Humanizing your dog

I preach this quite a bit but this guy gives a great explanation of the problems most people encounter with getting a new puppy. It is long but worth the watch.

Yup, just what Cesar Millan always said. Changing dogs, one owner at a time.

Honestly, it's just like raising children. Not allowed > Correction. Allowed > Ok, carry on! Teach them limits and to earn what they want. If you give, give, give, they learn to take, take, take. They will have no respect for you and will expect the world to be at their fingertips. They will grow up to be thoughtless, greedy and lazy. Just like a dog raised the same way would grow up to be disrespectful, bitey, and probably in rescue.

Great video. I had to kinda do my own thing in Asha's puppy class, not wanting to disrespect the instructor, but they thought if a puppy was barking at another dog to just wait until it stopped and then treat. Not in my book. Asha was fine with the other dogs in class, but a dog was going by for day-care at that place and Asha lunged and set off barking with hackles up and I wasn't about to let her rehearse that kind of BS. I stood up, got between my dog and the one she was barking at so she couldn't see it, clamped her mouth shut and said NO, but she still struggled to keep barking through my hold on her muzzle. The instructor didn't comment on it at all, - I think she realized that my dog needed correction, but she just didn't want to admit it. Way too many pure positive trainers out there. I did like the puppy class and Asha needed the experience of her being able to sit with a group of dogs & people for an hour every week. This over-reaction to dogs & people isn't acceptable and I know it's up to me to make it clear to my puppy about the rules. As everything else, it's getting better with time and more exposure to the world.

Ravenbird said:

Great video. I had to kinda do my own thing in Asha's puppy class, not wanting to disrespect the instructor, but they thought if a puppy was barking at another dog to just wait until it stopped and then treat. Not in my book. Asha was fine with the other dogs in class, but a dog was going by for day-care at that place and Asha lunged and set off barking with hackles up and I wasn't about to let her rehearse that kind of BS. I stood up, got between my dog and the one she was barking at so she couldn't see it, clamped her mouth shut and said NO, but she still struggled to keep barking through my hold on her muzzle. The instructor didn't comment on it at all, - I think she realized that my dog needed correction, but she just didn't want to admit it. Way too many pure positive trainers out there. I did like the puppy class and Asha needed the experience of her being able to sit with a group of dogs & people for an hour every week. This over-reaction to dogs & people isn't acceptable and I know it's up to me to make it clear to my puppy about the rules. As everything else, it's getting better with time and more exposure to the world.

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I know you know your stuff but use caution when using blocking (standing in between the dogs and looking at yours). I had a similar situation but it was the other dog going nuts at my Princess, I did the blocking thing facing my dog and the idiot owner that was trying to get control of their dog dropped the leash and the dog went after Princess. I didn’t see the dog coming because my back was toward it. Luckily Princess was still a puppy and at that time on a harness- I yanked her up and picked her up (I know not the best) but I have no doubt that dog would have bit her. I went off on the owner. It was a teenager walking her dog. She apologized but it could have ended badly.

My2Girls said:

I know you know your stuff but use caution when using blocking (standing in between the dogs and looking at yours). I had a similar situation but it was the other dog going nuts at my Princess, I did the blocking thing facing my dog and the idiot owner that was trying to get control of their dog dropped the leash and the dog went after Princess. I didn’t see the dog coming because my back was toward it. Luckily Princess was still a puppy and at that time on a harness- I yanked her up and picked her up (I know not the best) but I have no doubt that dog would have bit her. I went off on the owner. It was a teenager walking her dog. She apologized but it could have ended badly.

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These are two completely different situations. 1-Ravenbird’s dog was acting up to a non-confrontational dog, and need corrected.
2- a strangers dog was acting up to your dog.
Each of these need to be addressed but in different ways. One needs focus and correction on the dog acting up, the other needs to block an intruding dog. So for me, the first thing is always my dogs control. So if it is my dog acting up, I am correcting and moving my dog away from the stimuli. This could be turning and walking away or me backing away. (This is why teaching fronts and heel position are important, even for pet people. They are positions that we teach as a positive and good place to be for our dogs.) so geeking away or backing away asking for the dog to come to us. If the other dog is amped up, I will either ask for a down then put myself between the on coming dog and my dog. Always facing the on coming dog. I will stop an on coming dog before it can get to my dog. My dog must be very obedient in this situation. If my dog doesn’t have good enough obedience then I will back away with my dog.
We can only be responsible for ourselves and our dogs. Too many idiots out there with untrained dogs so the more trained we are with our dogs the better.

@My2Girls you have good advice and at the moment I never even thought about it. But as Eric pointed out it was my dog being the aggressor and needed to be corrected. What I didn't do with my back turned, was be able to see how the other dog was reacting. It was on leash and I just assumed it would be hurried along to get out of the area, which it was. I'm so sorry you had an aggressive dog come after your puppy. I do appreciate your input!

@Doberman Gang - as always you have so much experience and your advice reflects it. Asha is good with her basic commands unless stimulated by distractions. So that's what I'm working on: keeping her focused and listening to me with unplanned distractions - and clearly communicating the rules when needed. Although she's getting better and better she can still be full of it sometimes. You'd like her. She poked a cactus with her nose and of course it "bit" her so she slapped it with her paw. LOL/not funny/funny. This happened about 3 times before she really had to concede that it was going to win every time. She walks up to cactus now and puts her nose right to the spines but not touching as if to say "I DARE you". Tough bitch.

Thanks for this video. Great reminder. I'm emotional, at least some of the time, and feel the need to pet and cuddle my pets, but sure does Bedja seem to respect me less if I do more than a minimum of it. Recently read that a dog can be obedient over 80% of the time and still not respect it's human.

I enjoyed that video! There are some things I did with Moo that I didn't do with Rubie and I regret that a bit but we always work on things because fixes are indeed not always quick. We sometimes feel 'bad' that we don't have a room full of plush toys and toys with squeakers but the dogs don't know they don't have them so... who cares? They don't have doggie 'friends' because... they don't need them.

I love when people have the video's online of their dog performing a 'leave it' while the owner walks out of the room. Big, juicey steak sitting in front of a dog and the dog doesn't touch it until the owner comes back and released them. The "THAT IS ANIMAL CRUELTY!" comments are golden. Ok, Barbara, you can let your shih tzu sit on your lap and eat off your plate but heaven forbid you drop one of your heart medications and your dog immediately swallows it because she doesn't have any impulse control.

(no offense to anyone named Barbara)

Ravenbird said:

they thought if a puppy was barking at another dog to just wait until it stopped and then treat. Not in my book.

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Wow. I find that really amazing, but kind of silly. Really? We have to sit here and Wait until our dogs stop barking and then we treat? LOL, we might be here all day!

I told this story before. I went with my neighbor to a trainer who was all positive reinforcement training. She was trying to teach buddy to sit by not saying anything and just holding a treat above his head. Making him almost look backwards over his back, LOL She said that movement usually puts the rear end down and then you can treat. She was at it for some time and even I was getting bored! I never went back.

When I went home, I walked him up and down the driveway and every time I stopped, I pulled up on the leash and took my hand and pushed his rump down and said sit. Within five minutes he was doing it on his own.

I cannot imagine what a nightmare scenario it would be to raise a Doberman with no limits. Not a breed to make mistakes with that’s for sure.

Wow great video! Can see lots of things in this video is true!