurity and fear most of the time. A food aggressive dog is afraid his food will be taken away, a dog aggressive dog is afraid of other dogs. The dogs on that show are usually stressed and scared, they're not being dominant.

I agree Cesar watches body language but I've seen him poke at or speak harshly to a dog when he sees those signs and in my eyes that's the opposite of what should be done. It just teaches a dog to hide their body language, the dog is still as stressed out as it was before. Most behavioural problems come from misunderstanding dog body language and a lack of consistency, yes, people don't know how dogs work. I don't agree that it's difficult though, dogs want to tell you how they feel, they've evolved completely alongside humans and compared to a cat or a horse or a goat or something, a dog is practically screaming at you with body language all of the time. Cesar knows something about body language and the importance of consistency and potential triggers but then he goes about dealing with it in a really weird way. He gives dogs "domination" motives that just don't make sense, dogs don't know how to manipulate in that way, they're reacting to stresses. The alpha dog model he took from wolf packs doesn't even work with wolf packs, not in the wild, and dogs have a completely different mental makeup than wolves. The dogs are always acting like dogs, people are just projecting human motives and emotions onto them and then Cesar comes along and projects "wolf" motives as well. I think his methods sometimes "work" because he's teaching the owners to be consistent and how to TREAT the dog like a dog and thats the most important thing but the foundation of his ideas are complete nonsense.

I know these are crazy long posts, I'm rambling, I'm a rambler with set ideas, strong feelings and no editor!

[racinghamster]

Yes, I think we`ve exhausted ourselves trying to agree or disagree with what`s right or what`s wrong and even with Cesar doing his thing and other dog `trainers` doing theirs, there will always be more ways than one to teach a dog and it`s owner the best way forward. x