I have read this phrase but I forgot the author. I believe this to be true. Come to think of it do we really need to train working dogs? If we think deeper, most that we ask our dogs, they can do it naturally. A dog can naturally sit, down, stay, come. Its agility is also natural in them, the dog knows how to jump, balance swim etc. It also has its natural talent, sniffing and tracking. So do we really need to train them? I guess its more appropriate to say that man should be the one who needs to undergo training.
A good example, when we usually arrive home, the dog will naturally come to us, if you stand still in front of the dog long enough you will see that it will voluntarily sit near you. All we need to do is build our communication with our dog. In my opinion it is one of the most important part of man-dog partnership, establishing our communication with our k9 friends. Why do we also teach dogs to track? I believe we are not capable of teaching the dog to track, we are not capable of using our nose to track, what gives us the knowledge to teach the dog to track? As often done in schutzund, they teach the dog foot step tracking by using food. Its either they are fooling themselves or they are fooling others. In a real search the dog should be allowed to use its natural ability to be able to succeed. Usually a dog will do foot step tracking when the track is old, and air scent when the track is fresh. We should allow the dog to use its natural ability where the dog is comfortable. We should only learn to ask then to track for us. If we know how to communicate with them properly, the dog will willingly do it for us.
The more we spend time with them with activities that present challenges to both man and handler, we will see what is natural with them and we will be able to communicate with them with out using any treats or toys. The dog will be able to understand its handler with the tone of his voice, with body language, and emotion, and in return its handler will also be able to read his dogs expression and body language. If both dog and handler will be able to communicate with each other there are a lot of work that can be done.
With this communication we can ask the dog what we want and it will obey us in its own free will even though in the absence of treats. We can simply ask the dog to track for us, and the dog will, it will give us signals that we need to interpret in order for the search to be successful. All work is possible when we are able to communicate with our dog.
The dog will only go as far as where his handler is willing to, therefore we must provide the exercise to be able to develop our dogs. A good dog will show poor if handled by a poor handler, and a bad dog will show to be a good dog if handled by a good handler. So if one want to be a good handler, one should spend time handling his dogs, and learn to communicate with his dog. One must also be sensitive enough to see what is natural with the dog, because one cannot build a communication with the dog if its unnatural with him. The success of communicating with the dog should be base on what is natural with the dog. Therefore we must learn from the dog and not the other way around.
Another factor that also affects our communication with the dog is our intention. The handler must have a good intention to be able to achieve this communication. If the handlers intention is not pure, he will not be able to reach this, why? Because the dog knows and can read our emotion. If the handlers intention on training his dog and making his dog good so that he can show this off, there will be no success. For the dog to follow his handler it should be with pure intention and out of need. This allows the dog to show what is natural in him and will willingly share it with his handler. If not he will deny his handler of this communication.
If we give a pup to a kid, we can see how natural the pup will go with the kid, the pup will follow him and not thinking of getting anything in return. When a pup hesitates to follow, a little encouragement from the kid will make the pup follow. Why does the pup follow? Simply because the kid has pure intentions, the kid has no intention of showing off on what they can do, he simply enjoys the company of the pup.
To be honest it also took me sometime to understand this, the deeper meaning of communicating with the dog. When we do such activities of building communication with our dog, we should not think that we are doing this so that others will see that our dog is good. It should not be done just to have bragging rights. It should not be done so that our dog can be as good as other dogs. It should be done simply because we need our dog to do it. It should be done with the intent of enjoying our journey of life with our dogs as a partner.
No comments:
Post a Comment