iancrompton
Yesterday 09:28 PM
Domestic dogs are menace and should be banned by the EU due to -
- increased environmental impact through all the food they eat, and their excretions
- spread of disease through their poo and wee on our streets
- excessive noise through incessant barking
- attacks on innocent runners (like me)
- attacks on babies and children
- chavs have them to intimidate people
coldfinger
Yesterday 11:32 PM
I'll forgive them the rest just for attacking runners.
Boxers are awesome. we have friends with one and he's a love.
we'll have to move from our high rise before we can own a dog. not quite ready for that yet, and the apartment is empty a good 10+ hours a day, so our present work-centric lifestyle would prevent us from being ideal owners, and the last thing i would ever do is neglect a dog.
we both love bulldogs, French or English, and if not that then something no bigger than 50lbs and one that can easily adapt to city life (i.e., no golden retrievers for us).
Anyway, as to the actual article....I find it difficult to respond. Making such sweeping claims about dog training and how dogs learn in one short, mainstream .com type article is almost not worth responding to. The first thing that stood out to me was that it was written by a biologist, not someone with advanced degrees in applied animal behavior (which is more like psychology). Second, he is writing off entire quadrants of operant conditioning based on extreme, outdated examples. Third, what a lot of these people who like to make sweeping generalizations about dog training seem to overlook is the vast differences in breed and breed type with regard to a dog's drives, threshold, recovery, things that make up temperament. When you study how a German Shepherd is trained vs. a Pug you might as well be comparing two different species. Also, I always have to wonder if someone like this has, you know, actually trained any dogs? Not just the sit, stay, don't counter surf but trained to the level of competition and titling that takes years to develop a working relationship with the dog (also something largely ignored....the nature of the relationship between dog and handler and how that motivates the dog's training and work). You'd be surprised at how many people haven't. Studying the history of dog training and actually training dogs on a daily basis leads to very different conclusions.
Apartment dogs?
Americans are weird.
I think you might be overlooking the fact that the biologist didn't write this article. It's an article written by someone else about his book. I don't think it's fair to write him off either without reading any of his book. Just sayin'
the two of us live in 750 square feet. i can't see subjecting a big dog that needs to run to 10th story jail.
Apartment dogs?
Americans are weird.
the two of us live in 750 square feet. i can't see subjecting a big dog that needs to run to 10th story jail.
I'd also say that the author doesn't seem to be disputing whether or not operant conditioning works, but that it's fair to subject another creature to pain in order for it to obey commands. A child could be trained in the same way, but I doubt any sane person would recommend it as a reasonable method of training
Our dog is about 55 lbs and and our apartment is just over 1000 square feet. Is it too small?
All but one of our family's collies when I was growing up were like this too. Whereas Falstaff got destructive if he didn't get enough exercise to tucker him out daily, at least for his first 5-7 years. Age also seems to make a more dramatic difference with some breeds?, I mean any dog has more energy in youth but it seems like with some breeds the difference between (hyper) young dogs and (mellowed) middle-aged ones is a lot more dramatic than in others.Coke is very large, not very heavy, but larger than all of my German shepherds. He is the laziest dog though. He gets walked maybe once a week. He's perfectly content to stay inside all day and sleep.
We have a dog. ANd we live in an apartment.
Our dog is about 55 lbs and and our apartment is just over 1000 square feet. Is it too small?
Apologies for that outburst, I am probably once again forgetting about cultural differences. Apartment complexes here pretty much don't allow dogs full stop, although I don't see the problem with it once the dog is exercised regularly and there are parks nearby.
Repeatedly subjecting a dog to pain has no place in dog training not because it is pain but because a good dog trainer knows that regardless of the methods and tools used, the goal is clear, concise, and consistent communication and resorting to inflicting pain means that there is a breakdown in communication. Ideally you show/lure/freeshape/escape train a dog to do a behavior 2-3 times and the dog understands what you want.