This week, I read a post on My Rotten Dogs entitled Why I Don’t Take a Training Stance. Reading this post took me back to the Sunday mornings of my childhood. I’d sit in a pew, looking around at the adults nodding their heads and repeated “yes, yes” whenever the preacher said something that resonated with everyone.
That was me reading Rebekah’s blog post – nodding my head and saying “yep, yep.”
Source: My Rotten Dogs
Rebekah shares her shortcomings as well as each dog’s individual challenges. We have so many things in common that her post gave me some piece about my shortcomings.
My List of Dog Training Opportunities
All of our dogs pull on their leash. If I walk them long enough, they tire of the pulling and relax, but that’s about 2 hours into our walk.
Walking our dogs is like having three or four fish on a lead – they’re all over the place with me trying to control the line.
Rodrigo, Scout, and Zoey are reactive towards bicycles. Rodrigo wants to run alongside them, and if a cyclist slows down, he’ll jump up and knock them over – it’s all in good fun for Rodrigo, not so much for the cyclist.
Rodrigo and Zoey like to wander, and when we’re on our property, I have to keep an eye on them before they cross the border to either of our neighbors’ properties. Twice a year, Rodrigo vanishes for 30 minutes. This doesn’t seem like a long time as I type, but in reality, it’s a lifetime as I worry about him getting hurt.
Rodrigo mounts dogs during play and to dominate. This takes dog parks and play dates off the list of fun things to do; we stick to pack walks (walks with friends and their dogs).
Scout and Zoey aren’t fans of strangers. With their markings (Australian Shepherd, Blue Heeler, and Catahoula) they attract a lot of attention and admiration. But strangers approaching them, especially men, will get an earful.
Zoey resource guards me from other dogs (that she doesn’t know). The dog park is out of the question, because she patrols a semi-circle shaped boundary and barks and nips at any dog that tries to approach me.
Zoey has a lot of anxiety issues that are being treated with love (sounds corny, right), one on one attention, patience, and a natural supplement by Natura Petz.
Raising Littermates
Some people would blame my training challenges on the fact that we’re raising two sets of littermates. I disagree. I place the blame squarely on my shoulders.
Although I’m very consistent with our dogs, I didn’t stick with the training, stopping shortly after we finished puppy classes.
We have four dogs with four big personalities; it’s difficult to keep up with them some days.
My priority with our dogs is to have fun, not to create perfectly behaved animals. I can take our dogs places (on leash). They understand hundreds of commands (or requests). And they have a 90%+ recall.
Source: The Great Dog Adventure Podcast
Listening to Episode #85 on The Great Dog Adventure with Fernando Camacho and Victoria Stillwell made me cry with relief, because we’re not doing so bad with our pack.
Do I Judge the Training of Others?
Sure. I judge everything. I’m human. But immediately after I’ve screwed up my face (the universal sign that I’m judging you), I’m reminded of my challenges and stop. What I’ve started doing is approach people and ask why they’ve chosen a training route with their dog. These discussions have taught me a lot.
I do struggle with two things. When I see a couple buying a shock collar for a puppy and when I see someone using aversive dog training methods on their puppies and dogs. Not only are they setting their dogs up for failure; they are, in my opinion, creating a harmful environment for other humans and dogs.
Prong Collars and Shock Collars
I don’t use prong collars or shock collars with our dogs. However, I’ve been tempted many times.
I don’t use shock collars, because I worry that they’ll make reactive behavior worse. I’ve been tempted to use a vibration collar on Rodrigo as a distraction tool. Bicycles are his Kryptonite and a few weeks ago, he slipped out of his harness and chased a bicycle. Thank heavens he only ran alongside the bicycles and immediately came back when I called him, but my heart stopped.
A vibration collar might help me gain his focus, but I worry that a shock collar will change his desire to run with bicycles to aggression towards bicycles as he associates them with pain.
I don’t use prong collars, because I worry about the damage they do to a dog’s thyroid.
“For the longest time I have been puzzled about the high rates of thyroid issues in breeds that frequently pull on the leash, such as Labrador Retrievers and German Shepherds. It seems obvious that the collar actually pushes on the throat exactly in the area of the thyroid gland. This gland gets severely traumatized whenever a dog pulls on the leash, it becomes inflamed and is consequently “destroyed” by the body’s own immune system when it tries to remove the inflamed thyroid cells.
The destruction of the thyroid cells leads to the deficit of thyroid hormone – hypothyroidism and because the thyroid gland governs the metabolism of every cell it can affect the whole body. The symptoms may be low energy, weight gain, skin problems, hair loss and a tendency to ear infections and organ failure.” Source: Dr. Peter Dobias
Despite my fears, I don’t lecture others on their choice to use them. I hope that they’ve educated themselves on these tools, and when asked, I share what I’ve learned.
In the end, I feel blessed, because our dogs are super. They’re a joy to be around. They have a great recall (not perfect, but good). And I love them to distraction, training challenges and all.
Other posts that may help...
Serendipitous Saturday | You Wanted 2 Puppies Right?
Serendipitous Saturday | A Dog Owner, a Reactive Dog and an Angry Cyclist
Serendipitous Saturday | 8 Photos of Happiness
Serendipitous Saturday | 50 Shades of Black Takes a Tour of Google
Serendipitous Saturday | When It Comes To Dog Food, I Judge None The Less