What NOT to do!

[Wienergal]

This morning, on our first walk of the day, I saw a man with a new puppy walking ahead of us on the sidewalk. The pup was really young, and once he realized that he was being followed by a couple of wieners, he was curious and kept balking on the leash, wanting to wait for us to catch up. The man gave the pup a couple of tugs, then, obviously frustrated, he gave a mighty jerk on the leash, yelled, "CHARLIE!" at the top of his lungs, then...picked the puppy up and nuzzled him and carried him away!!!

Boy, you have no idea how hard I had to work to keep from running after the guy and explaining that he was doing it ALL wrong! Imagine how confused that poor dog is going to be! He keeps getting tugs on the leash...hmmm...must want me to move along... But then, in an angry tone, his owner yells the one word the pup loves above all others--his name!!! And then, even though he has misbehaved, he gets picked up and cuddled.

It's a German shepherd pup. If this guy doesn't go to obedience school, there will be a fully grown shepherd at the pound...

Just file this under "Training Is Not the Most Important Thing--It's the ONLY Thing!"

<FONT COLOR="#00FFFF" SIZE="1" FACE="Verdana, Arial">This message has been edited by Wienergal on April 13, 2001 at 07:20 PM</font>

[Timber]

Even if the guy was trying to disipline Charlie, he shouldn't have even tried. Since Charlie is still quite young, he is probably not completely leash trained yet. If the owner does this everytime Charlie sees another dog, how is Charlie ever supposed to be socialized? If the owner gets tougher when Charlie won't keep up on a walk, Charlie might think it is bad to want to meet dogs and then that dog wouldn't be a good citizen if he tried to run away or snap at all the other dogs he sees. I hope that owner takes sone time to learn about training and socializing soon!

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Tiffany
Junior Handler

[chatty cathy]

Hi Wienergal!! I watch Animal Planet when I have time. I saw a segment the other day about this disipline issue. As well meaning as I have been in training my pups, I have made this mistake of using my pup's name when correcting them. I know now that this is wrong. The pup associates his name with good and praise, not scolding (or he shouldn't). I will never use my pup's name when training. Does anyone else watch Pet University on this station and have you learned any useful info? Chatty Cathy

<FONT COLOR="#00FFFF" SIZE="1" FACE="Verdana, Arial">This message has been edited by chatty cathy on April 15, 2001 at 11:02 AM</font>