Dogs (and a few select cats) add so much to our lives. :)
Posted on 02/20/2009 7:10:20 AM PST by GBA
Love the labs!
Obviously, the person who wrote this has never met a chihuahua! LOL
so will your kids....
and the point is
From what I hear, a lot of the ganstas are into dog fighting, as well.
Drug dealin’ be a dog-eat-dog world, yunnastan?
They are hard-workin’ hungry dogs, aren’t they? LOL!
We just got back from our walk/training session. It’s sunny, but wet and muddy out there. I started out with a Yellow Lab and came back with a Chocolate one! :)
Well, we DO also have that ‘stubborn beyond all reason’ Basset Hound, but he has a charm (and an aroma) all his own, LOL!
I started out with Black Lab after our walk at the beach he was more sandy coloured, I may be biased but Labs are by far the best dogs and Murphy agrees!
Dogs (and a few select cats) add so much to our lives. :)
Dogs add so much to our lives, especially if they are called Murphy or so it seems :)
Too funny!
We lost our 11 year old chihuahua just before Thanksgiving. There has never been a meaner, more contrary dog in this world. If he’d been any bigger, we’d have had to put him down when he was a pup. He came to us, already that mean when he was 4 weeks old. He adored hubby and me—everyone else was bait. :)
I used to think people that owned/were owned by chi’s were crazy. Having been in that position now, I know why they do it. Nothing loves you like a chi.
Was this your dog?
Not even close! That is one scary looking... Are you sure it’s a dog? LOL
Mine was just your run of the mill Taco Bell Chi. Meaner than snot. My kids hated him and the feeling was mutual. He, however, absolutely adored me. They’re definitely one or two person dogs.
That’s the dog that won the Ugliest Dog contest a few years ago. ;)
The authors also have a bias because they are behaviorists. They know from a hundred years of behavioral science that programmatically rewarding either the occurrence of good behavior or the absence of bad behavior consistently leads to favorable results over virtually all animal species, not just dogs. They also know that punishment for bad behavior only temporarily suppresses the behavior and struggling with an animal leads the animal to struggle back. If the animal wins, the tendency to fight is strengthened. Armed with this knowledge, how could the authors compose a questionnaire in any other way than to confirm their beliefs?
So the authors have rigged up a faulty study to show something that has already been firmly established by behavioral science. I conclude their motives were not scientific or clinical, but political and economic. The Dog Whisperer is making inroads on their clientele.
So, they are right in one respect, although their study has nothing to do with proving it. They are also wrong in one respect. As powerful and reliable as reinforcement is, it is subject to instinctual drift, that is, the problem often gradually or suddenly reappears, especially when the behavior in question is closely tied to the nature of the animal, as aggression may be to some dogs. The techniques that rely on pack leadership take the nature of the dog into account first, reinforcement second. Techniques that rely on reinforcement take it the other way around. Both approaches will give some control, even a lot of control over an aggressive dog, however both require something that many owners are unwilling or unable to give: consistent practice and constant vigilance.
“They also know that punishment for bad behavior only temporarily suppresses the behavior...”
Odd. Punishment for pooping in the house has led to dogs that don’t poop in the house. And they live like that for the rest of their lives.
If people actually read & think about what the ‘alpha dog’ trainers advocate, they would know the alpha dog is based on respect, not fear. There is also a difference between punishment and abuse. This basically says abused dogs don’t do well.
It is about as useful as the recent study showing teen-age boys want to have sex.
I believe it! Still not sure that thing is a dog!
Chupacabra?
That's a theory, but the facts don't support it. Severe punishment will lead to the dog avoiding the punisher or fighting back. There are much easier and more effective ways to housetrain a dog. For example, take advantage of the fact that the dog by nature will not foul its own nest and has a tendency to go wherever he has gone in the past. Using those facts as leverage, you can housetrain without ever having to clean your carpet.
Crate training has its place, but it doesn’t make it possible to have NO mistakes. Nor am I talking about “severe punishment”. As I wrote, there is a difference between punishment and abuse. With my Border Collie, punishment consists of a stern scolding, and maybe a two-fingered swat on the butt. He’s also be trained that ‘come, following punishment, means all is forgiven.
Click on my name to see my doggies. They really love me.
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