When Good Intentions Becomes Counter-Productive - Lionheart K9 - Dog and Puppy Training in Carroll, Frederick and Baltimore Counties in Maryland

Dog training is more than finding the magic decoder ring at the bottom of a cracker jack boxBeware of “Good Intentions”

I have been dealing with owners and their dogs daily for decades. I have heard every breed-specific or training/husbandry shibboleth ever imagined regarding dogs and their husbandry, offered by well-meaning people who wish to share their experiences, no matter how flawed.

Some of it is pretty comical, like the myths that certain breeds are incapable of learning specific behaviors, such as teaching a greyhound to sit, or teaching a husky a reliable recall. Apparently Greyhound anatomy prevents the dog from being able to sit, and everybody knows that huskies are bred to run and could not possibly be expected to be obedient to basic commands.

I have personally trained both breeds to do both things, and no harm has come to either the dogs or myself. Several huskies I have had the pleasure of working with, have actually gone on to win competitive performance titles, not only as huskies, but huskies of a certain age, all of whom were adopted from rescues as mature adults.

Greyhounds… same same. Except the rescue part. Most of them were off-the-track dogs, and I’m sure someone out there will have opinions about that. I have also trained a couple bench-bred dogs to not only sit, but to come when called, lie down on command and heel. Who knew that was even possible? Well, I did. Because dogs are dogs, and they all adhere to the same principles of learning as every other dog. For many years, well-meaning activists in the greyhound ‘rescue’ space were adamant that a greyhound would never successfully be taught to sit.

But this isn’t about me and my training acumen, it’s about folks with good intentions who are more than willing to support unsubstantiated nonsense offered by other people who possess a very narrow purview of what it actually takes to own a dog, let alone train one.

Because listening to anything that absolves you of your responsibility is always a good thing, and folks love to cling to their Old Wives’ Tales.

Having a one-dog success rate doesn’t make anybody an expert, nor does it confer all knowledge of all things adjacent. Compound that with a lot of weak or dangerous advice from well-intended but inadequately informed folks trying to be helpful and it’s no wonder there are so many screwed up dogs and so many disillusioned owners.

Recently, I had an encounter with some folks that had acquired a specific breed of dog to fulfil a specific role in their lives. They had success with one dog (what we in the trade call a ‘one-dog experience’) and a succession of failures and near-failures with several others; one so bad that the dog ended up being rehomed because that individual’s needs outstripped the owner’s desire or ability to attend them.

Not entirely unusual, but what irked me about this particular circumstance was that history was doomed to repeat itself not once, but in duplicate, about 8 or 9 months later.

Now not to disparage this individual, but… single trial learning events are usually impactful enough to impress future decisions. It does in animals, anyway. One would think that it would, or should, occur in human beings as well.

Apparently not.

When it comes to large predator animals genetically manipulated to fit a certain way into a certain task, there is no time for the frontal lobe to stop functioning. Mustering reason when other animals, children (potentially) and other caregivers is essential to the task; understanding the role genetics play, and how to balance that with enough experiential information for the dog to make an informed decision about it’s job and how to perform it, is the task, not waiting for something to go wrong, in the hopes that genetics will overcome eventually.

Well, those genetics did, but not the way that was intended, because there were other mitigating factors. Like a lack of maturity and/or guidance, or the understanding that the same desirable traits these dogs are being selected for are a small link in the predatory chain of behaviors identified as searching, stalking, chasing, grabbing, killing, and consuming.

Humans may select for any one of these things deliberately, but we still must execute control over their expression along the sequence.

I don’t give a rat’s ass about what drive any given dog has more of. They ALL have the same drives. It’s just that most are limited or suppressed in some degree by genetics, environment and/or opportunity.

It may seem counterintuitive to some, but in the absence of information, dogs tend to adhere to their own instincts. It’s how organisms learn. If in the off chance that certain things… happened… it’s likely that those experiences will influence future decisions, and in the absence of any meaningful deterrent, whether it’s because of chewing on a containment system, or killing livestock, these behaviors tend to increase with each uninterrupted success.

It’s all related.

There are other ways to achieve cooperation, and the macho, “dominance” rhetoric may never need mentioned.

Because it’s not necessary.

Or particularly useful.

So when the question was posed about the nuances between ‘house dog’ training and [other dog-specific skills] training, I simply state that training is training. Have expectations, set goals, make it happen. What is taught might look different, but only based on what the handler wishes to accomplish.

When looking for a high degree of functionality, it’s best to look for a professional who understands this, not at the bottom of a Cracker Jack box, hoping for the Majik Decoder Ring.

Anyway, when you are ready, I am here. I’ve been training for more than a minute, and I’ll be happy to help you part fact from fiction.

Feel free to send an email or call 717-880-4751

To schedule a free consult, just click here.

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When Good Intentions Becomes Counter-Productive
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When Good Intentions Becomes Counter-Productive
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When Good Intentions become Counter Productive. This is about folks that are more than willing to support mythical nonsense about dogs
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Lionheart K9
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