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How much aggression do you look for in a dog?
Also, do you do a lot of "aggitating" or do you just work the dog?
Also, do you do a lot of "aggitating" or do you just work the dog?
Well said i think that was the best decoy explanation yet.I do it for the fun of seeing a dog improve. I have a not so great dog on my hands n if it wasn't for people giving him a chance and taking the time to work with him I would have never gotten to where I am now. As it turned out, the key to getting him to stop backing off was to literally just have ME decoy for my own frikkin dog, then take the leash n have another decoy work him immediately after :lol: I enjoy figuring out what makes individual dogs tick even if they aren't cut out to be the greatest.... but I love it when we get out there away from the puppy crap n have some real fun with the dogsI got beat up pretty good by the muzzle tonight.
I see some dogs who I just don't believe should even be worked, n for me to say that the dog must be a real junker! They are dogs who I have spent months working with and never see them get beyond step 2, or you give em a little pain n they go back to step 0.5. I have also seen dogs who we thought were completely hopeless, then they go to a pet home where the owners just want a lazy dog that'll bark at people on command.... then they bond with a handler n the dog improves 10x over! They are never king of the world monster dogs, but they make the owners happy and it's fun seeing the dog actually become more than a couch potato. Ofcourse, I am in a situation where I don't just decoy dogs for one specific purpose. Some are police dogs, some are home protection dogs, some are sport dogs, some are dogs like my own where you just screw around with the dog and a sleeve because the dog can do it n they enjoy it, without any specific goal in mind. I think as a decoy for a mondio club you need to be alot more goal oriented in the sense that if a dog isn't cut out for mondio for example, you're better off not wasting your time with the dog.
I actually enjoy working "prey dogs" alot because from the decoys perspective it's fun being able to step in and control a situation. Like running blinds with a complete club level game dog, if they don't circle the blind I can drop the sleeve n they don't do anything :lol: But once you get to a certain point, all the illusions behind biting dogs that impress people who are new to it disappear. I get people asking me all the time "aren't you scared of the big dog barking in your face showing his teeth?"... well, no, because I see what they don't see, n in a way that sucks because it takes alot more dog to impress you once you reach that point. I don't even flinch at a dog snapping his teeth at me when he's tied out to a post, n sometimes I forget that some of these dogs can really hurt you :lol:
So to answer the question specifically... some dogs I spend alot of time agitating, and some dogs are just out of the box born to do what they do. Most people can't even handle a dog that is halfway decent, n I've been in situations where I'm happy as hell the handler has a game dog, because it's pretty annoying when people fall over or drop the leash or don't stand still when you tell them to
Also, the people with "lesser dogs" do understand this. They do it for fun, with no goals in mind, n if they are willing to take the time to bring their dog out then I have no problem spending a few minutes with the dog. Nobody is under any illusions that the dogs will be a killer![]()