Honestly, I believe in training more than personality. To an extent. Yes each dog has individual personalities, for sure. Certain things you aren't going to change. But I truly believe with training and a bond, you can somewhat 'create' a dog to your liking. I've done it, and seen it done many times.
As an example, Jackson would not ever fetch. Just didn't care enough about toys, never interested. I had to train him to fetch. I started with treats, and a long line attached to him. I'd throw the ball a short distance and reward when he brought it back. Then throw it longer, etc. If he forget the ball, I'd give a light tug on his leash to remind him to bring it back. We did this for maybe 6 months. It only held his interest for maybe 5 mins though. We started building value in retrieving and eventually he started thinking it was fun! So we stopped using treats, and eventually the toy and the praise was reward enough. Fast forward about a year and a half later (now)... this is a dog that will play fetch for 30 minutes with a Chuck-It ... I mean I WING it as far as I can and he runs as fast as he can and brings it back. And he begs to keep playing more! Barking at me, all excited, waiting for the ball. He's a fetching fool now... it took a while, but I never gave up. I said I always wanted a dog who would fetch and now I have one! Granted, at 4 years old, but he even loves the frisbee now. I'll never have a Border Collie frisbee catcher, but he tries his hardest and he is having fun! He also does it in other locations now (the park etc). Every now and then I still reward him with treats, to keep him really interested (he's food motivated) but he never knows when he going to get a treat.
I know it's a bit different than what you're asking, but I think too often people think 'oh it's just his personality' and give up and just accept it, when you can try sooo many things to change a dog to your liking or for the better. It's the same thing with training. Yes I think some dogs are going to be more stubborn than others, etc, but overall training .. actual hardcore real bonding relationship based training can do so much for a dog! |