Dog Talk

Face, don't forget the main reason so many people fail at training their dog. You MUST have an IQ higher than the dog. I love it when people say " My dog will only eat this or that." Don't feed it for a week and the dog will eat cardboard.

Quote: Face

. Thank god for global warming (or, if you prefer, "global warming").

It was 74* below zero in Delta Junction AK. this week. W/O chill factor

Speaking of dogs, it is not often I get worked up about a simple picture but this one does for some reason"

My wife didn't have a dog when she was a kid, first one was as a young adult, so I won't claim this is a sex-specific thing, maybe just an inexperienced and too old to learn thing. Although I have to wonder, as I have noticed it with other women and not so much with men [maybe some men].

I tell her the dog doesn't understand English, just commands. Our dog has learned some simple ones, like 'sit!', and indeed the simpler the command the better. One syllable if possible. Mostly it was me who taught the commands.

Sooooooooo, don't give the dog sentences, I tell her. If you surround 'sit!' with words, "blah blah sit blah blah blah" , the dog may not even sit.

And pointing to something. The dog does not get pointing, I tell her. Maybe if you trained it, which would be hard. As it is, the dog just thinks you have something in your hand.

I think you know where I am going with this. Wife either doesn't believe me or, more likely, just likes talking to the dog because she likes to talk. She likes to gesture. She keeps hoping the dog will do better?

She astonishes me today with the double whammy, tries to send the dog to me with about a whole paragraph of words, pointing to me the whole time. Epic fail yet again.

Why?

Quote: AZDuffman

Speaking of dogs, it is not often I get worked up about a simple picture but this one does for some reason"

I am not a dog person, have a lot of allergies.
That said
I was over a friends house once and he had the neighbors over
The neighbors just had a litter and were selling the puppies
I told them I wasn't interested but if I was, I would simply adopt from the dog pound
They chuckled and shook their heads
I asked what's wrong with the pound
They said quality. They said a pound dog will bark all night besides other problems
I am not a dog person so don't know if overall they are right or not

Quote: odiousgambit

Why?

My wife doesn't get that animals think in
a linear fashion, in a straight line. That's
why they can't figure most things out
just by watching. They don't understand
words, they respond to training using
certain words. They respond to tone of
voice. She talks to my dog like he's a
3 year old child who will understand if
you talk simply and slowly. He won't, he's
a dog.

Quote: terapined

I am not a dog person so don't know if overall they are right or not

A previously trained adult dog from
a shelter should be fine.

Quote: odiousgambit

My wife didn't have a dog when she was a kid, first one was as a young adult, so I won't claim this is a sex-specific thing, maybe just an inexperienced and too old to learn thing. Although I have to wonder, as I have noticed it with other women and not so much with men [maybe some men].

The trainer needs to be trained. Yeah, I hear you shaking your head.

The first basic commands the dog need to know are:

Come
Stay
Sit
Lay
Take-it
Leave-it

Also need to train behaviors. My mother's can train dogs, but the last one she let do some bad behaviors. It did not hurt much and it was the best dog I ever saw, but it did not know its places in many ways.

Example: dog jumped all thru the car. I started yelling "DOGS IN BACK!" when she jumped in the front. My mother said let her be excited, I said the dog belongs in back. Guess who the dog stayed in back for?

Dog would go nuts when she took her out, when I did the dog saw me take the leash and sat. That one amazed me. I never let the dog carry toys outside the house when I would take her out. "LEAVE IT!" My mother didn't care.

I tried to explain that it was how Caeser Milan said, you love the dog but you are the master and have to set the limits.

Quote: terapined

I am not a dog person, have a lot of allergies.

My condolences.

now, to be fair, the wife did internalize the fact that the dog cannot be allowed to ignore a command.

the dog knows a fair number: sit, come here, no!, go-lay-down, back, get-in-the-BACK ... some others I forget probably

and the missus also insists there is none of this business of giving a command and it is not obeyed

sounds real nazi-like now that I think of it!