A lazy owner who participates in training for various dog sports every day, huh? And I still stand by my statement, blanket or not - if an owner doesn’t want to walk a dog that has a yard, there is no need to do so. Since you were the one that was so fixated on the walks, I didn’t bring up the million and one other things an owner could be doing with their dog to give it exercise for the mind and body - I guess I just assumed that you had enough working brain cells left to know that a walk isn’t the only way to exercise a dog. My bad, won’t happen again.
Holy fuck. If you’re a dog expert, I’m an astronaut.
First of all, pet owners who let their dogs lead aren’t doing it right. You lead your dog, you don’t let him lead you … for the millionth time.
Secondly, a dog doesn’t “choose” to walk behind you for its own “reasons.” It’s an animal not a philosopher. It walks behind you because you tell him to … or if you aren’t leading him, behind you might be where the thing he wants to sniff is … or he’s 14 years old and he can’t keep up, or whatever. But it all comes back to the mantra … you lead your fucking dog.
Third of all … what the fuck do you think a walk is if not training?
Chrissakes. Walk your dog. It’s like saying, ‘water your plants.’
Only on Planet Curlcoat do dogs magically become trained because they have a big back yard.
Exactly. Use every part of your dog’s life to impart mental stimulation/training. I walk my three dogs off leash. They are trained to “heel”. When I feed them, they know they are required to sit/stay before their bowls are put in place. Going through doorways, they know that I go first, so they automatically sit and wait at a door.
Well, I let my dog walk behind me [sup]*[/sup] on walks because it gives him a chance to work on his novel. He has about 150 pages done so far. Impressive given that he has to type with fluffy paws and all…
Yeah, they know I’m bluffing. (Damn cats, why do you have to be so freaking smart!)
Maggie ACTS like she’s being beaten if you try to hold her for some reason, though. She’s very affectionate and loves attention, but if you pick her up, she goes apeshit and starts squirming and kicking and yowling her head off. It took three of us – my mom, my sister, and me – to hold her down and wrap her in a towel just so we could put Advantage on her. The whole time she sounded like she was being burned alive.
[sub]I hope you don’t think I’m defending Papsett’s actions. I would never hit an animal, unless, like I mentioned before, I was trying to break up a fight. And it wasn’t a beating, more like, “Hey – get the hell off of her!” smack on the butt[/sub]
I guess it’s really more philosophy. The current working title is 'The Doodie Pan - An Existentialist Journey." The first few chapters seem pretty interesting, although he does seem to dwell on descriptions of the cat’s butt quite a bit.
As we all know, early Shakespeare was also wrought with the same problem. Luckily, he eventually moved forward in his art and so will Mr. Snookums Fluffus.
I’m guessing the obsession with forcing your dogs to walk beside or behind you whenever they are on leash is entirely from Cesar Milan. I think he’s a good trainer (‘Exercise, disipline, then affection’ is dog ownership/parenting in a nutshell), but this idea is just as silly as the ‘alpha roll’.
Nope - not for me, and I’m not actually advocating the dog has to be in a particular spot at a particular time - the walk is supposed to be fun for him as well.
However, when we’re passing other walkers or we’re running together I insist that my dog stay by my side so that he doesn’t interfere with other people - that just seems polite and it does reinforce that I’m the boss and doggie has to do what I say. He’s a pretty well behaved dog, so I guess it works ok at least in his case.
[curlcoat]Snort, use your brain for once, Shot From Guns. I can’t read what little is left of your mind and figure out what you mean when you say 'the’! It’s clear that you’re a pathetic stupid lying moron - you know, the kind that jumps to conclusions and insults people. I never do either of those things, because I am perfectly impartial and judge everything correctly at all times.[/curlcoat]
It’s like a damn broken record with her. It would be funny if it weren’t so bloody irritating.
I do pretty much this too. **curlie **seems to assume that none of us know how to walk a dog - “oh, you think your dog is getting exercise with you walking him? Well, he’s not, because you’re doing it wrong. Even over the internet I can tell”.
I’m just impressed that this thread now has a handful of honest to goodness, certified, licensed dog trainers writing in it. Who knew that the Dope had so many resident dog trainers! Professionals, at that.
(I’m not referring to the dog owners talking about what they do with their dogs, I’m talking about the people actually claiming to be licensed, certified dog trainers)
He talks about it, but it is older than that. I trained the dogs in my family of origin, and t always taught the same thing. Although I doubt you would have any problems with another position as long as the dog knew to keep a loose leash (if he is on leash) and that he needs to keep an eye on you to be ready to respond if you give a command.
Dorothy Parker named her parakeet Onan, because he spilled his seed on the ground.