Are her standards too high?

Because I'm weird, I decided to take a walk in the park today.

I ran into some of friends of mine I haven't seen since I was in grade 8, I even got their phone numbers and we're going out later tonight.

I also bumped into a lady with a really cute corgi mix, and a fat lab mix. (I mean FAT).:yikes:

But we started to talk, and she started freaking me out.

Her standards of a well-trained dog are:
- must listen to your voice, even when not in the same room as you or out of eyesight
- must be able to sit with strange dogs on a stay command
- must walk beside you offleash
- must be trained to walk past a variety of food on the ground and ignore it
- must not take food from strangers


Now I agree with some of that, but not all of it. Is her definition of -trained- a little too high?

What I think is well trained and what some one else thinks is well trained could be completely different. Honestly I don't think those are high standards at all. Wish more dogs would do that.

Dance can do all of those things easily (well, not the last one.. simply because I want her to take food from strangers when offered so that she's more comfortable with them), but I considered her well trained before that. I don't think her standards are overly high at all.

Nope, Kona does all that and more... HOWEVER... just because your dog doesn't heel offlead and can't ignore food on the ground doesn't mean s/he is not trained well

Er.... no? Everyone has a different lifestyle, training experience, and expectations for their dog, and only they know what their dog is capable of. If that's what works for her, then that's great, but I do think it's crazy she expects it from everyone else...

I don't think that is too much to expect of a "well trained" dog.

There are varying degrees of "trained" and when you say "well trained" to me that dog is on it's game whenever you ask it or it isn't well trained, LOL

Everyone has different priorities. I don't care if Meg takes food offered by strangers, and I don't expect her to hold a sit stay around strange dogs (she has fear issues, and I think that would be insanely unfair to tell her she can't get up and move away), but my requirements for off-leash control are probably higher than most people, since she is almost never on a leash.

I wish more people expected that from their dog and worked towards it. Buster can't do it all, he's brilliant offleash, he's brilliant ignoring food, no way could he sit near other dogs, and if I told him to sit from another room he'd probablky come fiund me first.

None of our dogs are allowed take food from strangers, we don't encourage it.

My Tasha does all that plus will not get into or out of a vehicle willingly without a code command from us. You can lay meat on the floor by her and I can go outside for 10-15 min. she hasn't touched it until she's told ok. Taking food from a stranger is a big no no for me. People have been known to give a dog a mild seditive in order to steal the dog.I agree with the others that posted the standards depend on the person. Something I might train my dog to do or not to do might be totally unacceptable to someone else. This does not make me or the other person wrong. And most importantly it does not make one dog better then the next they are all terrific.

Hmm... Well, honestly, both of my dogs learned that in their Obedience classes; in the beginning stages. I would say that any GOOD classes will cover all of those commands. If you think about it, all of them just require really solid work in the following:

- must listen to your voice, even when not in the same room as you or out of eyesight; "Come" (I try to teach my dogs that "Come" is not optional, ever.)
- must be able to sit with strange dogs on a stay command; "Stay" (And, no, I wouldn't expect my dogs to hold a stay if other dogs were running up to them, sniffing them, jumping on them, etc. But absolutely if the other dogs are also in a stay, and aren't harassing them.)
- must walk beside you offleash; "Heel" (Really, if a dog can't heel unless it's leash is on, I would consider that still in the process of learning the command.)
- must be trained to walk past a variety of food on the ground and ignore it; "Leave It" (This works for all sorts of stimulus... not just food.)
- must not take food from strangers; "Leave It" (Again....)

These are all very basic commands, and personally, I wouldn't consider a dog well-trained without knowing these and many others. The difficulty of training will totally vary between dogs, but regardless, these really are basic commands that come in handy for important, possibly life-saving daily tasks. I definitely wouldn't expect my dogs to do all of this without being told to do so, or without first being taught the commands, though.

Not unreasonable at all.

It really depends on what YOU want from YOUR dog

Personally, and with the kinds of dogs I have, I don't do off leash unless I'm in a contained area, and then not if there is anyone else there.

I also could care less about a heel; never have. Mine are guardians - walking ahead and keeping a lookout is what they do. As long as they aren't pulling and straining I'm fine (hear that, TALLULAH???)

Bimmer is naturally wary of taking anything from someone he doesn't know - even from someone he does know most of the time, and he's passed that on to Kharma.

It's very much give and take at my house

Completely agree.

I agree with Renee that it depends on your expectations and your dog. I expect my dogs to come when they're called, no matter what. Heel? Dash and Zaphod don't do heel. As long as they stick to one side during a walk and don't pull, I won't complain.

In contrast, I have some really strict requirements of Eve - she has to completely ignore food temptations when working (even the delicious meat that's kept at nose level in the grocery store, even the corn dog that some kid is waving at her in an attempt to get her attention, even a cookie that falls onto the ground) and a "heel" on both sides is absolutely essential. Complete control off-leash is also important, and I'm not talking about commands so much as keeping her with me. If she strays away too far or tries to get into something she shouldn't, I need to know that she'll respond to a verbal correction. At the same time, while I expect a lot from her and hold her behavior to a high standard, she works independently and it's important that she does these things eagerly by choice, not reluctantly and by force.

ZOMG! Someone agrees with me!