working vs WORKING

vs





I've never owned/lived with/worked with a true working dog. I've asked both mole and Abby to work for/with me, but they have only done so because they love me (ie: I have super awesome food!) And while both of them have truly enjoyed working with me, they really only do it because I have asked them to and because they like to make me happy.

Abby has really benefited from working with me. She excelled at agility (well, excelled for a puppy mill Iggy) and she still does great at our Rally classes - and not just for a rescue but for any dog! Abby has come a long way from that shivering mess that she was almost 3 years ago, and I truly believe that she wouldn't be as well adjusted as she is if it weren't for the confidence that she learned from working.

After living with a true working dog for almost two weeks, I am starting to see the difference between a dog working because they love me and working because they have to. Sniper is extremely well trained, but he needs constant reinforcement from me. If I am not reinforcing his good behavior, he will find something that is rewarding to him - and that can be something as benign as finding toys and entertaining himself, or something worse, like trying to play with the cats. If I am giving him negative reinforcement for something he is doing that I don't like, it doesn't mean he will stop doing it - it just means that he will try again later when I'm not looking. And while I can tell my kids to "go lay down" and they will understand that as "go away and settle by yourself"; if I tell that to sniper, he reads that as an actual command and he will down in an alert position waiting for my next command.

Its an interesting experience living with a dog that needs so much. And while living with Abby has been a ton of work in the past, she has been relatively easy to live with for quite awhile now. Sniper is generally easy to live with, but he still needs a lot of work, and he needs it in a very different way. Where Abby needs calm, stability, Sniper needs active, entertaining, go-go-go. In my years of training dogs of all shapes and sizes, I've never had to train a dog to settle. And while I am training sniper in agility and rally, I'm also working on the seemingly basic "settle". It is also a challenge to me to work with him in a more positive fashion. Working small, easy dogs using strictly positive methods is easy. But working both a physically and mentally strong and large dog using positive methods is harder. It's much easier to put a pinch collar on him and make him behave. And while I have used more corrective methods with him, I am also working on adjusting what I can and am moving towards a more reward based system.

This experience is a huge eye opening one for me. I'm truly enjoying the learning experience as well as sniper himself. He is easy to love, fun to train, and as sweet as can be. But I have a new respect for the breed and for people who work with and live with working dogs all the time.