Quote:
Originally Posted by raindog
I think this is absolutely right in most cases. I think there are some exceptions to this however - especially amongst those dog breeds which have been developed to think independently, assess situations and act accordingly. I am thinking primarily of sled dogs and livestock guardian dogs. For example, you can train a Siberian Husky (or rather it can train itself) to do anything, but it will make its own decision about whether it follows commands. A husky may retrieve a ball the first couple of times it's thrown, for example. But the next time you throw it, your dog is likely to give you an "old fashioned" look which says - "You threw it - you f*$*ing get it!"
These sort of dogs may well be obedient 99% of the time as they like to please you and are probably having fun basking in the attention you are giving them. It is the 1% which is the problem, when they decide that they will do what they feel is right, irrespective of commands from their owner.
Mick
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Totally agree. We own two intelligent breeds - border collies and bergamaschi. The borders learn quickly and do things because they want to please you - but the bergies are a different kettle of fish. They were bred to think for themselves - they were often sent up into the mountains with the flock without a shepherd, and they had to look after the flock, guard it from predators, and move it on to new pasture when necessary. So it is impossible to train them as we would train the borders - we have to make them understand why we want them to do something, and then they make up their own minds as to whether or not they will comply. It's not a dominance or a disobedience issue - it's just that they view themselves as partners to the humans and make their own decisions accordingly.
A good example is when we went to flyball training with Baggio and Gabby. They were both shown what to do in exactly the same way. Baggio decided it was fun, and was so good on his first attempt that the trainer wouldn't believe he had not done it before. Gabby, however, could not see why she had to slap this thing with her paw and jump to get a ball when she could just go and get one out of the bucket of balls behind the equipment.
So because she could see no point in it, she would not do flyball.