Question aobut something I saw yesterday

[imported_nea]

Yesterday I was standing next to someone with a 7 month old German Shepard, who was very, very nice. He wanted to sniff a Flatcoated Retriever who was standing close by. The Flatcoat wanted to sniff him too. His(or her) owner was talking to someone and had his leash pretty short. But the flatcoat kept pulling to try to get to the puppy. That went on for quite a while, untill the flatcoats owner yelled at the dog to lie down. He did, and then his owner yanked at his ear. The poor dog yelped. That isn't right it is? In my dog book it says the best way to get a dog to behave is to use postive stuff. And the dog did what he was told to do, he did lie down. Did he really know that his ear was yanked because he was pulling at the leash, or did he think it was because he lay down, like he was told?
Seeing that upset me, and I just wonder about it.

[bk_blue]

Doesn't sound very nice to me- I like positive reinforcement, not intimidation. The dog might very well associate the lying down (obeying) with the ear yanking (being punished). :cry:

[ellieangel]

No there's definately no need for that ! :(
And you're right he would probably associate the pain with lying down :roll:

[Rosebud]

:-?

That's what I've always thought. I feel so sorry for that baby, if daddy is that ignorant or mean. I don't think he should have pinched the babies ear, but if he was going to do it he should have done it only if the baby didn't obey. I wonder if he would spank his two legged children after they obeyed him.


:angel:

[meehs]

I don't like it at all! There are two schools of thought when it comes to dog obedience:

Aversive training; Which esentially means giving the dog some sort of corrective behavior (i.e. punishment) when the dog doesn't do what you want it to do.

Positive Reinforcement; Which is rewarding the dog with attention or a treat or a toy when it performs a behavior correctly.

It seems like most or all of us here prefer the positive reinforcement method. Just try arguing the point with someone who believes in aversive training though! I've been to obedience training classes with both types of instructors. I alway thought it would be interesting to get the instructors together to "discuss" their methods. Just for the record, I quit the aversive class after two sessions and quite a few arguments with the instructor in front of the whole class!

I think a lot (maybe even most) of the training classes for hunting dogs use aversive training methods unfortunately. I've heard of that ear pinch technique before from a friend that had his lab in a well known (in my area) retreiver training program.

[jen]

that was definatley out of order, i`m traning my dog at this moment with the reward programme, and reinforcing good behaviour.
IT WOULD HAVE UPSET ME IF I`D SEEN THAT, poor doggie must be so confused :cry:

[JackieMaya]

That man was most definitely out of line for disciplining his dog that way.

That's just like if your dog doesn't come when called, and when he finally comes, you hit him. As much as you might want to get mad at the dog, when they finally come up to you, you have to praise them. One of my dogs, Maya, doesn't always come when called, especially if she's not done playing yet (I can picture her saying, "You're not the boss of me"). But when she finally comes, I tell her she's a good girl and give her a treat.

Dogs associate the discipline with the last thing they did, so that poor Flatcoat thought his ear was being pulled for lying down, which is what his owner had asked him to do. Poor dog!

[courtnek]

I agree the response was wrong., He should have praised the dog for lying down.

On another note, the ear pinching (NOT HARD) is a useful training tool -
it's how the mother would discipline a pup (with teeth) when it misbehaves. You have to do it carefully though so as not to hurt the dogs ear and I dont like the fact that they are training dogs with it. Most people dont know how to do it correctly....Yanking on the ear is unforgiveable,
even a wolf mom wouldnt do that.....

[mouseatthebusstop]

I do not like it :( I would have been upset if I had been there