Don’t let your dog train you!
Dogs are intelligent animals and no doubt outsmart their owners at times! I thought I would share my story where Giles trained me back in 2010, hopefully you can learn by my mistake!
Being an Irish Red and White setter, we have numerically small classes. When he came out there were two other dog puppies and a larger number of bitches. At champ shows he generally only had 2-3 in his class and open shows varied between 2-8. He was always beaten by his sister so never got a best puppy in breed and group experience.
When he was about 18 months he took his first BOB and had his first group and his first large class of about 25! During this time he got bored, sat down and wouldn’t move in the line! So I made my first mistake, I lured him with a treat and then gave it to him, so again he sat down, refused to move, I lured with a treat and gave it to him and this went on a few times. You can see where this went. If he Sat and refused to move, he got a treat!!!!!
I have since then given myself a serious telling off as nearly two years on, he still tries it on, although now I don’t get the treats out, I just gently remind him we are moving!
I have learnt my lesson and happy to admit, my dog trained me! But I will never let it happen again, until next time!
Moral of the story….never underestimate the intelligence of a dog!