So we had some friends over on Sunday. Chopper had met my friend, Dani, before but she's never been to our house. He was kissing her and whatnot. She told him to sit and he would not listen. I was rather embarrassed. She said "Doesn't he know any tricks?" I told her he knows commands and told him to "Sit!" He did. I told him "Down!" he listened to me but would not obey her. Although I was a bit embarrassed that he wouldn't obey her, another prt of me feels that, hey this is MY dog. As long as he listens to me and my family, that's all I need. Am I off base? Should I work on having Chopper obey everyone?
Chopper won't obey commands from strangers
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I don't think you should worry at all about his not obeying commands from strangers. Dogs take a lot of things into account when they're being given a command: the word, tone of voice, facial expression, body language. To Chopper, "sit" from your friend probably meant nothing because her body language, facial expression, and tone of voice weren't exactly like yours.
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As I was growing up and saw my father raising dogs, one of his beliefs was that dogs
should only obey the commands of its owner. His reasoning behind this view was,
it keeps the dog safe from being hurt doing something they are not suppose to do
but commanded to do by some one else, poisoned by eating something given to them
from someone not liking dogs and/or being kidnapped by someone that tells them to
jump into a car or truck. My father raised hunting dogs and it was a long time belief
that the dogs only obey his command. Of course, Chopper is not a hunting dog but
he has the inner dog sense that does not recognize your friend as his command giver.
should only obey the commands of its owner. His reasoning behind this view was,
it keeps the dog safe from being hurt doing something they are not suppose to do
but commanded to do by some one else, poisoned by eating something given to them
from someone not liking dogs and/or being kidnapped by someone that tells them to
jump into a car or truck. My father raised hunting dogs and it was a long time belief
that the dogs only obey his command. Of course, Chopper is not a hunting dog but
he has the inner dog sense that does not recognize your friend as his command giver.
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Personally, I do not want my dogs taking commands from anyone besides me or my husband. If you think about it, if your dog obeys strangers, it could make it alot easier for harm to be done to your dog.
In fact, more than one trainer I have worked with has actually purposely set the dogs up to NOT listen to anyone besides their handler. The trainer would give a command like "sit" and if the dog responded by sitting, the dog would be corrected for it.
In fact, more than one trainer I have worked with has actually purposely set the dogs up to NOT listen to anyone besides their handler. The trainer would give a command like "sit" and if the dog responded by sitting, the dog would be corrected for it.
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Interesting! How long does it usually take the dog to completely ignore commands from other people? Does it ever confuse them when they're working with their owners in obedience?Lisa said:
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I agree! I don't want my dogs listening to anyone but me!Lisa said:
I never knew trainers would do that.
I was going to tie this into your other post about Chopper thwarting the car burglarly but then thought it belongs here. As for Chopper not listening or taking a command from your friend or someone else, I agree with the others, Chopper should only be trained to take commands from you & your husband. We had our Chopper for his 1st "professional" training session last night. It was more like an eye opener for & training session for us. So much that we were not doing correctly. Let Chopper take his commands from you because you know what you want Chopper to do. Someone's idea of "down or sit" could be totally different from yours & you don't want Chopper to become confused.
As for our Chopper, mom & dad have our work cut out for us. We were with the trainer for 2 hours & WOW. Having owned dogs since 1974 & all those years we've been doing things backwards. It's taken our "bully" to bully us into professional training sessions to teach his "old" parents something new!
Just stay with Chopper taking your commands. He's a really great dog!
Maria
The other "Chopper's" mom
As for our Chopper, mom & dad have our work cut out for us. We were with the trainer for 2 hours & WOW. Having owned dogs since 1974 & all those years we've been doing things backwards. It's taken our "bully" to bully us into professional training sessions to teach his "old" parents something new!
Just stay with Chopper taking your commands. He's a really great dog!
Maria
The other "Chopper's" mom
i agree but disagree i have my wife my 2 kids 12-13 and my foks 65+ over all the time dosent matter whos tells the dogs to sit / down / stay ...they do it ... last thing i want is for they to not lissen when need be ,..now as far as a stranger ...NOT a chance we were at petsmart last week and Vegas just looked at the girl behind the counter she tryed to get him to site to take a treat no luck :lol: till the wife sayd Vegas site ...and down he went ...so i think it's ok for your dog to take
(some commands from more than one person ) site, down ,stay,nice , and so on but others sutchs as go ,heal,watch ,relise , i keep to my self only i use these words in traning ! :wink:
(some commands from more than one person ) site, down ,stay,nice , and so on but others sutchs as go ,heal,watch ,relise , i keep to my self only i use these words in traning ! :wink:
As long as the person is a member of the pack I have no problem with Sheila obeying them, my fiance, mother, and sister (well maybe not her all the time, its fun to watch Sheila pounce on her :twisted: ) Now just friends and strangers, she just gives this stupid look to and takes the treat! My friends ask why she wont sit, down and stay for them, I tell them she is not a wind up toy :lol: for their amusement, she is a 100% lean, mean, heartless, vicious, toy killing machine!!!
Your wife, kids & your folks are all part of your "pack". Your dogs know & understand this. Thereby they listen to their commands. I don't think anyone wants their dog to be taking directions from strangers. Who knows what fool is gonna say "sic em"?
Learning to become pack leader is turning out to be much harder than I originally expected. Chopper wears his lease in the house now so that we're able to make that quick correction. It's the timing part we need to get down pat. But it's only been 2 days & Rome wasn't built in a day.
Maria
P.S. For those who followed my post about Chopper eating the computer mouse ball. He apparently didn't. Yippee! I kept doing the poo walk & check for several days. His behavior never changed, so we just kept an eye out. He had gotten into other stuff after that incident & all the "other stuff" came out. Yesterday he worked on the big white candle & other stuff again. Our daughter had cleaned up the mess by the time I came home from work. When I looked around, there was the computer mouse ball back where it belongs. I haven't had an opportunity to ask her where she found it because she works nights.
Thanks, guys!
Maria
Chopper's mama
Learning to become pack leader is turning out to be much harder than I originally expected. Chopper wears his lease in the house now so that we're able to make that quick correction. It's the timing part we need to get down pat. But it's only been 2 days & Rome wasn't built in a day.
Maria
P.S. For those who followed my post about Chopper eating the computer mouse ball. He apparently didn't. Yippee! I kept doing the poo walk & check for several days. His behavior never changed, so we just kept an eye out. He had gotten into other stuff after that incident & all the "other stuff" came out. Yesterday he worked on the big white candle & other stuff again. Our daughter had cleaned up the mess by the time I came home from work. When I looked around, there was the computer mouse ball back where it belongs. I haven't had an opportunity to ask her where she found it because she works nights.
Thanks, guys!
Maria
Chopper's mama
nice dog.
Your dog is not someone else's dog. However, I don't necessarily think it is a bad thing for it to listen to people who is not a threat. It is like someone asking YOU to come so they can show you something. You would come, right? Why would you not, as long as "the boss" (owner) is near by and it is a friendly situation, I think it is fine.
It depends on the dominance of the dog. I call it the dink factor.
My dogs do not always listen to my wife. LOL! They listen to her selectively. Sometimes I wonder who is training who.
My wife is very inconsistent and all she does is give smooches to the dogs, so it is no wonder they don't listen. :lol: They do love her to death, though.
Your dog is not someone else's dog. However, I don't necessarily think it is a bad thing for it to listen to people who is not a threat. It is like someone asking YOU to come so they can show you something. You would come, right? Why would you not, as long as "the boss" (owner) is near by and it is a friendly situation, I think it is fine.
It depends on the dominance of the dog. I call it the dink factor.
My dogs do not always listen to my wife. LOL! They listen to her selectively. Sometimes I wonder who is training who.
My wife is very inconsistent and all she does is give smooches to the dogs, so it is no wonder they don't listen. :lol: They do love her to death, though.
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Harley doesn't listen to ANYONE except me. My sister thinks this should be "fixed", but I could care less if my dogs only listen to me. It works for me.
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