Yep, those of us looking for fantastic working dogs for agility and obedience often turn to shelters or rescue because dogs of above average intellegence definitely make more difficult pets for those owners that expect the dog to lay around and do nothing bad. Folks People throw away their really really smart puppies and dogs every day for one reason... TRAINING.
Puppy was totally bored at their house and poorly timed corrections and forgive my word, stupid corrections were making him stress. What they see... Puppy running like maniac in house grabbing everything in sight... what I see is a pup with no sense of direction and what is expected, stressing out and going balistic because he doesnt know what to do and stupid poorly timed corrections just add to the stress....and that is why I wanted to bring him here to show them what a stimulated puppy could learn. One minute husband is throwing a ball and playing tug of war and grabbing his feet and initiating keep away and chase games, and the next minute he is surprised when pup jumps up and grabs his shirt sleeve. Setting pup up for failure.
The one and only litter of pups I have ever bred for and raised were bullmastiffs. A guy down the road a piece was very excited to know the litter was coming. Wanted one of those pups so bad cuz mom was so bright (mom was well socialized and had learned some basics -bullmastiffs are not on the high end of the intelligence scale really) and he'd owned one previously. Seemed like a great home in spite of a few qualms. But he couldn't wait, wanted a pup right now! So he found a different litter and took one of those pups home. By the time my pups were 5 weeks old he came to me complaining that he had to get rid of his now 3 or 4 month old pup because it was biting his daughter, racing around the house and leaping on the furniture. He says "I should have waited for your pups, I know they would behave better." I asked him point blank how he was going to change the way his family interacted with a pup, he said they were fine, lots of experience with big dogs. So I asked him to explain just how he saw a different outcome for one of my pups and told him I couldn't in good conscience send a pup into his home if they couldn't see how they had created the problem . He hasn't spoken to me since, lol, no loss and I could sleep at night.
Here he climbs rocks and goes in ditches and goes on sniff festival and he loves it and he is calm when he gets home here. Give him 6 more months of permissive raising and he would be a challenge for me to train simply because he is going to be so big and he has soooooo much energy. They will never throw him away though, they will just complain and complain instead. Probably will blame me eventually.
I feel like asking where will zeus live when marriage breaks up? nah, won't go there.
I have my work cut out for me.. husband gave me 2 weeks to get zeus trained.
2 weeks!!!
to give him a life time of skills? The man is off his nut! Wonder how long it will take to get husband trained? Maybe if I can show them progress they will realise that 2 weeks of training won't fix it all and they need to learn good training habits so they can continue my work. As far as newspaper being used to smack the puppy for biting... Told husband to take newspaper and smack himself in head with it instead. Sometimes I just can't help myself. Known these folks for years, would have never thought I would see this side of them. Through the eyes of zeus I am amazed. hoping to get zeus trained enough so if they ever do throw him away, I can be there to catch him and he will remember his awesome fun time with the lady who doesn't yell or hit and takes him really cool places to play and learn. stay tuned..
Today he is "super goober". All he needs is a cape with a big G on it.
