Irresponsible Owners

CorvusCorax said:
Yep, and we can understand there is a clear difference between:

CorvusCorax
Can you come over here please?
Can you go and put the kettle on?

Equally, IME it is much clearer for the dog, to teach:

Fido
Sit
Come

Etc etc.

Great if you get recall on a sixpence for a name alone, but so many people use the name on a daily basis for so many reasons with no reinforcement, Hi Fido, I'm home Fido, has anyone fed Fido? then it loses meaning/importance.
There's no other command (sit/down/heel) etc where you would reasonably expect the dog to interchange that with their name.

ETA I was wondering why I have such a pole up my backside about this ? and I've also realised in my sport you will almost always get point deduction for using name AND a command as it's seen an extra command/handler help, it's either/or. So I guess I've always avoided it socially too.
'Come here' and 'sit down' are also bugbears, those are two commands each.
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I think 'in my sport' probably nails our disagreement about this :)
When my dog (now sadly gone) was at a distance, I only got in touch with him if I wanted him to come to me
So I could say/shout his name, or a version of his name, or whistle, it all worked

I completely get that if you want your dog to do more actions than just come to you you need more precise commands, but for me and I guess a lot of owners that's all we want, and if the name works why not use it?
 
Not a disagreement, more of a debate :)

Others have actually articulated what I mean, better, with far less words ?

But even socially, away from sports sit, down, wait etc are really important for me and the formal/competition recall (come fast and straight and sit in front) and 'get over here now in whatever style you prefer' recall are two separate things.
 
I know I work mine, so different, but my OH drives he bloody mad by reciting their name. So Ffee will walk too far ahead on a walk ‘Ffee wait’, I would say but he just says ‘Ffee, Ffee, Ffee, Ffee’ while sounding progressively more disgruntled. Then he complains they don’t listen to him ?‍♀️
 
CorvusCorax said:
'Come here' and 'sit down' are also bugbears, those are two commands each.
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Yeah, which is it 'sit' or 'down'.

Also "sit, sit, sit, sit, sit, sit". FGS say it once, the dog isn't stupid. Unless of course you are trying to teach him to sit after the umpteenth time of asking.

And asking the dog to do something and wandering off before the task is complete - like he's going to bother listening to you again.


Not you personally, of course, CC :D
 
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ellieb said:
I taught my greyhound recall with a whistle (three 'pips') - he learned it so quickly and well (small furry distractions aside) it makes me wonder why I see people with much more biddable breeds struggling to get theirs to come back ?
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I love using the whistle in the woods, I can hear crashing, so Bear, ninja dog that he is (not) can't be far, but I don't want to shout, so the whistle is useful.
 
I live next door to "irresponsible owners". For years their dogs have been allowed to wander, without knowing their property boundaries and the owners not always knowing where they are.

After an incident with the next neighbours along the lane, where the loose dogs attacked a "poodog" puppy that was on lead, resulting in a large vet bill, new latest iphone and a lot of grovelling next door asked if the neighbour wanted the dogs putting down. His reply was no, it was not the dogs fault that they had an irresponsible owner, they just wanted him to keep his dogs under control and not let them wander.

Since then these dogs have been kept at home and only allowed to leave the yard with the owners present. However they are still not under control. During the day all four dogs lived together in a large run, until the day that there were only three dogs as they killed one of the terriers.

Still these dogs are not always under control. Three/four weeks ago one of their ridgebacks, while out on a walk with the owner, came through our closed gate (meshed 2' at the bottom, railed above) and attacked our GSD who was pottering about the yard. Fortunately both of us were also in the yard and well aimed missile distracted the intruder long enough for our dog to escape behind a trailer and the dog to be caught by Mr R, who returned it to the owner who had reached the outer gateway of our property.

All the flippin owner has dared to suggest is that we take all our dogs for an off lead walk somewhere away from home. My dog has never been allowed off lead away from home, except when doing off lead work at training classes, we have fields a plenty for off lead walks here and since covid she has never left our premises.

The owners have been away for a week and a house sitter has been looking after the dogs. There have been leads and well behaved dogs which have been under control, life has been so less stressful. They are back today :(.
 
? . next door have about 5 or so dogs. One, a very old collie, lives out. She barks from dawn. A repetitive woof woof. Breathe. Woof woof. Breathe. I don’t get too bothered as Scout whinges from about the same time and my 5 cockerels all crow.
But she also does it all day if they go out. We were just out in the garden having coffee and she was on constant drone. Then I heard music as well. So I said to OH, if they can hear that music you think they could hear that poor dog. Immediately the back door opened and they let her in. So whoops they heard me. I’m pleased actually!
 
Clodagh said:
? . next door have about 5 or so dogs. One, a very old collie, lives out. She barks from dawn. A repetitive woof woof. Breathe. Woof woof. Breathe. I don’t get too bothered as Scout whinges from about the same time and my 5 cockerels all crow.
But she also does it all day if they go out. We were just out in the garden having coffee and she was on constant drone. Then I heard music as well. So I said to OH, if they can hear that music you think they could hear that poor dog. Immediately the back door opened and they let her in. So whoops they heard me. I’m pleased actually!
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The GSD over the fence from me 'nonsense' barks at nothing, for hours. I shout at it to shush from time to time and I can hear the patio door slide open and shut again, barking stops. The first time it happened I didn't realise they were in and I was affronted, but I do it all the time now, it has woken me on any of the meagre amount of days off I have and is very annoying if one is out in the garden.

I have NEVER heard them tell it to be quiet, engage with it at all, have any fun with it, etc.
I can't see over fence but I think it gets out rarely and has been the one that has run up to both of my male dogs barking and aiming sneaky snaps. Not once has the owner told it to stop (er, sorry, but he's another RepetitiveNameShouter ?)
 
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rabatsa said:
During the day all four dogs lived together in a large run, until the day that there were only three dogs as they killed one of the terriers.
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That's horrifying, poor dog. I'm glad yours was okay, sounds like a lucky escape. I too would report, especially given the prior incident.

Our neighbours' JRT's barking/growling/snarling at Ivy is wearing a little thin. To be fair they do call her in and it doesn't seem to bother Ivy at all. I am giving the fence extra checks though as I wouldn't like for it to get in to our garden!

The Beagle on the other side escalated from poking his face through a slipped down fence slat to chewing bits of fence off yesterday ? He usually just hangs out there whining for Ivy's attention. She has not once paid him any notice, poor boy ?
 
I'm afraid to say I'm one of these owners, my dogs recall has regressed so its back to the long line and retraining.
 
SAujla said:
I'm afraid to say I'm one of these owners, my dogs recall has regressed so its back to the long line and retraining.
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Is she about 2? Brig and Jake at that age decided they would start ignoring instructions, so we re-started them. I remember stamping a foot would make them go behind to get into a perfect heel position. I really must think what we did, Goose is proving ‘deaf’ re recall, he is back on the longline.
 
Cinnamontoast said:
Is she about 2? Brig and Jake at that age decided they would start ignoring instructions, so we re-started them. I remember stamping a foot would make them go behind to get into a perfect heel position. I really must think what we did, Goose is proving ‘deaf’ re recall, he is back on the longline.
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She turned 2 in February, there was one particular occasion when she ran halfway to an on lead dog, stopped and looked back at me 3 times. I'd called her but she then decided to go forward anyway, it was a real low point. I've got some advice from Clodagh so I'm putting that into practice now. Clover just thinks everyone is as friendly and gentle as she is so no harm in saying hello
 
SAujla said:
She turned 2 in February, there was one particular occasion when she ran halfway to an on lead dog, stopped and looked back at me 3 times. I'd called her but she then decided to go forward anyway, it was a real low point. I've got some advice from Clodagh so I'm putting that into practice now. Clover just thinks everyone is as friendly and gentle as she is so no harm in saying hello
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My two are exactly the same. Mitch wanted to run over to a cropped ear pitbull lookalike today, there’s just no way! It was my absolute nightmare with Zak, friendly looking spaniel who’d want to kill any dog who bounced up to him.

Nasicus said:
You're not irresponsible though, you've recognised that your dog has taken a bit of a backslide in her training (totally normal btw!), and are addressing it :)
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That‘s the opposite of irresponsible!
 
Cinnamontoast said:
My two are exactly the same. Mitch wanted to run over to a cropped ear pitbull lookalike today, there’s just no way! It was my absolute nightmare with Zak, friendly looking spaniel who’d want to kill any dog who bounced up to him.



That‘s the opposite of irresponsible!
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The irresponsible part comes from letting it happen as her recall has been fading for a few weeks and I've not addressed it up until now. She usually is brilliant at coming back to me on her own accord but I neglected to reinforce an actual recall where she listens to me. We are making progress though
 
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Anyone got any suggestions of a collapsible walking stick/pole that would be beefy enough to use fend off the unwanted attentions an unwelcome dog or dogs if needed?

A traditional wooden stick would be good and sturdy, but neither OH nor I want the hassle of one.

OH was left fending off the tow path pair of dogs with a foot for an uncomfortably long time. He could have got bitten or overbalanced. A defensive implement (hopefully never to be needed) would be better.
 
A dressage whip also makes a nice swooshy noise. I found even waving one focused the mind of both large dog bombing towards me and their owner.

Some sports training vests have a long, thin stick pocket for stowing heeling sticks/touch point 'wands' and are lightweight/can be worn over a t-shirt or a thick jacket.

My Bende vest has one, also IQ Dogsport (although they are very expensive).

You can get telescopic hiking sticks off the internet.

I had dinner with a friend last night who runs. She says dogs chase/run up to her frequently, she has been clawed/had clothes ripped, knocked over and pushed over into a barbed wire fence, ripping her top and cutting her. This sounds like a fairly frequent thing for her...why are people such idiots??
 
TP, want me to lend you little A for a bit?

Took her out with P dog for potter walk this morning, met badly trained Weim that ALWAYS tries to jump on old P dog. Owner is a useless piece of #@$t. I've kicked the blooming thing before....
It made the error of bounding up to little A, I bellowed at owner who just shrugged!
It had to happen.... dog came in too close, A whipped her bum out sideways and kicked dog squarely in the ribs, it shot off screaming.....
Little A, despite her pretty looks and diminutive stature st 32ins tall, detests loose dogs and is even more brave when attached to her human.

It's quite rare to meet eejit owners before 8am on my local patch across the track from my yard tho, apart from this one.

I take my hunting whip when I walk P from the yard.
 
Clodagh said:
I know I work mine, so different, but my OH drives he bloody mad by reciting their name. So Ffee will walk too far ahead on a walk ‘Ffee wait’, I would say but he just says ‘Ffee, Ffee, Ffee, Ffee’ while sounding progressively more disgruntled. Then he complains they don’t listen to him ?‍♀️
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My OH is the same! Just yells their name louder each time.... I work mine so will use the name then command if they are both with me! Generally I use the whistle to recall, that means come back NOW, no option! If they don't come I go and grab!!
 
maisie06 said:
My OH is the same! Just yells their name louder each time.... I work mine so will use the name then command if they are both with me! Generally I use the whistle to recall, that means come back NOW, no option! If they don't come I go and grab!!
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Shout his name at him repeatedly and he'll soon get the message :)
 
My moan about the irresponsible today is other people not picking up their dog poop!
I took my two for a walk along a lovely stretch of river where the local community have used wind turbine funds to create a community walk. There is a bit of work involved in its upkeep, as the local Estate staff mow the grassy trails, have put wood steps on steeper sections and made wooden platforms for the muddy bits. There are signs at both ends of the walk about picking up poo and there are bins provided. I am fairly local to the area and know the farm manager on the estate (it neighbours ours) and the last thing I want is for him to think it is me that is too lazy to pick up after my dogs, so I always take extra poo bags just incase. Today I collected two large dog dumps before we had even gone ten minutes from the car park. It is infuriating. Don't these owners realise they give us all a bad name :mad:
 
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