[Britster]

Quite the contrary.... "SPOILING" usually causes ill-mannered dogs, in my experience. It's not a matter of spoiling, it's a matter of making TIME for your dogs, and creating a BOND. They are NOT disposable creatures.... you can't just be like "oh well, these 2 didn't work out... let's try it again!" You are going to be highly disappointed when you find that the third is no better. It's up to the human to make an effort to bond with a dog and spend adequate time with them. It's not that difficult to spare at least 15 minutes a night hanging out with your dog and forming a friendship.

Now, don't get me wrong, I spoil Jackson in the sense that I am always trying to find the best food, he gets all sorts of treats and bones, he has wayyy too many collars/harnesses/ID tags, things like that. But he could care less about those things. I spend the time to "listen" to him, if you will, to get inside his head. Every dog has a unique personality. Jackson was very shy with strange people, I didn't just brush it off and say "oh, he's just a skiddish dog... lemme go buy another puppy and see if that ones better". No, I worked thru it with him. I wanted to find out WHY he was so nervous, and make those negative thoughts in his little head turn into positive thoughts. So I always carried treats with me so when someone wanted to pet him, he got a treat. He now loves most people and will willingly go up to them by himself. He began to learn to trust... I didn't just essentially give up on him. Where would the fun in that be??

If Jackson starts getting a little too antsy, I know he's lacking exercise. I know what my dog needs and he requires at least 1 hour walk per day. If he doesn't get that, we make up for it in another way through playing fetch, going to the dog park, going to Petsmart, doing clicker training/trick training. Someone like you might get an active dog and be like "omg he's so hyper!!! he doesn't listen!!!" But a good dog owner will take the time to discover what their dog needs.