I have a somewhat opposite problem with my Golden Retriever, Bubba.(Like you couldn’t guess)
He thinks that all humans were put on this earth to pet him. When we’re out walking he gets more than his share of attention. Its when people WON’T pet him that he shows visible signs of disapointment.
The only time he looks really distressed is when the person shoves their face right up against his and expects to be licked.
While he’s very laid back he has a quirk about the fact that he WILL NOT lick people.
He turns his head sideways and I swear he frowns if Shitty Mrs. Happyface tries to smooch with him.
And I agree, CrazyCatLady - there’s a difference between the gentle, no-eye-contact offering than the: “HERE SNIFF MY HAND Ooooooh AREN’T YOU A NICE DOGGY!” thing.
Uuuugh.
People be dumb. In general. I still get a lot of people petting the service pups when they’re out and about, with their coats, clearly in training and/or working.
GAAAAAH. I’ve had to fight with one woman last week in downtown Minneapolis about her not petting the dog - she asked, I said no, she’s working… and she kept insisting… I said no, she’s working, needs to concentrate… so she says, “can I at least try?” GAAAAAH.
Clueless. I think I like dogs better than most people (excluding lno, cuz I like him a lot. A whooooole lot) (All together now, awwwwwww…)
I thought my brother’s dogs were the only ones who did this. I dog-sat for a week, and I swear, when I took them on walks, they would see someone outside, get these HUGE smiles on their faces (people with goldens and huskies know EXACTLY the smiles I’m talking about) and strain at the leashes because they so want to get to these people to be pet. And kids. They love kids. The problem is, they’re twice the size of the kids and they want to jump. That’s always fun. Luckily, the kids know the dogs and they know to stay back until the dogs get it out of their system.
Hmm…brand new puppy here as well. But unlike the OP, we both enjoy the attention. Well she does, because as much as I like to remind the Pretty Petters® that I’m the one that’s already housebroken, I might as well be invisible
She’s all Doberman Pinscher. All 9 weeks of her that is. And she’s definately keeping all of her appendages intact.
Topic for another thread, but I don’t understand the “aesthetic mutilations” concept. Personally, I think all dogs are perfect as is. 'cept for the Chihuahua of course.
We have that problem with our 8 year old Lab-and-god-knows-what-else. When we walk him in the park, everybody comes up to him (and bear in mind this is an 80 pound black and white-tipped dog with great big teeth) and puts their face right in his face! It kinda freaks us out, but thank Og he is the mellowest dog on the planet. Maybe his sweet disposition just radiates from him-people even try to convince their kids to kiss him!
Oddly enough, it may be regional-when we lived in Mississippi, many people (especially black people) were absolutely terrified by him, even crossing the street when we walked him, even though he had the same sweet disposition. Up here in the northwest, he is embraced by all colors and creeds.
All my dogs know “sit, lie down, food, treats, dinner, inside, outside,” and “walk.” Don’t joke around with that last one. This includes the not puppy anymore (sniff!). She had her first yesterday… (Sob!) Just kidding. I hate puppies about half the time, the half of the time I’m repairing or throwing away damaged things they choose in lieu of the 40 dog toys with which I surrounded them. I don’t miss cleaning up three or four peeing accidents a day, that’s for sure.
The older dogs both know “stay, come, paw, other paw, roll over, mom, dad” and “sit pretty” – to name a few. Sit pretty is just the natural beagle begging position. I don’t make the German shepherd do sit pretty because she has interpreted it to mean jump up and put her paws on your shoulders and give you a big kiss. Her nails hurt.
The German shepherd understands pointing, “stop,” “get her” – which means chase the ‘puppy’ down in the yard and playfully pounce all 80 of her careful pounds on the now 22 pound dog. Sometimes that one is helpful, because the young beagle is too shifty to be caught unless she lets me. She does let me about 99% of the time now. Which, for a beagle, seems to be about as good as it ever gets.
Furthermore, like any good herding dog, the shepherd waits at intersections on our walks and looks back for my suggestions, which she rarely, if ever, vetos. I can say “park,” “home,” or “water” and she will go to those particular places. She always checks back for pointed instructions now as well.
At what age can one reasonably expect a puppy to learn most of those commands? Five, six months? More? And yes, I realize they all have different personalities, but I am asking about some sort of average.
It’s been over twelve years since my last pooch (a GS, BTW), and I am a bit fuzzy on what to expect from my new puppy.
I think they can learn “sit” almost immediately. You gently push their butts down while you say it. Reward. Repeat.
Rewards can be food, toys, or attention. Only using food is a bad idea.
“Lie down” is a natural transition from “sit” – just push the front end down to match the back.
You can go to “roll over” from lie down.
You can go to “paw” from sit.
Etc…
Too much training equals unhappy dog. Do it about ten minutes every day. Always go back over the old tricks before you try anything new. Don’t introduce new tricks too quickly. To make your dog understand words, use the same words over and over like a human parrot, but only in the correct contexts. Don’t mess with their heads. Don’t use long sentences, though dogs will pick through the slop for the key words.
You know, in most European countries, docking the tail is now illegal. Of course, some wackos still have ‘accidents’ and slam the car door on the puppy’s tail, forcing a visit to the vet and then a docking.
However, I had never heard about de-clawing of cats and neutering dogs until I came to the US. For me, that’s totally barbaric. If a person can’t handle a pet being its natural, evolved self, get other pets (Fish tank? Though I find that appalling too.). Better yet, get a ‘Mr. Potato Head.’
One very important thing, use hand signals and verbal cues for everything. It seems to speed up the training process.
One final observation, just in case someone out there has the most frustrating dog in the universe: Don’t yell at or punish your dog for screwing up in training – ever. They are easily distracted and few dogs are perfect. If they come to associate training with yelling or punishment you can forget training, IMO.
OTOH, I’m not saying that you should let your dog be dominant over you or anything stupid like that. If they growl at you, it’s muzzle grabbing time. Followed by about a two minute pin on the ground where you sootingly say something like “no biting.” If the dog growls, keep it down until it stops.
You want to be the nice and lenient-- but iron-fisted and tyrranical about some things – ‘alpha’ at all times.
