Have your training priorities changed?

[pinkspore]

I put 10000% more value on manners than commands/sports.

I am completely the opposite, I love terrible dogs with all my heart. Of course, there was never a chance that Brisbane was going to be well behaved in public like that, it's taken enormous amounts of training time and effort just to prevent him from having a legal bite record. He absolutely loves to be trained and lights up when given a command though, so teaching tricks and sports skills is great fun for both of us. I thought I would be bored with Ulysses at first since he seemed so well behaved, but he's gradually finding his inner naughtiness.

I had thought I might do fly ball or agility with my chihuahua, but his lack of drive when the temperature dips below 75 degrees is irritating. I am bored with a totally livable, well-mannered dog I can take anywhere.

 

[Elrohwen]

She has a hair appt after which is why we are meeting at 9am.

But yes, otherwise that would be great.

I know, stupid hair appointment! I love the way this woman cuts my hair, but I hate that her schedule is so tricky. I tried to reschedule but the next Saturday she and I are both available is late October.

 

[Elrohwen]

If you don't mind driving a bit, come over when you can, Christin/xpaeanx comes up on the weekends sometimes and we'd be happy to help. We can start on Saturday morning after the hike, if you want!

Yes! That would be fun. Not sure about Saturday since I have a hair appointment at 1:30, but maybe another weekend.

 

[Ozfozz]

When I first got Cobain my goals were basically for him to be a robot.
In public I wanted him to be "perfect" by my definition - no pulling, no reacting to anything, no barking, no seeking out other people/dogs.
So I ended up with the horribly anti-social life-hating dog I have now. (He doesn't actually HATE life just looks like it, those whom have met him at shows know what I am talking about).

I wish I gave him a little more leeway as a pup or at the very least had the skills that I have now. I guess now my priorities are more "fun" related. Yes, the seriousness of walking nicely in public and recall are still there, but I'm expanding more into fun tasks such as handstands and rebounds. And focusing more on agility as a passtime rather than a competition.

 

[k9krazee]

I've always been pretty much the same---all the tricks, none of the manners.

I can teach a dog to limp, weaving backwards while standing on his head but I can't teach "real life" manners. Good thing Crossbone's naturally well behaved in public (and at home I just don't care!). I still love teaching tricks and as long as Crossbone enjoys it, we will continue!

With nextdog though, in regards to agility, I am going to spend more time just playing, having fun and socializing. I've learned with agility, the obstacles are so easy to teach, it's the team building, desire to play everywhere & anywhere and the foundations are so important and I've lacked with all of my other dogs. This has changed a lot since I thought agility was all about obstacles and trained my 5 month old puppy to weave 10 years ago >.<

 

[RBark]

I went through some phases in my training style, and I like to think I've settled on controlled wildness.

I started out thinking it made little sense to train dogs much more than some basic manners because, why get a dog if you're going to make it a puppet?

I moved on to basic obedience, then became a believer in nurturing instinct (in this case, pulling for sled dogs). Then as my understanding of dog behavior grew, I expanded it into extreme obedience.

I enjoyed all that progress, but still hadn't found something that "clicked" with me. Lately I've been noticing that there's a recurring theme in how I have raised all my dogs. Syl's made that theme really stand out.

I like having a basic level of control over my dogs in terms of recall. But I no longer desire something like an obedience style heeling. I truly enjoy how much energy and enthausaism that Syl and Kobe throw into the things they love.

I guess the better term would be, Controlled Chaos. Haha. I like determining boundaries, but as long as they act within those boundaries I am OK with whatever they do.

When Syl came along, I was on a kick to start things like agility. A lot of things have put a damper on my interest in doing so. Probably the most overbearing of which being my deafness. The environment makes it challenging for me to participate in such a manner that I would enjoy both the competition and the other aspects involved (social, in particular).

Otherwise is that I'd have to travel a *lot* just to do sports classes. 30-60 minutes one way. That's challenging to do, especially with a second dog that I'd have to leave home for 2-3 hours in addition to my work day.

I haven't given up on trying out sports, but am starting to think I'm more inclined towards just training stuff for the heck of it with no specific goal and spending time playing.

Who knows, that may change once I'm back on track with Syl and fully recovered from my leap of faith off my roof :lol-sign:

 

[Laurelin]

I don't think I'll ever recreate Summer... I think her awesomeness is just her awesomeness and I had nothing to do with it.

She is my easy dog. I can take her anywhere. I never worry about her. She is so well behaved and mannerly in the house. Not destructive. Friendly with all. Bombproof. (Oblivious may be a better word. All the other dogs will be freaking out and Summer is in Happy Summer Land)

She's also wild and crazy in a good way. On Saturday she rolled down all my car windows, turned my radio on the rock channel full blast then crammed herself up on my dashboard and was charming the other nosework people. They were cracking up when I came outside.

She's also my agility dog. I'm not saying the driviest or the fastest but she is always willing to play and is very good at it considering her age.

She perfectly has both the funny wild side and also the easy side and I don't see that often. I was talking to my trainer last night about her and how I don't think I'll ever luck out that way again. She agreed that Summer is a special little dog.

 

[sassafras]

Before Squash, I didn't really have training priorities. I really only did basic obedience classes and wanted dogs who knew basic commands and who I could live with.

Squash was the first dog I've had as a puppy, the first dog I had a specific goal in mind with (skijoring), and the first dog whose original owner (and others who knew him as a puppy) I even knew let alone kept in contact with... so I felt a little pressure to raise him "right" and did ALL THE CLASSES. Except for a few short breaks, he's been in some class or another pretty much continuously for his whole life. After puppy classes we dabbled in obedience, tricks classes, rally, lure coursing, nosework, and now agility as well as joring on our own. He's the first dog I've ever put titles on. Some of that has bled into my relationship with Maisy and Pip - they don't enjoy working around other dogs and people so I don't do classes with them, but I do more training at home with them than I ever did before.

What I've learned about myself is that the trials and titles are neat but not THAT important to me. I mostly just want to do a lot of stuff with a dog who likes to do stuff with me because we're having fun and being friends and partners, no matter what the stuff is.

 

[xpaeanx]

What I've learned about myself is that the trials and titles are neat but not THAT important to me. I mostly just want to do a lot of stuff with a dog who likes to do stuff with me because we're having fun and being friends and partners, no matter what the stuff is.

This is me now and forever, I will give anything a chance... But at the end of the day my relationship with my dog is the most important. If something grows our team communication I'll keep doing it, if it takes away from it I won't.

 

[DJEtzel]

Oh gosh yes.

I could probably write a book about it alone!

When I got Frag, I wanted the perfect household companion and to try a few sports just for funsies. Well I squashed some drive, but had the best dog! Got him through all that weird aggression and I can take him anywhere, do anything with him and he is fantastic in a house (well, as long as there's nothing to eat) and it's great- best mannered dog I've ever had.

Then got involved in sports and said I wanted another sport dog to really compete with, because Frag just didn't have enough drive or desire. I wanted to do disc and agility! So I got Recon, decided I wanted to do rally somewhere along the lines instead of disc? Tried that for a while, hated it, gave up and devoted all of my time to agility. Rarely played disc. All of my agility friends stopped doing agility/stopped being my friends and my ex got me into disc. WE'VE COME FULL CIRCLE, GUYS. I don't think I'll ever stop dock diving and disc with him.

Then Patton was the always dreamt of impulse buy who had high plans of confo and IPO... until I got into disc. We are still working on obedience for IPO and tracking, but not quite as much as I thought we would.

My dogs are usually crated when guests come over because they have no manners and I don't care/like it that way. We don't put any emphasis on that. I spend my time throwing plastic and having fun with my dogs instead. They seem to like it more. I like doing things that they naturally want to do since it's their life I'm living! Patton does like obedience and disc, somewhat dock diving (so we just compete a little in that). Recon LOVES dock diving and Frisbee, and does enjoy agility, so those are our priorities.

I think the people that I hang out with greatly influence what I do with my dogs because I'm impressionable and it's cheaper/more fun to do stuff with friends, ya know?

 

[SpaceMutt]

I wanted to do agility when I got Astro. Didn't necessarily want to be The Best, but I wanted to practice regularly and trial here or there.

It turns out that my dog hates agility. I can pretend otherwise but really he's made it pretty clear that he's not into it. He shuts down in it so, so easily. Maybe he will change but right now, I am trying to accept that he will not be my agility dog. And honestly, I look at the dogs that excel in agility and realize that I don't want that necessarily. I prefer a different sort of dog I think.

Right now my training goals match what Astro likes, I changed them to suit the dog I have: lots of nosework, maybe tracking. Probably barnhunt and lure coursing tests. Basically things where I can just stand back and let him work.

Manners wise, I've never cared. I like big jumpy dogs so that's what I have. He actually is more polite than I care for, he is very reserved in his kisses.

 

[Julee]

My focus has always been on manners (in public, and making sure they don't do something that will kill them in the house), competition, and tricks. Not much has changed, though perhaps slightly more emphasis on tricks.

 

[JacksonsMom]

Um, yes and no. I mean, getting Jackson, I honestly had zero priorities. I just wanted a dog. Was not 'in the dog world' at all and knew next to nothing about these 'dog sports' lol.

Then I discovered trick training on youtube and how fun that was. So we started doing lots of tricks between the ages of 4 months - 2 yrs. I also had a lot of free time on my hands though! lol. I got really into making youtube fun little videos and trick montage videos, etc. We still practice old tricks and occasionally learn new things too. Trick training is probably the most fun for both of us and can be done any time and any where.

We took our first agility class in... 2011, I believe? It was more or less a 'for fun' class. Then we did a couple of classes more serious. I kind of sort of thought about competing. But we haven't taken an agility class now in over a year. It's honestly more about money than anything. I wish I could afford it more.

I go through phases though. Sometimes I really love doing dog sports and dabbling in things etc, but sometimes I'm just kind of 'mehh' about it. I really mostly enjoy having a dog to just... do things with in general. I love taking him to outdoor restaurants with me, walking downtown, swimming/hanging in the backyard, playing fetch/frisbee, running errands, going for walks and hikes, going to the beach, etc. So I guess I could say manners are important to me. But, that part just kind of came naturally to Jackson, so I don't have much experience 'teaching' a dog to behave properly in public.

I still keep up with local events, like next weekend I'm going to try him out with some lure coursing. We dabbled in dock diving practice but I kind of don't see the point in paying money to use someone elses pool when we have our own! lol. Same with barn hunt, he 'hunts' all the time in our backyard, why am I paying for this? LOL, etc... But I DO like the 'routine' of classes and *having* somewhere to go and being with other like-minded dog people.

So yeah. I go back and forth. Overall I am looking for a good solid tempered pet in any future dog and my current dog. Anything else is just added fun and a bonus for us both.

I do hope to get back into an agility class this fall.

 

[JacksonsMom]

I've always been pretty much the same---all the tricks, none of the manners.

I can teach a dog to limp, weaving backwards while standing on his head but I can't teach "real life" manners. Good thing Crossbone's naturally well behaved in public (and at home I just don't care!). I still love teaching tricks and as long as Crossbone enjoys it, we will continue!

lol so Jackson too! He just naturally is well behaved in public. And at home, he's not terrible either, but it's also common to see him sitting on the top of the couch with his head on my shoulder as I eat my dinner :lol-sign: sooo.. there's that.

 

[Southpaw]

I love reading these!

 

[JacksonsMom]

I love reading these!

Me too! I thoroughly enjoyed this thread

 

[meepitsmeagan]

Me too! I thoroughly enjoyed this thread

Me three!

I wanted to add that drive and actively engaging with me in highly stimulating environments is something I really focused this time around as well. That's not something I ever did with Harlow. I never took her to trials or anything. House pet for life (we did a lot of socializing, just a different kind) for her. I just wanted a buddy.

 

[Southpaw]

I wanted to add that drive and actively engaging with me in highly stimulating environments is something I really focused this time around as well.

This is something I'm adding to my list! The more I play disc with the dogs, I've been taking them out to different parks just to get them used to doing it in different environments, and Cajun especially flips back and forth between being ON and super drivey for the disc, and then in the blink of an eye she's done and distracted by something (and these are still really low distractions we're tlaking about). I've made a mental note that I don't want this issue in the future lol.

 

[PWCorgi]

I have always wanted to do sports, mainly agility. I don't think that's changed. It's just that now that I have a dog capable of it, I'm really able to get into it, and I love it as much as I thought I would.

I have always been interested in rally/obed as a side to agility, but I am really enjoying it much more than I thought I ever would.

I never thought I'd like disc as much as I did, and hope one day Siri and I can do it more seriously.

I've never been able to successfully teach a dog manners, and that probably won't change because I suck at consistency unless I NEED to be consistent. Whenever I get a new dog I say, THIS DOG WILL HAVE ALL THE MANNERS. But they don't, ever.

So no, I don't think they've changed much.

 

[Dogdragoness]

I am not more lax or permissible, just strict in a different way, now that I know more.

It's tough when my I leave my dog with my parents who basically don't believe in discipline and I always have to kind of retrain my dog when I get back :/