[nagdu] First dog concerns

[avapup.7 at gmail.com]

I mean, don't some schools at least train obstacle avoidance by smacking the object ( not the dog! ) so that the dog associates the obstacle with a loud unpleasant noise, thus avoiding it in the future? Or, if that's not possible, say a dog in early-ish training is going to run her handler into a glass window, the trainer ( the dog isn't placed yet, just in training ) will either use a sharp vocal correction or slap her or his leg, making the dog-in-training avoid that window or similar ones in the future? Or is that all outdated training now?

I didn't like hearing that The Seeing Eye was hitting dogs with newspapers, but if they're using a foam ball type thing, I don't think that would hurt the dog. I wonder if more traffic training done by the trainers could eliminate the need for this? But when I think about it, and dogs playing sure do hit each other a lot harder than a gentle tap! And if it saves the life of both human and dog, I don't see anything wrong with a foam type thing tapping a dog to teach or reinforce to the dog - don't approach that car in the street!!

Ava and Cocoa

Sent from my iPhone

On Sep 6, 2012, at 5:14 PM, "Lyn Gwizdak" <linda.gwizdak at cox.net> wrote:

> No worries!  They NEVER harm a dog doing this to teach traffic to our dogs. TSE uses a padded wand - they showed it to us - and give a very quick poke. The dog is startled by this because they don't expect it and they learn to watch for cars. Don't know what other schools use to teach this.
> 
> Years ago, dog or animal training was much more harsh and even what we would currently call abusive.  Over the years training has gotten much gentler and the dogs are not harmed during their training.  They don't even have to do this to every dog - only the harder ones who don't respond to less in-their-face type of training.
> 
> Teaching respect for moving traffic is truely a life-or-death thing and the dogs MUST learn this so we are safe with being guided by them.  Actually, the dog thinks the CAR smacked them and never even realize that the trainer, who is driving, poked them with that wand! Any dog who can't learn traffic safely is dropped from the program.
> 
> HTH,
> 
> Lyn and Landon