Postby Sabine » Thu Dec 08, 2005 12:16 pm
it's never too late, any and all comments are welcome. i just noticed i haven't even commented on it myself yet!
and i agree with you, overall her advice is good and especially useful for someone who has never trained a dog before, but some of her ideas are overrated.
my dog knows who is boss, even if he generally is the first to walk through a door, i prefer it that way due to living with 5 cats and having to make sure none of them escape outside. they try getting out every chance they get, so i have to make sure i can react in time and can't pay that much attention to the dog. but even if i didn't have the cats, things like "who walks through the door first" aren't something i put a lot of importance on.
i also find the whole "gesture eating" thing over the top. as long as you control the food source that's enough in my eyes, even if you apply a "nothing in life is free" (NILIF) approach of training for one reason or another.
one other thing that stands out that i do not recommend is ignoring the dog for extensive periods of time. ten minutes, fifteen minytes, half an hour if it's about something major, is enough. dogs are very social animals and withdrawing attention is a strong punishment for them, but ignoring a dog for hours or days can (in my opinion at least) do more damage than good. it's wasted time in which you could be rewarding many diferent desirable behaviors and make a much more lasting impression on your dog.
