Dog Personality And Training

2023 Author: Molly Page | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-07-31 03:34

The dog character test determines the herd and defensive attitudes of the dog. A few months ago, Martins brought home a wonderful German Shepherd puppy, the kids named him Cheyne after their previous shepherd who died last winter.

Cheyna, like all Shepherds, grew rapidly and soon reached 50 pounds and was already walking on a leash. But she stole food literally from everywhere: from the dining and kitchen tables, even from the hands of children. This Cheyna was not at all like the previous one. She chased a neighbor's cat, tore up children's socks and underwear, and her favorite pastime was running around neighboring yards, chased by her mother and children calling her home. Martins was disappointed - they bought a second German Shepherd because they liked the character of the first, but they didn’t know that the characters of the same breed can differ so significantly.

In the past decade, dozens of books have been written and hundreds, no, thousands of seminars have been offered, focusing on understanding the principles of learning or working to get the most out of students, employees, colleagues, and spouses. In the past few years, dog trainers have begun to apply the same principles in their training programs. They first determine the learning ability of the dog based on the dog's personality traits and basic orientations, then they tailor the training program to fit the particular learning style.

The technique for determining a dog's orientation is quite old, but until 1991, when Wendy Wolhard put it on paper, this knowledge was transmitted orally from the instructor to his students. The author of the so-called stimulus method, Wendy Volhard, together with her husband Jack Volhard attended a Schutzhund seminar led by German trainer Jörg Silkenath. She liked the concept of orientation very much and took up further research, then writing several articles for Off-Lead magazine.

The concept is simple - dogs have different personalities and therefore learn in different ways, so methods that work for one dog will have no effect when applied to another. That is why some dogs obey even if the commands are pronounced in a whisper, while others need to pronounce the commands clearly and strictly. Some dogs panic when something moves at high speed nearby, others work as if nothing had happened. Some need a lot of space, others feel unhappy if they cannot lean on the owner's leg.

Volhard identified 4 directions of orientation: prey, flock, fight and flight.

The prey orientation is effective when hunting and searching for prey. Dogs that hunt and try to rip apart their toys (or items of clothing, pillows, etc.), chase after anything that moves, steal food, chase cats, and tear toys or other animals are likely to have high prey stimulation.

Pack orientation works in relationships with humans or other dogs. A pack-oriented dog constantly lacks people, it barks or howls, being left alone, loves to be played and stroked with it, adores combing and trimming, adores the voice of its owner.

Fighting orientation is defensive and shows the degree of self-confidence of the dog in stressful situations. A dog that has a craving for defense and fighting is always stubborn, walks with its head raised, protects its territory and family, can guard its toys and food, only tolerates petting and care, but does not like these procedures, but loves to play tug and always ready to fight.

Running is also a defensive reaction, showing that the dog is not confident in himself. Such a dog feels very insecure in the new conditions and can hide behind the owner, is afraid of being far from the owner, punished, crawls on the belly, and being cornered, it can bite.

What does all this mean:

A dog with a strong urge to fight may be presented as an alpha dog (dominant), a dog with a strong urge to flee is often described as an omega dog (submissive) and, if not properly handled, may bite out of fear.