I was walking with Zeus and decided to do some work on his heeling. He listened at first, but started to lose focus and drift away. I gave his leash a light pop to get his attention, and told him "no". He immediately cleaned up his heel, so I praise him, and from across the street comes this crazy lady walking a lab.
This woman storms up to me and starts berating me for my cruelty! She said that dog training of ANY kind is cruel, because it uses either pain or the promise of food to "destroy" the dog's natural insticts. She said if I wasn't so cruel, my dog would love me so much that he'd learn to follow my body's "unconscious signals", thus training himself!
In the meantime, Zeus is sitting next to me in a perfect heel. The woman's lab is bounding around at the end of his leash, barking at my dog, and winding the leash 'round and 'round her body. I swear, even Zeus was looking at that hyper dog like "What in the heck is he doing??"
I should thank that lab; at least he made it hard for that crazy lady to talk.
Since when is teaching your dog cruel? Anybody else have an experience like this?
This woman storms up to me and starts berating me for my cruelty! She said that dog training of ANY kind is cruel, because it uses either pain or the promise of food to "destroy" the dog's natural insticts. She said if I wasn't so cruel, my dog would love me so much that he'd learn to follow my body's "unconscious signals", thus training himself!
In the meantime, Zeus is sitting next to me in a perfect heel. The woman's lab is bounding around at the end of his leash, barking at my dog, and winding the leash 'round and 'round her body. I swear, even Zeus was looking at that hyper dog like "What in the heck is he doing??"
I should thank that lab; at least he made it hard for that crazy lady to talk.
Since when is teaching your dog cruel? Anybody else have an experience like this?