Thursday, March 21, 2013

Listen to your dog

When we work with our dogs and work on training it often becomes a 1 way street. We give commands and get upset and frustrated when they dont do what weve asked.
Its important to listen to your dog too. If they arent obeying or doing something youve asked take a step back and listen to your dog. If you think they should know it and have to make more than 1 or 2 proper corrections...
Either... Your dog doesnt understand and know it as well as you think they do.and you need to do more foundation work.
Or your dog is trying to tell you something. LISTEN
You are building a relationship with your dog, what kind of friend are you if you cant listen sometimes.
Making excessive corrections for something your dog doesnt completely understand is not fair and will only frustrate your dog.
If they are disobeying for a reason trying to communicate with you ...it will only hurt your relationship to punish.
Great examples :
~ Maxx
Maxx was hanging out for the day he has done extensive training with me and i know he knows all of his commands very well and he is normally more than happy to perform all of them for me just because i tellhim good boy. So he was on a "place" command and he had just been outside playing with Tye. He kept trying to get off his place i put him back twice on the 3rd time i put him back im starting to wonder why hes challenging me not 3seconds later and he pukes up a ton of water all over my living room floor. ... shouldve listened to him!

~Ritter
A few months ago we were at Douglas in the evening playing with Agility with Cali. We were working offleash and he stops working with me and runs to the door so i take him out to potty. He poops its solid normal but then instead of darting back to the training room as he normally does he heads straight for the parking lot where the car is parked. I call him he comes but then still wants to head to the car. This is something he has never done before. We go back in the training room he works with me, romps with cali then asks to go back out... I'm a little confused because he was just out but take him out anyway as hes not one to bluff. He poops again but solid and normal... just abnormal for him to poop twice in the evening. I dismiss it and again instead of going back to the training room he tries to head to the car..?? I am so confused he has NEVER done this hes always wanting to go back to the room. So we go back to the room he runs around and is playing with Cali and then we notice he has BLOOD dripping from his butt?! Just dripping... there was no blood in his stool 2mn. ago. I am now concerned and realize he was trying to tell me something. Felt good enough to play and romp but obviously knew something was wrong with his body. We headed straight for Loomis Basin and it didn't turn out to be anything. Still don't know what happened and hes back to being perfectly healthy.
But thats another perfect example of my dog trying to tell me something and i wasn't a good enough listener.
I learned a long time ago that ritter is a clean freak and will only break his commands if he needs to go out to potty.
These are lessons I have learned from but thought I should share them with you.

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