You can't train enthusiam

[JoeLacy]

I attended my first Rally class last night just to watch. I had a trainer say to me, she could train behaviors but could not train enthusiasm. She also said the more enthusiastic, the easier to train.

YouTube - Rally

[lizzybeth727]

Hmm.... I disagree on both statements.

You CAN train enthusiasm, the trick is finding what the dog likes. For example, my dog loves jumping and running, so that's why we do agility.... she is never as enthusiastic as she is in agility class, it's like a completely different dog; and she wasn't like that in the beginning, it took a few weeks for her to figure it out. On the other hand, we also did a little bit of obedience for competition, and she just didn't seem that into it.... precision and self control are not her strong suits,so she was not very enthusiastic about it. I do believe, though, that if I had trained it differently she probably would've been happier about it.

One of my service dogs comes to mind, too, this golden retriever that I was trying to teach to retrieve. He just didn't really like doing it, for whatever reason, to the point where, after a few months of training, if he saw a dumbell he'd go hide under a table. I then started back at the very beginning of training, worked EXTREMELY hard to make it EXTREMELY fun and easy for him, and finally it clicked. After that he was one of my most enthusiastic retrievers.

That said, enthusiasm does have some drawbacks. I know some dogs that are so excited about working that when their owners just want to relax and chill out, the dog still wants to work, and will find his own games to play.... such as shredding up the rugs or figuring out how to get into the garbage can.

A lot of people think that service dogs need to be extremely smart and driven to do their job.... we get so many calls about dogs that people think would be awesome because they're "always busy" or "need a job." But the fact is, the less enthusiastic dogs are actually much easier for our recipients to live with and generally make better service dogs. As long as you can find what motivates them and use that to your advantage.

[Dekka]

I am with you lizzy! I have seen enthusasim brought out in dogs through 'fun' things. I agree if the person is a correction or 'balanced' trainer though. I can see that being a problem for them.

I peronally LOVE enthusiastic dogs.. but they are not always easier to train. If you can get enthusiastic with good impulse control.. then you are golden!

[Doberluv]

I disagree with that trainer too. I've seen dogs that were hum drum due to "balanced" and "correction" based training come alive and become very much more enthusiastic with their owners.

I personally like dogs that have some vim and vigor, enthusiasm when training. When channeled in the right direction, they do everything faster, seem to be more driven to "get it just right." Everything they do, they do with gusto. I like that. That's how my Doberman was. I don't know that it's easier to train them necessarily. There are lots of factors and variables which make or break training....or which determine the ease in which they learn.

[lizzybeth727]

Originally Posted by Dekka

If you can get enthusiastic with good impulse control.. then you are golden!

OMG seriously! But it still takes a good handler to build that and work to keep it, JQP (and most of my clients) definately need easier dogs.

[Fran101]

I love the poodle prance! lol

[corgipower]

I would have to agree with Lizzy, Dekka and Carrie.

I'd look for a different trainer.

[Doberluv]

Maybe she means something else....temperament. Maybe she means you can't make a dog inherently different than it is, like markedly different because it's personality just isn't that way. I mean, my Chihuahuas are less energetic than Toker is. They're just more laid back. I can get them revved up, silly, enthusiastic. But Toker will perk up at the drop of a hat and can turn into a maniac. Yeah, you can't train a dog to have a completely different personality as in giving it a command and it instantly becomes a high drive Border Collie when it's a sloth-like something else. (am trying to think of a breed that is really sloth like) LOL.

Anyhow...maybe that's what she means. She must mean something other than how it sounds.

As far as the enthusiastic being easier to train...maybe she means that a dog that is more interested, eager, engaged with his owner is easier to train versus one that is lazy, off it lala land, not able to pay attention, not interested etc. If that's what she means, then yeah, I would have to agree.

I just got to thinking...that she must mean something different than we're seeing it...maybe.

[BostonBanker]

Meg would like to argue that you can train enthusiasm.

I read a great article a couple of years ago - Julie Daniels, I think? She talked about training for drive, not tolerance. I loved the article, and I think about it often when training. If you seek out that "OMG I can't wait to do this! Look at me! I'm doing it!" attitude, the enthusiasm you can create is near miraculous.

Then there is that adding in the self-control Dekka mentioned

[Laurelin]

Originally Posted by BostonBanker

Then there is that adding in the self-control Dekka mentioned

Yeaahhh that's where I am right now. Mia is SO enthusiastic about everything but she has no attention span and no impulse control lol.