Thread: Pedigree dogs

Oh, I think I see some individuality in dogs, once in a while.

No two dogs (even amongst the same breed) have the same personality, same as people. You get similar but not the same. But training one dog will be similar if not the same for all dogs, once you figure out their motivating force, which is usually food or praise or both. Caladonian you spoke of a dog that responded to learnt hand signals with out ever having been taught...The particular line was a bit ambiguous. Could you explain it a bit more for me please?


Mick

Originally Posted by MickR

No two dogs (even amongst the same breed) have the same personality, same as people. You get similar but not the same. But training one dog will be similar if not the same for all dogs, once you figure out their motivating force, which is usually food or praise or both. Caladonian you spoke of a dog that responded to learnt hand signals with out ever having been taught...The particular line was a bit ambiguous. Could you explain it a bit more for me please?


Mick

Well, we usually accompany instructions with some kind of gesture. I'd been giving her orders in a low voice, and I found that she was responding in heavy traffic, where I was convinced she couldn't hear me. Within a couple of minutes I'd established that she observed the signal when it came without or slightly preceded the voice command.

I'm reminded of the experiments scientists have carried out with young chimpanzees. Any chimp is likely to develop mentally to a higher level, in the first year or so, than a human baby. As soon as verbal communication comes on the scene, the chimp gets left behind. But when they were taught to use American Sign Language, intended for the deaf, the chimps learned to communicate to a far higher level, even including such skills as word order changing meanngs.

There was also a horse in Germany, Clever Hans, who appeared able to do simple mathematics in response to a verbal question. He would tap out the right number with his foot. Even scientists who studied him were at first convinced, for he would answer questions asked by strangers who had no interest in trickery.

Clever Hans - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Only in time was the truth discovered. As the correct number was approached, the questioner displayed almost invisible signs of tension. Hans was indeed exceptionally clever, and he liked to make people happy. He had learned that if he tapped until the tension reached its peak, then stopped, people would be happy, and tell him he was a good horse, as indeed he was. His owner was probably no wiser than anyone else, about what he had been training Hans to do. It is the main reason why drug or explosive sniffer dog evidence is unlikely ever to be acceptable in court. It is all too easy for the handler to deliberately or accidentally "tell" the dog to produce a false positive.

The lack of an effectived voicebox greatly reduces animals' ability to recognise the spoken word. But they can be extremely good at detecting almost invisible and unconscious body language. Domestic or in the wild, it is central to canine relationships, and the source of the uncanny insight they sometimes seem to have. Probably they don't know any more than us about what we do differently when we get up to make coffee or to take the dog for a walk. But they see something.

Ok. I got what your saying now. You were unconsciously using hand signals when you spoke the command, Yes? I've always Incorporated a hand signal with a spoken command with any dog I've trained. That way I don't have to shout when the dog is far away. A dogs keen observation skills pick up the hand signal and it responds to that.
A dog does live in a world where body language is a great part of the language system and I incorporate that with my own dog...Otherwise he may think of himself as top dog.
Indeed this is the main problem when people have dogs that 'Rule the house'. It is because a dog is always vying for a higher status in life and if he can become leader of the pack he will...Even if he doesn't really want the role. It is his nature to get to the top where the food is better and in larger quantity than on the lower rungs (in the dogs world view). The problem is that the human doesn't understand what the dog is trying to pull, because they just think that cutesy wootsy loves cuddly wuddlys with mumzie wumzie. They don't see that a dog is either aggressive dominant or more commonly, submissive dominant which leads to an aggressive dog with strangers as they try and protect their pack as a leader should.



Mick

I would have to agree,body language is something they pick up on very quickly,and it work like a charm. Since my breed of choice is the Doberman,I also used to take them (her) with me when I went collecting rent,and it never ceased to amaze me just how in tune they can be in tune with you. If I started to get tense,because of a tone of voice or noticed someone circling around me,the hair would go up and the low growl,almost imperceptible at first would start and rise or lower depending on the situation. A well trained dog can be one of if not the most important thing you can have with you as a tool for lack of a better term,or partner may be better,as they will show no fear it brought up correctly.

I just thought I'd share that I get to babysit a English mastiff again this weekend with my girlfriend. She's just under a year but she's huge. Great dog, I've only been around her for about 12 hours before and she has become very protective over me (not the 5'3" 110 girl but the 6' guy), she also gets jealous of not only other dogs but my gf and will try to push her of my lap by head-butting her and tugging on her pant leg. Unfortunately I'm moving into a dorm in under a month or I'd try to buy the dog. Just thought I'd drop in and let y'all know.

Originally Posted by Devilpup

I just thought I'd share that I get to babysit a English mastiff again this weekend with my girlfriend. She's just under a year but she's huge. Great dog, I've only been around her for about 12 hours before and she has become very protective over me (not the 5'3" 110 girl but the 6' guy), she also gets jealous of not only other dogs but my gf and will try to push her of my lap by head-butting her and tugging on her pant leg. Unfortunately I'm moving into a dorm in under a month or I'd try to buy the dog. Just thought I'd drop in and let y'all know.

Some women are just the jealous type