Humans, dogs, and the "get-it" factor

Ahhh, one of my gripes that can greatly help the dog situation..  The vet clinic is the place where owner and professionals come together, that is have to come together by law.  A perfect example of missed opportunities and if I dare say lost revenue.  Your experience is a reflection on the vet's office and the staff.  Mine is not like this.

And, bring in a Pittie and see how fast the room gets lopsided with people and their dogs.

People live on denial, thats why so many persons are surprised when the dog bites somebody "but i thought my dog was an angel" even when the whole neighborhood knew it was a time bomb

Angelique, now you know what I am faced with every six weeks when a new class starts LOL. [sm=eek.gif]

I work at a vet clinic, so I must say"welcome to my world".  The situation you were in is a day after day occurance.  Before working at a clinic, I was lax about training.  My dogs could sit, down, walk nicely on the leash, but nothing extra.  After about three weeks at the clinic, I realized that I was almost as bad as these clients who were driving me crazy.  To say the least, all of my dogs are trained quite well now.  I love to walk into the waiting room with one of my dogs & put them in down-stay & leave him/her there just to show everyone that it is possible.  I know it's showing off a bit, but come on, if mine can do it then everyone else's dog should be able to as well.

I think that what your seeing is that most people don't expect much from their dogs. 
 
And, most people don't care to spend time learning how to properly care for them and that includes training.
 
It's not just the dogs though, it's the kids too.  And, it's only going to continue as these poorly raised kids have kids of their own. 
 
 

I think a very, very small proportion of dog owners actually care to do the research and effort like we on this forum do. I can't tell you how much time I spent outlining training strategies, goals, and boundaries before we adopted our dog.
 
Your average owner just goes into it blindly, and the results reflect that. How many people do you know that repeat commands five times until the dog listens, scold the dog for coming back after it bolts out the front door, never pick up a single dog training resource, scold the dog 10x more often then they praise it, etc.

I think that what your seeing is that most people don't expect much from their dogs.

 
That's true.  Afterall, it's just a dog......
 
You will get out of it what you expect.  Like Scout mentioned, many people don't do research, have no clue as to training their dog (I truly believe most people think that Labs just come wanting to be good with kids, laying around and not causing any problems!)  Then, they find out the hard way and there a gazillion Lab/mixes in shelters these days. 
 
People that repeat commands a million times and the dog still ignores them..... but, their kids are also like this too!  One day the lightbulb will go off and they'll "get it"! 

ORIGINAL: Mastiff


People that repeat commands a million times and the dog still ignores them..... but, their kids are also like this too!  One day the lightbulb will go off and they'll "get it"! 

LOL lets hope. I work closely with five vets offices becuase of the problem dogs they see. As far as repeating commands over and over, that's as funny as someone who calls their dogs name, then says stay, and then get upset because the dog comes to them.

I am going to say this from an owner's point of view that JUST realized the importance/necessity of an training her dog.
Ella did everything in our house that was expected of her. She sat for the most part when asked and she downed most of the time when asked. If we told her to get off of something, she did. She never jumped on people and never bark or growled at anyone when they came over. She was controllable in the vet's office, but that was not usually a crowded place.

Well, I had to take her to a vet's office one day that was a bit crowded with a variety of different dogs and cats. My boyfriend stayed outside with her while I stayed in until we were called back because I darn well know that my dog has some aggression towards...whatever dogs trip her trigger. And with Ella, I could treat and do "watch me" until I'm blue in the face, but if she is in "the mode", NOTHING is going to make her focus on me right now.

I can kind of relate to the person who was in the vet's office who put her dog into a "sit" position and then a "down" and her dog got back up and was kind of all over the place. Not that Ella is like that, but in certain situations, less experienced dog owners who are just beginners and are TRYING our butts off, can get a little nervous which, of course, only worsens the situation and dog's behavior.

It's not that the dogs are out of control, it's that the owners don't know what the hell they're doing. And when they got their dog, probably didn't realize how much they needed to know about dog behavior and training to make it right with their dog.
But some ARE trying, they just are in the beginning stages and probably a bit unsure of themselves and that comes with time and practice.
Some people, like me, don't get the opportunity to take their dog out to many places to socialize (With Ella being a pit bull, it's not like I get to take her around many dogs to practice proper dog/dog manners) and observe just how she reacts around other animals and in different situations.


Sorry, I'm rambling. I'll stop.

ORIGINAL: Awsomedog

... I work closely with five vets offices becuase of the problem dogs they see. As far as repeating commands over and over, that's as funny as someone who calls their dogs name, then says stay, and then get upset because the dog comes to them.

 
Good to read.
 
For my dogs and fosters, I don#%92t have a lot of expectations.  As long as they housetrained,  easy to walk, respect my things, are not aggressive, no play in house, and don#%92t lick my face, they can do what they want. 
 
I am in the foster and the home placement biz and at Petsmart I show the fosters to the public.  There has not been one encounter where the topic of training does not come up.  If I can recommend a trainer for an unruly dog or get the trainer information for a dog that is well behaved, I think I have done a good public service.  It is so easy to plant a seed since the common element for the discussion is the dog.  How hard is it to ask someone if they have taken dog to obedience class and then either get or give recommendations.   
 
One of the posters state “now you know what I am faced with every six weeks when a new class starts”.  How did the owner find their way to the class?  Was it a recommendation from vet clinic?  From a trainer sitting in a vet Clinic?  A shelter they happen to visit, public advertising, etc.
 
I don#%92t fault people for not knowing any better.  It was not too long ago that I was in that position and I am still learning.  I put more responsibility on the dog professional and those who help home dogs.  If I was in the OP#%92s vet clinic, I would not have hid the corner and said nothing, but I would have offered friendly advice or trainer recommendations.  If I was part of the vet#%92s staff, my pockets would be filled with business cards from people who train dogs. 
 
The OP ask are America#%92s dogs really this out of control?  I think the last stats I saw was that there are 44 million dogs in 35 million households.  There are about 3 million in shelters.  I don#%92t think you can make any generalizations from the small sample observed especially in a vet clinic where the dog has anxiety for just being there. 
 

I think part of what contributes to this outward appearance of "uncontrollable dog chaos" is that many people only train their dogs in their own homes. I was guilty of this too. I mean, you're there everyday, it's convenient, you can do it during tv commercials! But then you go to a busy park or whatever and realize Fido's perfect stay isn't so perfect anymore.

I think that what your seeing is that most people don't expect much from their dogs. 

I think Willow hit the nail on the head there!

I think another reason is that people don't seem to realize that well-behaved dogs are created - bot born. They seem to think that some dogs just come with the "Ultra-Deluxe Perfect Behavior" package. Like a dog is a computer and if the dog/computer doesn't work as expected it's the manufacturer's problem. Not operator error!

I guess the owners think is the dogs personality "well he is that way since he was born" and they just surrender themselves to some subconscious idea of some kind of  "dog zodiacal sign", you know something like "well if the dog was born in march he is going to be this and this and this other way and thats the way is always gonna be"
 
Like Cesar says, it#%92s important to remember that all dogs are “animal” first, “dog” second, “breed” third and "personality" fourth, most people see it totally in the opposite way

I agree with Chewbecca and South in that when the environment changes the dog does not act like his normal self.  That just means you have more work to do and the dog needs more exposure to different situation.
 
This past Saturday at the foster dog showing, two volunteers were to handle Marvin and Newt, both 70lbs-ish.  The dogs are fine at home, fine when I have them in public, but when the handler changed, the dogs were unruly.  So now my goal is to teach the dog to train new handlers.