Comments | subversivegrrl: Dog training, part 256

subversivegrrl

Dog training, part 256

Apr 27, 2007 10:05

About a week ago I caught part of an episode of Nature on PBS where they were taking dogs from shelters and teaching them to be useful members of society - teaching a young bloodhound to track for the police, teaching a bearded collie to work sheep - and I had a eureka moment. Watching that beardie was like watching my own dog - forging ahead on ( Read more... )

training, murphy, stupid human tricks

Comments 5

risala April 27 2007, 14:10:39 UTC

Good for you. Once he learns that YOU'RE the alpha dog, not him, your life will be MUCH easier. Eye contact is how dogs exhibit alpha behaviour in a lot of cases... so the glare tends to work well. Heheh.

subversivegrrl April 27 2007, 14:41:57 UTC

Yeah, unfortunately I was under the impression I *was* alpha. Not alpha enough, apparently. I've used the "hairy eyeball" before - like when he's been told to lie down and he's taking his good ol' time about it - but apparently body-checking is also effective, and since he's so big it works very well. Ah, well - learning time for both of us.

chatnoire April 27 2007, 14:45:11 UTC

We definitely use the eyeball and body block around here too. Someone thinks she can go in the house ahead of us whenever she wants, or push me aside to see Andy. Not so!

She does this funny eye thing: She'll stare at us (usually when andy and I are on the couch and she's on the floor) and when we both turn to look at her, she looks away. Then we look away and she looks back, then we look, and she looks away....it's actually pretty funny to our eyes, but you can tell she's annoyed. :)

Dogs = funny creatures!

ping_win April 27 2007, 17:07:32 UTC

Your epiphany has become my epiphany! I was going along same as you. I would do some of the body blocking, but usually when he was beginning to annoy me with the running around right in my footpath as I'd be getting ready to walk/feed him, but not consistently.
Thanks for sharing this! I hope it works well for your pup.

subversivegrrl April 27 2007, 17:29:00 UTC

Hope it helps - I think we be a lot further along if I'd figured it out sooner. Thinking like a dog... leader goes first, leader doesn't have to be polite, leader gets first pick, anything is around leader that belongs to leader until leader says otherwise...