#instead of punishing my retriever for picking up stuff from the floor id rather reward him for bringing it to me which creates a basis for | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

dogduocatquartet · 2 years

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going off that last post because my tags were getting too long but my sister (shit with animals and don’t know fuck all about them) has always INSISTED that oskar (a TERRIER/SPITZ MIX) wouldn’t bark if we just trained him better like 😐

and yeah, sure, maybe he wouldn’t, but.. he IS well-trained. my mom and stepdad live in the middle of nowhere, for them his purpose of “alerting everyone when Things Happen” is hugely useful. he never barks for no reason! sometimes the reason is “i heard a deer in the yard at 1 am” which can be annoying but ultimately he’s doing his job. he’s being good.

#text #dogs #she’s one of those dumbasses who are like ''you can train any dog to be/do/act like anything''#like. i guess with enough effort and a malleable enough individual of whatever breed but like.. what’s the point #sounds miserable for both you and the dog #they will always have certain traits and instincts and urges and backgrounds #and i think there’s a sea of difference between training a dog that it’s rewarding to behave a certain way in public for example #vs training it to suppress just about every natural and deeply ingrained instinct and trait and urge it has #like suppression vs redirection. they’re worlds apart to me #take the most BASIC puppy training aka teaching them to pee/poop outside #you’ll get far quicker and better results reinforcing that outside = good!!!!! keep doing it there!!!#than inside = BAD!!!! STOP doing it there!!!#both my dogs that I had as puppies were reliably house-trained within 5 months old #and i say reliably because even though they got the concept far before then they still had baby bladder control and couldn’t always wait #instead of punishing my retriever for picking up stuff from the floor id rather reward him for bringing it to me which creates a basis for #teaching him to tidy the floor basically #again. redirection vs suppression. why would i try to get my retriever to STOP retrieving when i can use it for both our benefit #we’d both be miserable if i got mad every time he picked something up and tried to get him to stop doing it altogether #we’re both happy when i praise him for finding and giving me dirty socks so i can put them in the laundry basket #etc you know. you get my point

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