Hi -
I've been reading along for a while and hope you all can help. The regulars
here seem to know so much about training and temperament and dogs in
general. I've rejoiced at Tuck's recovery, been amazed at the cool stuff
diddy teaches him, marveled at gorgeous photos and victories, and cried at
your sad times. Elegy, I admire your strength and courage.

My life was shared by a dog for fourteen years. I loved her dearly, had a
lot of fun with her and gave her the best life I knew how. I was pretty
ignorant about training, but she was well-mannered and loving, except for
being hostile to other dogs. (I have recently learned that I may have, at
least partly, caused this.) I always made sure she had a job, such as
protecting me from the squirrels, and plenty of exercise and snuggles. She
got insulinoma and had surgery but the tumor came back. I made her last year
as good as it could be, and my vet put her down while I held her, in
October. You can see her here. http://www.flickr.com/photos/64966431@N00/

I've been trying to put my life back together without Liz. I've always known
that I want another dog, and have been visiting with many. Since I can't
hope to have another dog as perfect as Liz was, I've been reading a lot
about training and behavior.Whatever dog I adopt will go with me to doggy
school - as much for me as for the dog. There is only so much one can learn
from a book.

I prefer to adopt a rescue - there are just so many dogs out there that need
a home. I can figure out size and color and looks - what I'm asking about is
temperament.

How can I tell if a dog will be (reasonably) sociable, or if it will have
dangerous personality traits? I know there are no guarantees. Are there ways
to tell about a dog's personality that I can do? I have read a little about
temperament testing. I'm still hesitating to choose because I don't know how
to do this.

Can you all coach me, please?

"Rocky" wrote in message
...
"Ruthie" said in
rec.pets.dogs.behavior:

I've been trying to put my life back together without Liz.
I've always known that I want another dog, and have been
visiting with many. Since I can't hope to have another dog
as perfect as Liz was, I've been reading a lot about
training and behavior.

Every dog I've owned has been better than the one before. I'm
really looking forward to my next better dog.


Hmm, that's not in my experience. It could be that my memory is getting
patchy but I'm pretty darn certain that Zeffie was pretty damn perfect.
Pablo is a very good boy and at almost 10 years of age is very much in-sync
with me. Lucy was a huge dork when we brought her home at age 22 months.
Now at 4.5 she's still the Anti-Lassie (sort of like the Anti-Christ but
with 4 white socks, tulip ears, and a pointy nose) and we often tell her
that it's a Good Thing We Love Her or we would send her off to be a junk
yard dog.

On the plus side, Lucy just passed the screening for Cornell Companions, the
local therapy animal group. She's So Extremely Charming and makes each
person feel like they are her Most Favorite Person in the World. Little do
they know it's all part of her evil plan.

Chris and her smoothies,
Pablo the Very Good and Lucy the Goose

in thread : Rocky
whittled the following words:

"Ruthie" said in
rec.pets.dogs.behavior:

I've been trying to put my life back together without Liz.
I've always known that I want another dog, and have been
visiting with many. Since I can't hope to have another dog
as perfect as Liz was, I've been reading a lot about
training and behavior.

Every dog I've owned has been better than the one before. I'm
really looking forward to my next better dog.


Not that it's helpful to help you choose a dog, but Matt is right. As you
gain experience, you learn how to train a dog to meet your expectations. As
you learn more and more about the abilities of a dog, you learn how to get
that conformity and increasingly raise the bar. As the dog reaches and
exceeds, it becomes the best dog ever. Taking your dog to obedience school
helps you to easier achieve those goals

"diddy" wrote in message
...
in thread : "Ruthie"
whittled the following words:

I made her last year as good as it could be, and my
vet put her down while I held her, in October. You can see her here.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/64966431@N00/
I'm so terribly sorry

Thank you for caring. These folks http://www.aplb.org/frame.html are
amazing - with their help, I was able to get past that terrible dark place.

I've been trying to put my life back together without Liz. I've always
known that I want another dog, and have been visiting with many. Since
I can't hope to have another dog as perfect as Liz was,

You would be surprised. No dog will be the same, nor take her place, but
it's possible to have a dog beyond your wildest dreams.

I am surprised, but hopeful. I figured, well, how can any dog be as perfect
or smart or wonderful as Liz? I remind myself regularly that no dog can
replace her.

I've been
reading a lot about training and behavior.Whatever dog I adopt will go
with me to doggy school - as much for me as for the dog. There is only
so much one can learn from a book.

I think that's an excellent choice. I teach doggy school, but i still TAKE
Tuck to Doggy school as well.

In my life, it's _required_. Body language? I need to see it happen. I would
go and watch classes, but would feel kind of out of place, hanging around
the doggy school with no dog.


How can I tell if a dog will be (reasonably) sociable, or if it will
have dangerous personality traits? I know there are no guarantees. Are
there ways to tell about a dog's personality that I can do? I have
read a little about temperament testing. I'm still hesitating to
choose because I don't know how to do this.

Can you all coach me, please?
I would see how they are around other animals. Can you take food away from
it? Does it fetch?

OK, that's a good start.

And basicly do some simple tests.

Can you elaborate, please? Thanks for your answers!

"Ruthie" wrote:
How can I tell if a dog will be (reasonably) sociable, or if it will
have dangerous personality traits?

Sometimes it's a crap shoot, as elegy sadly discovered. For the most
part, though, dogs are adaptable, plastic, resilient critters and this
lets them conform to whatever behavior standards you have for them.

What do you consider a dangerous personality trait? Human aggression?
Suspicion of strangers (note that this puts you at some risk during the
early stages of an adoption)? Dog aggression? Intemperate barking?
Separation anxiety?

If you're looking at dogs of identifiable breeds, or mixes of known
breeds, sometimes that helps to identify certain potential problem
areas. For instance, ACDs are velcro to their humans but suspicious of
strangers -- this can be a problem in a number of ways if you don't
expect it. When considering an ACD for myself, I don't worry about a
stand-offish attitude when we're first introduced because it won't last
and I actually enjoy being accompanied everywhere by a houseful of dogs.

Someone who's looking for the more temperate affection of, say, a Chow,
could be fooled by the ACD's initial standoffishness.

I know there are no guarantees.

The best guarantee is your own recognition that any dog you get will
need some help and work to "get with the program". I've found that the
biggest problem people have with dogs is the (human) expectation that
dogs are born trained and tuned to human existence.

Are
there ways to tell about a dog's personality that I can do? I have
read a little about temperament testing. I'm still hesitating to
choose because I don't know how to do this.

That's actually a very smart reaction. Keep in mind that shelter and
rescued dogs may have dozens of people looking at them as a possible
companion (okay, maybe several instead of dozens), and if everyone
applied their own variants of temperament testing, the poor dog will get
the impression that humans are not only irrational, silly creatures
(which we are) but that humans go out of their way to challenge,
confront, and otherwise get in dogs' faces.

Many shelters have "getting to know you" rooms where you can spend some
time with a particular dog. The first thing I do with a dog in one of
those rooms is ... nothing. I just let the dog do whatever it's going
to do, and I'll sit quietly and watch. What I do from there will depend
on whether the dog actively explores the room, solicits attention from
me, lays by the door and whines, or whatever, but usually involves
trying to get the dog's attention. I might try to see whether the dog
has been taught any simple commands, like "sit", because that also
speaks to the dog's history with humans and its trainability. I try to
remember that the dog should come out of this evaluation process with a
positive impression of humans, because that's far more important to its
survival than whether or not I choose to adopt that particular critter.

"Rocky" wrote in message
...
"Ruthie" said in
rec.pets.dogs.behavior:

Every dog I've owned has been better than the one before. I'm
really looking forward to my next better dog.

--
--Matt. Rocky's a Dog.

That's very encouraging. I was expecting that no dog could be better than
Liz.

"chris jung" wrote in message
...

"Rocky" wrote in message
...
"Ruthie" said in
rec.pets.dogs.behavior:

Hmm, that's not in my experience. It could be that my memory is getting
patchy but I'm pretty darn certain that Zeffie was pretty damn perfect.
Pablo is a very good boy and at almost 10 years of age is very much
in-sync with me. Lucy was a huge dork when we brought her home at age 22
months. Now at 4.5 she's still the Anti-Lassie (sort of like the
Anti-Christ but with 4 white socks, tulip ears, and a pointy nose) and we
often tell her that it's a Good Thing We Love Her or we would send her off
to be a junk yard dog.

On the plus side, Lucy just passed the screening for Cornell Companions,
the local therapy animal group. She's So Extremely Charming and makes
each person feel like they are her Most Favorite Person in the World.
Little do they know it's all part of her evil plan.

Chris and her smoothies,
Pablo the Very Good and Lucy the Goose

It sounds like each is easy to love in his own way. Extremely Charming I
understand very well.

"diddy" wrote in message
...
in thread : Rocky
whittled the following words:

Not that it's helpful to help you choose a dog, but Matt is right. As you
gain experience, you learn how to train a dog to meet your expectations.
As
you learn more and more about the abilities of a dog, you learn how to get
that conformity and increasingly raise the bar. As the dog reaches and
exceeds, it becomes the best dog ever. Taking your dog to obedience school
helps you to easier achieve those goals

Expectations. Hm. I never had many for Liz - just thoroughly enjoyed
watching her be who she was, and giving her the opportunity to do that. But
I didn't know how to train a dog, either. You all are opening up a whole new
world here.

In article ,
"Ruthie" wrote:


That's very encouraging. I was expecting that no dog could be better than
Liz.

I think some of it boils down to "what is 'better'?" I owned THE most
perfect Golden Retriever, from 1988-2000. The most trustworthy dog I
have ever met and everyone loved him, but especially ME. Was he the
"best" dog I've owned? Depends on the criteria, and I try not to
measure them against each other. So many factors, and a big one is who
*I* am when I acquire and live with the dog.

I do different things with dogs now then I did then. Have more of them.
Live in a totally different living situation. Know more, but am also
less stringent. So much of it is not the dog, and I think that is
more of what Matt is saying. The person is such a huge factor.

--
Janet Boss
www.bestfriendsdogobedience.com

in thread news whittled the following words:

"diddy" wrote in message
...
in thread :
Rocky whittled the following words:

Not that it's helpful to help you choose a dog, but Matt is right. As
you gain experience, you learn how to train a dog to meet your
expectations. As
you learn more and more about the abilities of a dog, you learn how
to get that conformity and increasingly raise the bar. As the dog
reaches and exceeds, it becomes the best dog ever. Taking your dog to
obedience school helps you to easier achieve those goals

Expectations. Hm. I never had many for Liz - just thoroughly enjoyed
watching her be who she was, and giving her the opportunity to do
that. But I didn't know how to train a dog, either. You all are
opening up a whole new world here.




I have a friend who has just entered into competetition with her first dog.
She's had dogs all her life, and is now in her sixties. She had no idea how
competition would drive her to higher levels and increase bonding, and
teamwork. They are truly a team
Nothing is ever quite as special as your first competition dog