What is a “shelter dog”, anyway? Sometimes it seems that they are separated into a unique category, as if they are “different” somehow from all of the dogs living in homes, or being bred endlessly by breeders. Yet, of course, they all started somewhere, obviously. How did all of these faces that stare at us from behind the chain link get there?
There is a pyramid of cause: it starts with those who breed. It goes on to those who sell for profit, such as pet stores. It continues with those who buy a puppy and either through ignorance or laziness or life circumstances the pup grows up “wrong” – lacking what they need to survive the reality of a dog’s life in the society of mankind.
Since Christmas has just passed, the usual amount of stressed telephone calls has begun. Reams and reams of owners who now have a puppy, and who find themselves living in misunderstandings and stress. I was somewhat surprised this year, for some reason, by some of these calls, and the level of ignorance displayed by the callers. Housetraining: the number one issue. Puppy biting a close second, along with chewing on furniture and jumping on children.
And as you talk to these individuals on the phone it becomes so clear that these puppies are teetering on that edge – the edge where their owners are beginning to feel overwhelmed, where they are beginning to feel angry and out of control. If they don’t find relief soon, and these puppies get just a little bit older and more rambunctious, we may well see that puppy’s face looking out from behind the chain link.
Not wanted; too many to care about them all; picking and choosing who will live, who will die. It’s a horrible state of affairs.
We, as trainers, need to step up as best we can and try to intervene, try to make things better right then and there on the telephone. Give some advice; give out some hints that will help in the short-term. This is what I think as I grit my teeth to go through another explanation of housetraining and whether or not a puppy *knows* that what they are doing is “wrong”, and why they are *not* doing it on purpose. It really is the least we can do.
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*sigh*
I'm not a trainer, but I know what you're talking about. I try my best to promote positive training methods as I learn them. When I'm on forums and see questions from people with the problems you mention, I'll post a response pointing them in the direction of positive training or pointing out obvious mistakes.
But I'm at the point where it's starting to wear on me. It's emotionally difficult to hear the same story over and over.
"I tried snapping him on the mouth, and I yelled at him, and dumped water on him (someone really said that), and stuck him in his crate to punish him."
And then the suggestions from other people on the forum
"Roll him on his back. Flick him on the nose. etc."
Although I know these are caring but misguided people, tonight I was tired and I read a forum post that had enough negative stuff in it that it just brought out my anger.
I ended up pointing them to a post on this site and just mentioning that a crate should not be use as punishment. But before that I wrote a number of angry responses. I know it's about helping good people do the right thing, and half the time I don't even know what that is, but I know what the wrong thing is.
I have to give you all credit. I don't know how you do it. Listen to people tell you their horror stories all week long. I realize as I've put myself in this community that I will have to develop that skill. To try to say whatever it takes to make a dog's life better, even if in only a small way, when really you just want to smack the owner. (So much for positive training.)
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I have a blog: http://doxienews.com
Doxy, You are right--it is
Doxy,
You are right--it is very challenging and tiring to combat the myths and misinformation out there. I find it to be (personally) a 1 step forward, 2 steps back process. For example, just yesterday, NBC news had on a well known NYC trainer who uses positive reinforcement methods on, and she spoke a little bit about the potential Obama dog choice and how the idea of hypoallergenic is a myth (which I was hoping she would mention because it is a common myth). Then, later in the show, in an unrelated segment, they had on a trainer from that new dog movie coming out. It started off well--you saw him giving food to the dog after sitting for example. And then, all of a sudden, one of the hosts asked him what to do when a puppy nips. He demonstrated that one should grab the dog's muzzle while saying no. This was very upsetting because it's almost as if this segment erased the other segment. Grabbing the dog's muzzle as punishment not only is a recipe to increase biting (out of defense/fear) but it can certainly lead to other problems, such as fear of the hand, etc. The whole point of body handling exercises (whether muzzle or elsewhere) is to create a pleasant association with being handled. Who knows how many people are going to try this ill-informed and potentially dangerous method on their dogs after watching the segment.