I don't know how many times I've written about this, but it is a topic that never ceases to be relevant. Apparently, we Swedes are incredibly good at training our dogs, but I wonder if we are equally adept at raising them. Let me tell you what's on my mind right now.
Me and Boyo have during the last year met a lot of potential day dogs. Most of them haven't felt like they would work at our house – mostly because Boyo is so pushy in his way towards above all softer and weaker dogs (which there is nothing wrong with being – it just doesn't work very well with Boyo in particular).
But we have also met a couple of dogs that in terms of energy and forward thinking could have worked well with us. We have had one of them on trial for a few weeks, and it is, among other things, the dog that is the basis for this post.
In order not to single out any specific person, I'm not going to mention the breed of this dog, other than that it is one of the tougher and tougher breeds and that the dog's people are very, very young and didn't really know what they were getting into. They are very rare and I like them very much, but perhaps they have done themselves a disservice.
Regardless – the dog in question is just over a year old (exactly one year when he was with us for a few weeks), and thus in a rather critical period of its maturity. Teenager so it just dripped about it, high energy and intense as hell, and besides, I felt that he also had a lot of dominant traits. Add a stubbornness like no other on top of all this, then we have a dog that is not very fun to deal with.
I know that probably most people who engage in positive reinforcement will want to spank me way too colorfully for my own good, but believe me when i say it; some dogs require more from the people who handle them, than positive reinforcement. Some dogs require the human who handles them to be at least as stubborn as they are, are able to stand up straight and make high demands without any direct reinforcement in either direction. And these dogs require this as a method all their own, outside of positive reinforcement.
For that is difference between training a dog and raising a dog.
I know they most people who deal with positive reinforcement do not agree with me at all. Or they agree with me, but uses positive reinforcement also in what they call raising their dog. And it works for them – shit good. I'm not entirely sure I want to hang out with their dogs though, if they are dogs with a sharp and hard psyche.
Because it is little that's the thing. This dog I'm thinking about, needed supervision and oversight every single second he was here. I am more than happy to have day dogs at home, but I like that they don't need me to actively watch them all the time so they don't do stupid things. For me, that's not socializing – it's not getting paid enough for the work you do.
And for me is where the difference lies in training and raising a dog. A well-trained dog is not automatically a well-behaved dog. It doesn't matter if the dog can sit, lie, beautiful paw and so on, if it behaves like an ass in its everyday life. It's exactly the same as the dogs who are crap at training- and the competition plan, but cannot go for a leash walk in a neat and orderly manner.
Because that is the difference between training dogs in a specific behavior and making sure the dog can behave both indoors and outdoors.
I buy straight because young dogs are extra nasty and so fucking annoying that half would be enough. It's not that long since Boyo was there. But there is a huge difference in having a young dog that basically is (hehum, our, and thereafter will be) sensible, and having a dog that has not received any direct upbringing and therefore takes liberties, has extremely high thoughts of himself, believe it's ok to do anything without consequences, and thus not only becomes unpleasant and a pain in the ass to spend time with – it also risks becoming dangerous if not curbed.
And when I When I say restrain, I don't mean that you should be violent. What I mean by curbing is precisely learning to make demands, to make sure you are at least twice as stubborn as the dog, to be consistent, to practice patience and endurance, so that you can show the dog that way that what I say is what applies – and it's not talk.
Now I bet that there is probably at least one person who thinks that he or she could easily train a dog like this to make sense, and that I don't know what I'm talking about. To that I can only say – you have not met this dog, so you're the one who doesn't know what you're talking about. To train a dog like this to make sense is not to meet the dog where it is – I think. While I'm completely convinced that most dogs don't need one quite as obvious, stable and powerful leadership like what I'm talking about here – then there are dogs that actually need it to function.
I can for other than that, although I myself found this dog to be extremely stressful to have here, so he loved being here. Why? Because I took the liberty of setting boundaries, to spend time and energy lowering his energy level, to make demands – and give consequences. It took almost a week, but once he realized that he didn't have much to contribute, he enjoyed immensely to be able to relax a little.
He didn't stay perfect – but if he had continued to be here without a break I could probably have got him decently sorted, provided his people put in the time and energy on their end. Now it didn't turn out that way, and when he returned after a few weeks' absence he had forgotten everything and was a thousand journeys worse. Because of that, as well as how he influenced Boyo – and also myself, I chose to decline to continue having him here. Sometimes you have to take care of yourself too.
It is therefore it is common knowledge to know that certain breeds are not suitable for, for example, people without knowledge and experience, because so much can go wrong, and that you should do serious research before getting a breed, regardless of the breed.
And I know exactly what I personally think is most important of this. For me it is everyones, most important that my dog makes sense. Boyo is far from perfect, but he is incredibly kind, happy and loving dog. Then he's big, quite clumsy, often want to be closer to people than they feel like being with (typ; sit on your lap) – I can live with that (the people too). I choose to spend more energy on raising my dog than training him in all possible and impossible behaviors.