2020 12 19
How would you Like to be trying to work and have somebody come in bang you in the top of the head four times it wouldn't take long for you to try and stop them and unfortunately the only thing dogs have to stop them with is growl starl and teeth in about that progression.
so when you have a well trained dog out there's nothing in the world that says you're supposed to allow the general public the Pat that dog and in my opinion I don't think you ought to let them .. because it could be a matter of time till the dog says I'm really kind of sick of this .. and at that point humans will decide the dog is wrong . so protect your dog .. many of you have heard these two stories before but it bears repeating .
the first great day that I purchased from the BMW kennel in roll Long Island was Tiffany .. the mother of the 8th but we eventually ended up going all over Boston with on that crazy bed $1000 a day .. crazy way to make a living however Tiffany was padded handled whatever you want to call it with hundreds of thousands of people the topsfield fairgrounds the Esplanade concert they chowderfest and harborfest and riverfest and all those other fests where we just set up and people would stream past the bed and talk about their dogs .. I had the eight dogs with me no leash no collars and usually two or three would be on the bed and the rest would hide if they wanted to like under the bed and I would watch for them to get tired of people and swap off dogs but Tiffany was the old reliable ..and then we were at the Prudential tower ..
It was the usual setup a few donkeys the dogs in the bed and 100 baby chickens .. it was crowded Tiffany was loose wandering around . and all of a sudden came to me growling and obviously upset and turned and looked at the little girl that was approaching her I grabbed tiffany's towels to hold her down while the kid came in I had no idea what's going on .. but the kid patted the dog while I held on to her and she went away and Tiffany relaxed back to her usual self .. no big deal ??? well a year later the same place at the Pru the same hundreds of people and she had the same reaction when that one kid came along and what was the problem I do not know but she had a definite opinion about that kid .
many of you who are older in this crowd knew Bailey the white dog -- Perfect dog perfect manners absolutely reliable she is the dog that's in the tree and we set up for many many photographs .. and she hated George Myers .. I don't think I ever took her to him for veterinary care .. I do remember back when she was of a size that I was carrying her I walked into his office and he said that's the “ugliest Great Dane puppy I have ever seen “ he may have been kidding I don't really know .. she turned out beautifully but any rate I don't see how the puppy could be could remember that but Bailey hated George I could tell if she was in the house and George drove up the driveway she wanted to kill him simply ..... one day a dog fest he said you watch I could win her over I'll give her a cookie .. and he held out the cookie and she with very stiff legs and me talking to her walked up and took that cookie and backed away and growled at him. I just had to be very careful when George was around because if she had been George somebody would have decided she was vicious or something that's the only person she did it with he was 1000% reliable with everybody else .
so there are times well it's up to you to protect your dog and allow them their opinion stop them before they get in trouble ..
To deal with the general public and animals and the relationship between the two is a dicey experience. I don't know who decided people could do no wrong .
so with all your people with our dogs .. keep the people away from them .. it is just plain simpler that way .
Now back to trying to teach a dog to do anything meaningful ... as in walk quietly next to a person and help them up and down stairs .... you cannot do that by holding the leash so tight that you're restricting them . they must find out that walking next to you is the best thing to do even though the leash is hanging slightly loose .
we had a problem with Henry who's a very long dog .. going up stairs and downstairs .. he could see no reason not to take two or three steps at a time ..
There is one line of training thought which would say block him from taking two steps at a time .. with either a physical barrier or tight leash .. I don't think so
I prefer to explain to the dog right at the bottom of the steps that we're going to go up these steps one at a time talking to him constantly and having him realized something strange is going on and he better think about it .. in Henry's case he would do pretty well when are the first few steps either up or down but the ability had to start thinking of those two back legs he had way back there that had to catch up he got a little mixed up so it took a little bit of effort for us to work in the program Henry's back legs.. but last report I had he was doing pretty well and at least stopped galloping up the stairs
Henry is also an example of the fact that he has achieved boredom an awful lot of things and is ready to think about work so he's coming along nicely .
Now if we just went upstairs then downstairs then upstairs and downstairs in the hotel it would not take long for Henry decide it's entirely too boring any rather do something else----- so you do have to partition the training session and something like stairs with going around this chairs in the bar they're coming back to the stairs or going and sitting down and getting up and come back to stairs -----it's even very difficult the climb go up a flight of stairs turn around at the top and come down again ...
the dogs are capable of deciding you're an idiot .. so to prevent that from happening you have to go up the stairs and then go somewhere and then come down again ..takes a few extra minutes but respect the dog's intellectual capabilities .. especially if they're trying to decide whether you're sane or not. Go up the stairs and then go to the far end of some room sit down Pat the dog ask him to help you get up then go over and go down the stairs is a much better progression ..then going up the stairs and turning around and coming down ..
