Soft or sensitive dog training

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Soft or sensitive dog training

Postby Guest » Fri 26 Mar 2004 1:45 pm

Following the threads on Training Schedules I do acknowledge that both Bob and Gareth have stressed how important it is to be able to 'read your dog' but I believe both have just owned and trained males. I felt greater emphasis should be given to their comment on reading the dog. So many people try to train the second dog the same as the first and when it fails get rid of the dog.

Dogs are exactly the same as children, we have the prospective uni. graduate, the good average, the slow learner and the soft, sensitive child who needs lots of encouragement and praise because though they are actually very bright, they lack confidence in their ability. Punishment even with harsh words can crumple them. There is also the odd one that no matter how much you teach or how much time you spend on them, they remain intellectually handicapped or in a case I had briefly, she just did not like me! Life was a daily challenge making her do what I wanted and she would just look at me and the eyes would say" Make me" even when she knew exactly what I wanted.Praise, food, harsh words? I tried everything and gave up. She was the prospective criminal! She ultimately made a superb family pet and child minder!

I have had 5 bitches over the years and as they are also house pets I see totally different personalities. Owning the first two as hard going, bold extrovert and even hard headed bitches I was unprepared for a soft one. Allowing the first one to grow up was the inital key, life was just play retrieves and basic obedience. There was no pressure until she reached 12 months. Trial training was started and she handled it well and we have progressed from there. She is now in All Age but I do now realise I let her gain a little too much confidence at first so now I need the handle! First learning phase for me!

Her daughter is even more sensitive but she WANTS to learn, the puppy who would sit and look at my face from 6 weeks old, who now follows me round the garden and when I stop, is sitting looking up at me. She is a dream to train... with food and heaps of praise. She will stop at 200 metres but having learnt that I will help her there can be a tendency to pop so I turn my back on her to keep her hunting.

The new daughter is the two originals back again, hard going and a bit of a handful! Reading what you are working with is of prime importance and as Julie told me from her US trip, her professional trainer had three different trainers. If a dog stuck on a problem, it went back to a lower standard and even lower again if necessary, before it progressed onwards. It was not a case of get rid of the dog and start again.

Bitches are more often the dogs who have vastly differing temperaments and therefore need other tactics and repetition not always the answer when the dog is bright. It is often how you teach and the reward for good work. Food rewards are not always given as the dog can then learn to expect the reward rather than concentrating on the task given. Once a difficult task is learnt the food is gradually withheld.

Peter Moxon , a well known UK trainer, has written an excellent small book entitled "GUNDOGS. Questions and Answers" in which he says that " Unlike many of my colleagues, I admit to having something of a weakness for shy and sensitive dogs, having discovered that, if they can be improved, they usually make better (and easier to handle) mature workers than the bold extrovert type. They generally learn quicker, seldom forget a lesson once taught, and can be kept under good control by simple and gentle means. Like human beings, highly strung dogs are often the most brilliant at their job, even though they require more prolonged and tactful handling". He does make further comments too.

Hope this all helps someone

Maureen
Guest
 

Postby Joanne Hagan » Sat 27 Mar 2004 2:56 pm

Maureen,

Yes, I whole heartedly agree with you here. I currently own 3 GSP's, 1 male & 2 bitches, and the 3 of them are so totally different to train. I made the mistake of treating & training my first bitch the same way I treat & train my male. Boy oh boy, did I experience a few problems doing that! It didn't help that he is mr exuberant with a lot of things & dominant as well, and she is the opposite, a bit soft and more of a 'I'm just doing this cause you want me to, not cause I want to as well' type of dog. After making plenty of mistakes with them both, I think that I have finally learned how to read both dogs (only took me 5 years LOL) but more importantly, this experience has taught me how to read my 3rd dog much better than I did with the others and I have found training and understanding her to be much easier. The bitches definately have proved to be more challenging to train, especially given that they are both entire, but my male has also had his own set of problems too but seems to be more consistent with his training than the girls are.
Oh, and I don't know about Gareth, but I am pretty sure that Bob has owned & trained several bitches over the years too.

Cheers
Joanne
Joanne Hagan
 
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