Who Influences Your Dog’s Behavior?
You think you’re a great dog trainer. Maybe you are, maybe you’re not. Either way, chances are you’re not the only person your dog has contact with throughout the day and those people can have just as much influence on your dog’s behavior as you.
Take for instance this video my girlfriend passed along of my dog, Beau. She sees an 11 month old puppy having fun; I see a dog that is learning to tear up birds and not deliver a dummy to hand (insert long drawn out sigh here). In her defense it is pretty darn cute and I’m sure Beau is as stir crazy as I am to see a single blade of grass. But nonetheless, I’m sure our retrieving session this weekend will be an interesting one.
Would training your dog and spending time with your best friend be as fun and gratifying if it were easy? Probably not, but I wouldn’t complain if they came with an owner’s manual.
The Over/Under blog is written by Andrew Vavra, Pheasants Forever’s Marketing Specialist.
Tags: beau, dog training, pheasants forever
6 Responses to “Who Influences Your Dog’s Behavior?”
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Spitting image of my Yellow Lab Ellie when she was that old (now 5 y/o). Thankfully, she doesn’t do this with the pheasants to this extent…only when competing to retrieve with my dad’s GSP which makes it a challenge for her to make a proper retrieve to hand.
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This is why I don’t have lines on my dummies. I want my dog to pick them up in the middle so he doesn’t learn to pick up birds by the head. Also the dummies aren’t “toys” although he probably thinks they are, but he only gets them when were “playing a game” i.e. training drill. He does however have some knotted rope toys that he does this with all the time, and knows the different acceptable play for each item. i.e. tugs on tug toys not on dummies, chew on chew toys not on furniture. As far as who influences my dogs behavior… as hard as I try, and as much as she denies it… they always end up as Momma’s boys…
Duane,
I really like the idea of removing the rope from my dummies! I’ll have to take care of that this weekend. Luckily Beau hasn’t had an issue with retrieving actual birds but I think it’s best to follow your advice and make sure both her and I are on the same page when it comes to play toys and training dummies.
My dogs have toys and they have training aids. Toys are for playing and training aids are for work. When I bring the bumper out, they know it’s not playtime; they get a real serious look in their eyes because they know this isn’t just some grabass time, this is the real deal with the top dog.
I’m with Tom. Dogs can learn from an early age the diff between goof-off playtime and the hunt. I have Airedales that hunt fox, bobcat, cougar and sometimes bear. They learn from an early age when we’re playing and when we’re hunting. They see me attach the scabbard to the saddle and get the hunt gear into the truck and those stump tails begin quivering in anticipation of a good hunt. With me the trick is having a few items (saddle scabbard for example) that only appear when they are going to hunt.