-
What struck you the most about dog behaviors in the beginning of your experience
I am curious what anyone’s “aha” moment was when learning and working with dogs. What struck you the most that you didn’t know about dogs? For instance, for me, it was understanding to capture my dog doing something desirable and rewarding that behavior before the behavior turned undesirable and then having to go back and correct then reward. Before my studies, that never entered my mind. Different kinds of dog behaviors, whether learned or instinctual, will pop into my mind as I continue to learn, and I often say to myself, “Wow, that is pretty cool to know!”
-
16 Replies
-
What a great question!! I honestly have had so many ah ha moments. Mostly with so much false information on the internet. One of my biggest is how much dogs communicate and how fast they communicate. It is still amazing to watch and also see what I missed because it was so fast! They are just such amazing communicators!
-
so true!
-
Another great question. I’ve had a lot of ah ha moments with dogs and most recently was how much one dog can affect the life and behavior of another. Bringing Lido (my young lab) into my home with Hazel (13-year-old mixed breed) has changed her life completely for the better. Now, this integration was done very carefully and deliberately (after a failed attempt with a different dog prior) but it changed Hazel in a lot of positive ways.
For just one example, it bridged Hazel into a deep connection with my kids that she never showed interest in before. She didn’t interact with them much for years, but as Lido the pup established a relationship with my kids, Hazel’s confidence and comfort with them blossomed alongside him. Now Hazel and the kids interact closely, all the time – she comes over to cuddle with both my son and daughter, she plays with them, she looks for them when we come home, etc. I could go on about how the two dogs affect each other – it’s fascinating. ????
-
I’m sorry I’m so late in replying but your post is an amazing story. I never would have thought to have heard how an animal /
human relationship would have blossomed through another animal. It seems it would have been the other way around. Wow!
-
Behavior and relationships are endlessly fascinating!
Thanks for sharing this story, @david and for bringing the initial question, @JCongdon
-
-
Wow, @david …that is amazing that Lido and Hazel bonded so deeply that she found interest in new relationships with your kids! Simply, the language of dogs is such a beautiful way to communicate in many levels!
-
@bernerlabreclectus It is amazing how they’ve bonded. Needless to say we are THRILLED. Hazel is getting old, though, so sometimes I look ahead and wonder what he is going to do without her. When he goes out the back door first he literally waits until she comes along until he steps out from the deck onto the grass. ????
-
-
-
Sorry I missed this post/question earlier, @JCongdon …✌
… after some reflection, I remember a moment when my mom and I were brushing out our (sibling) goldens. My dog was being wiggly and I was correcting her for her “misbehavior”. My mom looked up from her dog and said, “Well, she’s moving away because you are hurting her.”
.
.
????
It had never occurred to me that my dog was feeling PAIN as I pulled the stickers and knots out of her fur. I was HURTing her!?! ????
Well then.
????How about I change MY behavior, and see if that has an effect on HER behavior? ????
So I did. And it did.
I think about that lesson a lot – it has helped me create empathy for the dogs in my care.
My mom’s mantra (she was a regional SAR dog trainer/coach of a CA state-wide organization) was: “Believe Your Dog.” – and I’ve been blessed to carry that foundation into my career.
So I think that’s one of my earliest AHA moments… there have been many others since, of course!
-
Wow – another enlightening story! Thanks for sharing!
-
Thanks for bringing a great question, @JCongdon
-
-
I agree, what a cool story, and how amazing that you learned about dogs so early from your mother! I’m kinda jealous… ha ha!
-
Thanks, Paula – I miss her every day and wonder what she’d think about all the evolution in dog training in the past several decades. She was reading and teaching canine body language before it was cool. 😉 She also did some really gritty work as a SAR/HRD team. I can share some stories from online archives, but they aren’t really dinner table conversation (as she’d say). Send me a pm if you want links. 😉
-
-
-
My reason for becoming a trainer was more than an “a-ha moment”. A dog sitting client of a pet sitting business I worked for 4 years ago had a young Beauceron male pup (almost 1 year old) that was not clicking with her older dogs. She had gotten him at 4 months old from a breeder. I saw him grow up, every weeknight, for 8 months. She said that he was being aggressive as he got older, with her other dogs. He never behaved the way she said he did when me or the other pet sitter were there. Her older dogs were a senior min Pin female, a senior male Beau and a 5 year old female Beau (who is lovely but lots of gastrointestinal problems). She had gotten advise from other aversive trainers and K9 police dog trainers that he was unworkable and should be put down. The breeder even said that she hadn’t watched his litter closely enough and if the owner would put him down, she’d give her another puppy when she was ready.
I was horrified and shocked. I told her, please, don’t do this. Try a Beauceron rescue…try Facebook. I was trying to figure out a way to help and I would have taken him myself, but had two old dogs, but before I could even offer to help, she told me she had done it. I cried my eyes out for losing him! He was a good and sweet boy in the wrong family. Sometimes, people who are dog lovers don’t see the beauty of the dog right in front of them. They want their dog to be a certain way. It was devastating! Those other trainers used fear on the owner; instead of trying to find out why the young dog was acting out with the older ones… maybe he should have been re-homed to a one-dog family or owner. Maybe no one ever tried positive reinforcement training with him and he was afraid of e-collars and other methods of fear.
Right after he was put down, I stumbled across an ad for becoming a dog trainer with CATCH. I vowed to that puppy friend I had lost and to myself that I would become an advocate to help people understand, communicate and love their dogs better.
That was my “a-ha moment” on my path to being amongst all of you incredible trainers and lovers of dogs. Thanks for letting me share.
-
Oh @bernerlabreclectus – ???? The water works – what a poignant story. Thank you for sharing so deeply; I’m so sorry for your loss and so very glad you found CATCH when you did. The work you are doing, and the passion you have is remarkable. Your clients are very lucky! And so are we, to have you here in DD.
-
Oh Catherine, thank you. He was a lovely puppy. I still think of him often.
A similarity from my past: I think the thing that struck me was that, my very first dog, a Samoyed named Tasha, was one of my very first animal friends. She was a lovely girl who only lived for a few years, because, after my mom bred her and she had a litter of puppies (I cannot tell you how much I loved each and every one of them!) a year down the line, one of the neighbor’s kids was poking at her, through a fence, with a stick and she bit him, on the cheek. My mom was so worried about the incident that she panicked and had her euthanized. She was probably only 4 years old. I bawled for weeks. It seemed so unfair, the stupid kid shouldn’t have been poking her with a stick…I already knew that at age 10!
What I know now about how adult dogs correct younger ones on their muzzle makes me even sadder, because Tasha grew up with my brother and me, we were only 6 and 4 years old and had tons of friends in our neighborhood who came over to play while she was out. She was never aggressive. She liked to try to herd us together, ha…but she was a good dog who got a bum rap.
Sorry to be so long winded, but I am happy that we can really work with dogs now, maybe some who even have a bite history. It doesn’t mean sudden death as it once did.
-
Oh wow, @bernerlabreclectus Paula – another really sad story. I’m so sorry for your loss. Yeah, that was definitely not the dogs’ fault. I can understand your mother’s/mama bear perspective, too… it’s a tough situation and when decisions are made out of fear, it’s never great for anyone.
I had a little red tri Aussie years ago who had a history of biting body parts that crosse into his side of the fence. He was great with my own children; but the kids trying to squeeze past his fence, not so much. I never had a parent “take issue” but if one had, I can imagine the liability fear.
A photo of the perp, for fun.
He was from working stock lines… and had a mouth on him. Great dog tho.
-
-
-
Log in to reply.