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Originally Posted by Britster  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! |
wonderful post, you are wise way beyond your years!
Our gal Zoey was very much like Jackson. She came to us at 7.5 mths old, and liked only sticks. She didn't really know how to "play" with humans. Oh she always wanted to run and chase Magic, who quite frankly if I was out and about he wasn't too interested in doing. What Moms was doing, was she going to throw a toy or need me to do something was very high on his radar.
Gradually, very gradually, she did finally get the concept of retreive, but still for her the grandest fun was chasing Magic as he went for the ball. It is a little harder in multi dog households to train up a dog.
It took Zoey 3 summers to learn to swim. As compared to Razz and Magic one summer.
Razzle came to us much earlier, and he too is very toy driven. It is just easier when the pups are young and come from a good breeder and trainer, to instill toy drive.
But here is where "personality" comes in. Zoey would always lag behind. She was much more timid/shy and not a confident dog. And that translated across a wide spectrum of activities.
So toy drive is a short form to say "working drive".
I truly believe that even household "pets" are much happier, more fullfilled if they have some tasks to do. Be that fetching a ball, or retreiving your slippers.
And dogs do so love the great outdoors. A small walk. A visit to the pet store. a visit to a park. There is so much you can do to enrich your dogs life.