Stress in obedience.

Connie;, without getting tecnical.

In my experience, dogs – young one’s are just like kids, they have very little fear – we pass on and teach them most of our personal fears. Let me explain thgis with a short actual scenario:

My one friend is a serious biker, he got him self a pup, and wanted to train it, as he lives in a rural area. He phoned me, and asked when can he come to train. My advice to him was – slow it down, let the dog be a dog first, and when he turns six months bring him, concentrate on socialising, as much as possible –We have little contact. So low and behold he took this to the extreme. He took the dog with on breakfast runs and on the back of his pick up, everywhere even to town. The dog sleeps in the house at his bedside – he is still single.

Then one day he arrived with a big fat dog, for training, this dog has everything a trainers hart will desire, he is well socialised with people, has no fear of load noises, will climb into and onto anything. In addition, he is as sharp as a whistle. Training was a breeze.

In my mind, stress is social interaction, and exposure to the environment we live in.

i Think :wink:

Hay, what is happening here; Just too much generalization here in the last part, we are really getting people all confused now. I for one cannot see the relevance of a few of the last post made, just too much generalization, and blanket statements here. Please forgive me, but we need some alignment here, for the sake of new handlers, looking for good advice - useable advice. This is my gripe, and then we ask why so many dogs are messed up.

For something:

There is no magic training - even in dog training – so some of the claims made here will be making someone a billionaire if you can, can it…

My point:

Any and every person, and dog will at some stage or another hesitate – I.E. Even if the light at a traffic intersection is green, and the intersection is obscured, and busy, do you blindly just shoot through without – Hesitation?

Will a dog jump – if he cannot see what is below?
Will a dog go for a piece of meat on the ground and just eat it – no, way – them and we are much smarter - he first smells it?
Do you get the point… anything living has a tendency to hesitate – weighing up his / the options.

The other thing that concerns me is that everything is now all mixing up here, different stages of development and training is creeping in everywhere here that has no business or place in training pups.

Believe me– I can relate to everything you guys are saying, even the hardcore training methods – but hay: this thread is not about adult dogs, or teeny bobs it’s about pups. 0 – 3 months is considered a pup.

“if you can get a puppy to obey while it is under stress (measured according to the pups ability, not age, and progressing accordingly), you will end up with a stable and very obedient dog.”

Trust, can only come from bonding; and bonding is socialisation – you showing the dog the ropes, grooming, feeding, comforting, and caring. That is at the one side of the spectrum, the other side we have reward and punishment, discipline and disapproval. – it all comes from one source the handler – and it creates positive and negative stress.

As for balls, toys and food – these are babies for crying out load– do you take the dummy away and let him scream his head off – it is a comforter, a pal, just because you want a tuff mutt – come on.

Nothing in dog training just takes one or two tries; any behaviour consistently enforced becomes a habit. Consistently means for as long as it takes.

Stress is natural and essential, and handlers do stress the dog, just by hearing the chain coming, they will get excited – this is good stress, maybe JOSE, you should distinguish between the two.

Agility, tracking and defence are all natural in our working dogs, - I assure you it is not – take this for example, Tracking a specific sent on command is Tracking, the rest is just scenting, yes that is natural. Agility, is not, how many dogs do you know, that will just walk gladly over an A frame on the first go. Defence is not – very few dogs will defend – as we understand the term in boxing. I Think :wink: