Apparently I know nothing at all.....

[mrs_aggie]

OMG what a stupid cow, for a start with how little she feeds (IMO) also as for her so called training technique I see that more as a form of torture, your poor pup was probebly terrified of the lunatic chasing him :giggle:. I also believe that obviously all dogs are different what works for one isnt necessarily right for all, I know that tehy are different breeds but what worked with Bella doesnt always work with Nikita.

Hope you've both recovered from meeting the mean woman lol, I think the main thing I have to say is her poor poor dog x

[Sqwidge]

Omg what a crazy lady! My dad has pinned my dog to the floot before and i have gone mental at him several times! Don't be afraid to stand up for your dog. X

[Tams Teeko and Keeta]

She does sound like a complete moron but after reading all this i'd put money on it that you're starting to feel bad for not stopping her so i wanted to say...don't. I understand how you feel when you 'don't want to be rude'. My mam brought us all up to be painfully polite...seriously......and sometimes its hard to speak up. I had a problem with my partners dad who thought he could smack my dog on the nose if he jumped up and he was only very young at the time.

After seeing it twice i think....i finally got the balls to say 'dont do that'. It does help that i've known him my whole life but still....its different when you live with his son lol..... Now i'll challenge him if he does anything i dont like with my dog and after your experience with this complete idiot of a woman...you'll do the same and stand up for your dog time and again.

That said.....i think we should all boole over to this womans house and riugby tackle her to the floor with one leg twisted and an arm behind her back!

[mrs_aggie]

.

That said.....i think we should all boole over to this womans house and riugby tackle her to the floor with one leg twisted and an arm behind her back!

I'd be there :giggle:

[achelow]

If we weren't on different continents I'd be wondering if the "loon" you met was my MIL.. She's watched a few episodes of Cesar Millan and thinks that being heavy-handed with Nadia will solve all the problems she's created.. After catching her *twice* trying to do the alpha roll or what ever the hell it is I also now have the rule of you touch my dog, I kick your ass. Just be thankful you don't have to deal with her on a daily basis and keep training/treating Calvin as you see fit. Don't let anyone else train, treat or reprimand your pup or you'll end up in my situation: I have a perfect angel of a dog at home and a total terrorist when we go to the in-laws. They need consistency, not crazy ladies chasing them around trying to pin them to the ground.

I don't know everything about dogs, but at least I know enough to train mine while maintaining and up-most level of happiness. I've seen a lot of "trained" dogs and to me they all seem miserable because they live to do everything a person says, and not what they want, and sadly the person is stupid in most cases so you have a dog doing things a stupid person says.

Sorry, I know someone like that lady whom we have to interact with often because she is family, so people like that make my blood boil.

I had a trainer for Nadia (although forget $300 a session, I didn't pay that much for the entire 6-week course) and she was amazing. I've had 3 dogs before and my dad was a dog handler in the RAF so I know the basics, I just didn't want to get anything wrong. Not all trainers churn out miserable, robot-like dogs.. Nadia had a blast during training and still loves putting on shows each night when we're out on our walks.

[loriam]

that. is. in. sane.

She's watched a few episodes of Cesar Millan...

patric's mom started doing the cesar millan thing with athena - that noise he makes, ugh. since she's been watching it, she thinks she's an expert now. it gets annoying. "he trained oprah's dogs!" sheesh, sheople. anyways, it doesn't work. it works to irritate me.

[Storm Angel n Auroras Mum]

I would have slapped her.

[davidjk]

some people will take what so called self proclaimed experts as gospel, it just goes to show how ignorant they are, a closed mind is one that cannot learn.

i have had several dogs growing up, so i figured i could handle a husky no problem, i read everything i could.

when i got Micha i realized how little i knew. different dogs have different personalities.

i have 2 huskies, and while some things work for both my dogs, some things are different for them both. micha is more of an alpha and needs firm handling (not rough), you have to have an iron will. suki is a huge softee who is so easy going you at times might think she is a lab.

this forum is one of the best places i have found for help, in fact of it wasn't for this forum i may have got rid of micha when she was young, but advice and reading topics helped. and now i would rather cut of an arm than get rid of her or suki.

i will offer advice when i feel i can, but it is usually "we did this and it worked" rather than "do this"

if you get told something feel free to come to this site and ask other people

i think it is time for you to say thank you for your advice but no thank you. good luck.

p.s. the bit about exercise before trying to train is good advice, huskies have lots of energy, and want to run and run and run it is after all what they are naturally inclined to do. if you let them burn some of this energy off they may be easier to train.

my 2 have recall, both can sit and one gives paw thats good enough for me.

[sam.partridge]

Wow...

I paid £30 (around $55 I guess) for Magic's 6 week puppy course! And she was brill!

Was her dog actually well behaved after all that? Xx

[Staceybob]

I love how when people pay lots of money for trainers they instantly think that makes them a know it all because they can regurgitate all the stuff they've been told.

Dont let her handle your dog.

And natural yoghurt is very good!

Stacey xxx

[achelow]

p.s. the bit about exercise before trying to train is good advice, huskies have lots of energy, and want to run and run and run it is after all what they are naturally inclined to do. if you let them burn some of this energy off they may be easier to train.

my 2 have recall, both can sit and one gives paw thats good enough for me.

Even that changes so much from dog to dog, my trainer insisted that Nadia get no excercise whatsoever before the training sessions - she's such a dozy dog she actually spent most of the first training session asleep! Like you said - absolutely everything has to be adapted from one dog to another and these so called experts who only have experience from one dog or a stupid TV show don't realize that.. I'm only a new member on here but I started following and reading the site from about 3 months before we got Nadia and it's been the best "training tool" I've been able to find anywhere, not for Nadia but for myself.. When people churn out nonsense i just make sure it is nonsense, shake it off and then share it on the forum and at least everyone gets a good laugh

[Bec]

The whole exercise before you train can also depend on the methods you use, I never exercise my dogs before training them because I want every ounce of that energy for my training sessions - I train using very high energy methods and a tired dog is no good to me!

When I was younger I used to be shy about saying anything about the way other people would handle my dogs, like someone else said I was always raised to be polite. I had a dog washer try to alpha roll my puppy in the hydrobath once and I still YEARS later feel so guilty that I didn't defend my dog and stop the lady from doing it. Lucky my pup has relatively strong nerves so wasn't adversely affected by it, but since then I have toughed up and I will always say something now. Although having said that I rarely ever let other people handle my dogs, I only ever hand the leash over to people I trust and respect.

[Tan J P]

i personally just dont understand all this spend x amount of £'s on a behaviourist thing!!

if you can't train your dog then i'm sorry you shouldn't have one,ordinarily,you would have done some research into whichever breed you wanted and then seriously thought about whether it was right for you.

my dogs are far from perfect,but,they know how to sit,wait,stop etc etc all the basics......most of the time!!! they are friendly and family pets so thats enough for me.

i have 2 rescues that had a few issues but with help from here and lots of commitment from us we have worked our way through them and definitely turned a corner.

i do think a lot of the time,people get a cute puppy and from the onset dont start the basic training early enough,and then by the time the pup is displaying unwanted behaviour,they are wondering what is wrong with it......probably nothing,it just hasn't had the guidance and that brings you back round to, its not the dogs fault its the owners!!!

[sam.partridge]

i personally just dont understand all this spend x amount of £'s on a behaviourist thing!!

if you can't train your dog then i'm sorry you shouldn't have one,ordinarily,you would have done some research into whichever breed you wanted and then seriously thought about whether it was right for you.

my dogs are far from perfect,but,they know how to sit,wait,stop etc etc all the basics......most of the time!!! they are friendly and family pets so thats enough for me.

i have 2 rescues that had a few issues but with help from here and lots of commitment from us we have worked our way through them and definitely turned a corner.

i do think a lot of the time,people get a cute puppy and from the onset dont start the basic training early enough,and then by the time the pup is displaying unwanted behaviour,they are wondering what is wrong with it......probably nothing,it just hasn't had the guidance and that brings you back round to, its not the dogs fault its the owners!!!

I don't think going to puppy classes is a bad thing, I'm perfectally capable of training Magic on my own but I took him to puppy training for socialisation and advise from other people. You can never have to much advise, you just pick out the bits that suit you and your dog. I think "if you can't train your puppy you shouldn't have one" is a little harsh, everyone has to start somewhere. Xx

[Bec]

i personally just dont understand all this spend x amount of £'s on a behaviourist thing!!

if you can't train your dog then i'm sorry you shouldn't have one,ordinarily,you would have done some research into whichever breed you wanted and then seriously thought about whether it was right for you.

my dogs are far from perfect,but,they know how to sit,wait,stop etc etc all the basics......most of the time!!! they are friendly and family pets so thats enough for me.

i have 2 rescues that had a few issues but with help from here and lots of commitment from us we have worked our way through them and definitely turned a corner.

i do think a lot of the time,people get a cute puppy and from the onset dont start the basic training early enough,and then by the time the pup is displaying unwanted behaviour,they are wondering what is wrong with it......probably nothing,it just hasn't had the guidance and that brings you back round to, its not the dogs fault its the owners!!!

I strongly disagree and actually find what you wrote above very insulting.

There are many reasons why people seek professional help to train their dogs, and it's not because they are bad owners. IMO bad owners wouldn't bother paying for a professional to help them. It's very insulting to say that if you seek professional help you're irresponsible and shouldn't own a dog in the first place

The first time I consulted a behaviourist - which actually only cost about $80 - was because my Siberian had been attacked several times as a young puppy at the local dog park and had developed fear aggression towards other dogs. He'd literally run across the park to attack another dog. I'm not sure how that would fit into your theory, because his issues had nothing to do with a lack of research on my part nor was it because I chose the wrong breed for me. How was I supposed to prevent the other dogs from attacking my puppy? I couldn't, it happened in a split second in a public off leash park that should have been a safe place to take my dog (I never take my dogs to dog parks anymore). I didn't have the skills or knowledge on how to fix his behaviour, in fact it actually got a lot worse. How is it irresponsible to seek professional help? If you need it, you need it and I would MUCH rather see a dog owner ADMIT they need help than see the dog's behaviour get worse and worse because some arrogant person told them that if they got professional help they are somehow a bad owner, and that they should automatically know how to fix their dog's problems.

The second time I consulted a behaviourist was because I wanted to learn about a specific training method to get the best out of my dog so we could compete in obedience and other dog sports, something we are now actually pretty good at, and something that quite a lot of people told me would be impossible to do with the dog I had.

I cannot tell you how much my relationship with both my dogs have improved because I consulted professionals, reputable ones who knew what they were doing.

I actually think that we'd save a lot of dogs from being surrendered if more people consulting with trainers when they got their pup (and even before they bring it home) - BEFORE problems arise. As an obedience instructor I can tell you I know plenty of good dog owners who simply don't have the skills needed to train their dogs on their own, I'm certainly not going to fault them for showing up to my classes.

I think if you spent some time with reputable behaviourists and trainers you'd soon change your opinion. Wouldn't you rather see someone consult a professional than have their dog PTS or surrendered?

[achelow]

i personally just dont understand all this spend x amount of £'s on a behaviourist thing!!

if you can't train your dog then i'm sorry you shouldn't have one,ordinarily,you would have done some research into whichever breed you wanted and then seriously thought about whether it was right for you.

my dogs are far from perfect,but,they know how to sit,wait,stop etc etc all the basics......most of the time!!! they are friendly and family pets so thats enough for me.

i have 2 rescues that had a few issues but with help from here and lots of commitment from us we have worked our way through them and definitely turned a corner.

i do think a lot of the time,people get a cute puppy and from the onset dont start the basic training early enough,and then by the time the pup is displaying unwanted behaviour,they are wondering what is wrong with it......probably nothing,it just hasn't had the guidance and that brings you back round to, its not the dogs fault its the owners!!!

I don't agree, let me try to explain why we got help. I did do a lot of research, but Nadia was pretty much a rescue - a 4 month old that had never been indoors and whose litter-mates ended up at the pound or passed from home to home. They had zero socialization with people (and was almost catatonic with fear when we first got her) and I felt that I needed all the help I could get. I didn't get a trainer to help me with how to teach her to sit, wait, down etc, I got a trainer because I needed help teaching her that she has to respect people (especially my OH who had a lot of problems with Nadia to begin with) and to help us in gaining her trust. I know we'd have got there in the end, but working with our trainer I never felt at all frustrated, and it was worth every penny. She didn't train Nadia as such, she made sure we knew how to train Nadia and pointed out certain things I hadn't even noticed were beginning to develop before they became problems. A very simple example would be that I've seen it said a lot of times on this site and on others that one should distract a puppy with a toy if they bite/nip - I didn't realize why this wasn't working for us at all until our trainer pointed out that with Nadia she was actually seeing the toy as a reward for having nipped at us, the no or the short time-out before the toy didn't work at all because she knew that if she nipped eventually the toy would come.. I never noticed that but sure enough, as soon as we stopped "rewarding" her with a toy, she stopped nipping. I know these days one can learn a lot by reading or by participating in forums like this, but I know that experience also means a lot. I had absolutely no practical experience of the breed, only what I had read, but my trainer did. I chose her because she knew the breed and now we're even beginning agility together. I definitely don't agree that just because you choose to get help (or need it for that matter) in the early days that you shouldn't have a dog.

[Tan J P]

I don't think going to puppy classes is a bad thing, I'm perfectally capable of training Magic on my own but I took him to puppy training for socialisation and advise from other people. You can never have to much advise, you just pick out the bits that suit you and your dog. I think "if you can't train your puppy you shouldn't have one" is a little harsh, everyone has to start somewhere. Xx

i'm sorry,i didnt actually mean puppy classes.....i meant paying for these super inflated behaviourist,puppy classes are a great idea!!

[Tan J P]

@ Bec....my intention was not to insult anybody,i haven't explained myself very well

i am not talking about puppy classes,or necassarily people who have took on rescues and are trying to work out their problems

i am talking about people who have a puppy and dont do anything with it regarding training,then months down the line are horrified when they have a dog they cant handle,and then seek a behaviourist wondering what is wrong with their dog!.....thats what i mean about a bad owner.and i'm sorry but in my opinion they are.

[Bec]

I'm confused... you said first that if you do enough research there is no need to seek professional help to train your dog because it's something we should all magically know how to do, but now you're saying it's ok to seek professional help as long it's only for certain types of classes?

Dog training is an unregulated industry which certainly means there are scam artists and frauds operating within it, but you get that in any industry. The time quite recently actually that I spent close to $300 on a consult with one of the best behaviourists in the country is a price I'd consider cheap for what I learnt. As I mentioned earlier I've also paid only $80 for a consult with another excellent behaviourist. Cost is not an indicator of quality when it comes to dog training.

[Bec]

@ Bec....my intention was not to insult anybody,i haven't explained myself very well

i am not talking about puppy classes,or necassarily people who have took on rescues and are trying to work out their problems

i am talking about people who have a puppy and dont do anything with it regarding training,then months down the line are horrified when they have a dog they cant handle,and then seek a behaviourist wondering what is wrong with their dog!.....thats what i mean about a bad owner.and i'm sorry but in my opinion they are.

Yes but at least they recognise that a problem is arising and seek help, a bad or irresponsible owner wouldn't do that. How responsible they are IMO is demonstrated by what they do after the consult and how much of the behaviourist's advice they apply.

ETA: We had my Siberian from eight weeks of age so he wasn't a rescue, so I'm not sure how he fits into your "theory" about people who seek professional help.

[BingBlaze n Skyla]

i havent read all the replies! but he is only 4 months old for christ sakes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! running away with a treat is probs cuz he was scared of her and quite rightly so! does she not flipping know puppies need to be fed more!!!!! :banghead2: omg i wouldnt be seeing her again hun!

hope poor lil calvin is ok! and that his leg is fine aswell *hugs*

[RoseWillow&Dexter]

i can't stand people like that grrrrrr i wouldnt be seeing her again!! on what planet is it okay to pin down someone elses dog!!

[Tan J P]

I dont understand what you are picking at Bec

you use behaviourists and thats fine thats your choice

i dont and thats also fine thats my choice.

there is no magic in teaching a puppy the basic commands,why would you need a behaviourist for this?

i am talking about a new 8wk old puppy,and if you (not you personally) cant be bothered to take the time and commitment in training it the basics,then i stand by what i said....IMO....that makes you an irresponsible owner.

[Bec]

I dont understand what you are picking at Bec

you use behaviourists and thats fine thats your choice

i dont and thats also fine thats my choice.

And that would have been fine if that's all you had said, but you didn't just say that it was your opinion, you went on to have a go at people who DO seek professional help and said that if they do so, they shouldn't have got the dog in the first place, or doing so was because they hadn't done enough research etc.

there is no magic in teaching a puppy the basic commands,why would you need a behaviourist for this?

The dozens and dozens of people we have turn up to our obedience club each week would prove that raising a puppy successfully is actually not that easy for the average person. Raising a puppy successfully is about so much more than training basic commands.

How many people understand a puppy's critical development period?

How many people understand how to properly socialise their dogs?

How many people know how to train their puppy not to toilet in the house, not to pull on the leash, not to get over excited when it sees other dogs etc?

I would suggest I know more about dog training than the average person, but when I get my new puppy (that I'm on a waiting list for as we speak) I will be consulting my behavioust about it well BEFORE I bring my puppy home. How do I know how to pick the most appropriate puppy for me from the litter? How do I tell which puppies have weaker nerves and how do I test their different levels of drive? There's nothing like having the benefit of a reputable behaviourist there to help you and rely on giving you practiced and sound advice when your puppy does something you weren't expecting or to pick up on errors you are making before you even realise you are making them.

i am talking about a new 8wk old puppy,and if you (not you personally) cant be bothered to take the time and commitment in training it the basics,then i stand by what i said....IMO....that makes you an irresponsible owner.

I TOTALLY agree that people should be willing to put time into training their dogs but IMO doing so with the guidance of a reputable behaviourist can only benefit them and their pup. I wish more people would considering consulting a professional before or when they bring their puppies home, it would save me a lot of trouble when the dog hits adolescence and starts to develop seriously bad habits.

[achelow]

there is no magic in teaching a puppy the basic commands,why would you need a behaviourist for this?

i am talking about a new 8wk old puppy,and if you (not you personally) cant be bothered to take the time and commitment in training it the basics,then i stand by what i said....IMO....that makes you an irresponsible owner.

I think you have misunderstood the idea of a behaviourist or trainer completely - or maybe I have. I actually think it took more effort and commitment training with someone than it would have done to train her myself. A behaviourist doesn't magically make things better, and a good trainer doesn't train your dog - they train you, the owner, along with your dog. There is still effort - a lot of it - involved when training with a trainer or behaviourist and it certainly isn't the lazy or irresponsible way out. It isn't just for basic commands either, to be honest I probably would have limited us with basic commands had I trained Nadia on my own but together our trainer showed Nadia and us how much fun learning was - not just commands but the rules of the home. She's mastered a ton of "tricks" in the house (from switching the lights on and off on command to the latest command we worked on - carpet: she folds the carpet over as I vacuum underneath, pretty useless but fun for her and amusing for us) and is starting agility this weekend. IMO getting professional help doesn't make you an irresponsible owner, not training at all or not seeking help when you're having trouble makes you an irresponsible owner.