His dog doesn't sound that smart, as far as dogs go. Mine only fell for the "ball trick" once (although she doesn't care for most toys, so I had to use a biscuit). She is however, odd, and trained better than a CIA sleeper agent, so it could sometimes be confused for dumb.
Hmm. Very entertaining. However, I wonder if he realizes that dogs are stupid because we selectively bred them for different reasons. Some breeds were bred for intelligence, others were bred just to look pretty. Part of todays dogs' charm is their stupidity. And of course many don't connect the dots- so many dogs get abused by their owners, yet they will come right back just as trustful as before. And when he talked about yanking on the chain of the dog so it doesn't eat things that will kill it... Wolves aren't extinct- yet. And why would an animal know that rat poison was bad? That's a human invention. We've intervened so much into nature, there's no way all the animals in the world would realize this or that is a bad thing. For instance, sea turtles get stuck in nets and drown. They don't realize nets are bad, or they plain just can't get out of the way. Same for dolphins. Although dolphins will learn to avoid said fatal human invention if it comes in contact with it once and lives. My point is, animals aren't as smart of humans, of course, so they aren't going to know what ridiculous traps we put out into the world for all sorts of different reasons, are for. But you can be sure, most species would still be alive today if we hadn't fucked with their habitats. Dogs (wolves) are no exception.
I just felt I needed to rant about that. I'm sure his sole intention was to be humorous. And he probably at least knows partially about my point, and I'm way too lazy to e-mail him about it. Plus, I'd prolly just sound like a crazy activist. Bah.
On another note, many dogs go off their instincts, which is why they do stupid stuff they do. But we don't realize it. The key to training is working WITH their instincts, not against them. For instance, crate training: dogs don't like to soil their "dens" (in this case, the crate) and will hold themselves as long as possible, enabling the owner to take the dog to the correct pee and poop place, before the dog goes all over the house. Eventually, the dog will learn the right place, and you won't have to keep the dog in the crate, he'll know he's going to get to go out to go potty eventually, and will hold it.
I did, however, find this to be very funny:
"Under the description for pain medication, the text stressed that “if YOU were getting neutered, wouldn’t YOU want pain medication?” Never mind that if I was getting neutered, I wouldn’t want pain medication so much as a pistol, six bullets and five surgeons."
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-19 03:51 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-19 04:37 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-19 06:50 pm (UTC)I just felt I needed to rant about that. I'm sure his sole intention was to be humorous. And he probably at least knows partially about my point, and I'm way too lazy to e-mail him about it. Plus, I'd prolly just sound like a crazy activist. Bah.
On another note, many dogs go off their instincts, which is why they do stupid stuff they do. But we don't realize it. The key to training is working WITH their instincts, not against them. For instance, crate training: dogs don't like to soil their "dens" (in this case, the crate) and will hold themselves as long as possible, enabling the owner to take the dog to the correct pee and poop place, before the dog goes all over the house. Eventually, the dog will learn the right place, and you won't have to keep the dog in the crate, he'll know he's going to get to go out to go potty eventually, and will hold it.
I did, however, find this to be very funny:
"Under the description for pain medication, the text stressed that “if YOU were getting neutered, wouldn’t YOU want pain medication?” Never mind that if I was getting neutered, I wouldn’t want pain medication so much as a pistol, six bullets and five surgeons."
Annnyway, I'm done now, promise =P
(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-19 07:11 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-19 08:39 pm (UTC)