Here's a random question for everyone:
How much of the "everyone's best friend" do you think is a training/relationship issue with the handler? Anyone who has met Zinga (or even Zuma) knows she's very much everyone's best friend and loves to be in everyone's faces looking for attention. However, through premack work and training, she now will go say hi to a stranger and come straight back to me and offer great focus.
I have never had a dog that even though they loved people and are over the top with greetings, that they prefer the company of another person to that of mine. So I'm curious about that. What training/relationship building has been done with that sort of dog? Are they just a house pet or do they actively engage in training or other activities with their handlers?
This isn't meant to tick any one off, I'm just really curious.
Probably a bit of both. Just depends on the dog.
Kim was, I thought, naturally an "omg hai!" dog to where if we were working and someone walked in she would zip off to greet them. After working through it for a while (bear in mind this was my first dog lol) I realized that it was actually more insecurity on her part...she figured they were going to come up to her and wanted to beat them to the punch and show them how very friendly and meaning-no-harm she was. She's obviously been able to work through this, and she really is a very gregarious dog in social situations, but while she will happily work a crowd if I stand up to go, there she is. The flip side is, she is utterly bombproof in social settings. I could drop her off at a preschool right now and pick her up 8 hours later and never worry about her even giving a child a sideways look. She just genuinely likes all people regardless of their shape or size or insanity level. For a dog with so many environmental fears and who was so nervous around people at first, she is a huge social extravert.
I'll skip over Webster because he is a special case and not really relevant to the O Hai vs. Aloof discussion
Mira's on the flip side and even as a puppy she would maybe greet people but mostly just hung out by me hoping for work work work. She didn't mind if people greeted her but she would be looking at me the whole time hoping for attention from me or work or... and it would annoy people. I'm including hubby on this list too...he was just that person who fed her when I wasn't home. I'd just laugh and tell them I am getting all the credit for their petting since she's looking at me
. She does have favorite people, though, from whom she will seek attention...mostly people we train with and a local gal who used to have Flat-Coats and gives the
most divine butt scratches
. But if I so much as shift my weight she's swiveling around seeing if something's up and will drop them cold. But for agility...we went from training on a few items in a sideyard to her first agility trial with basically no segue. She just doesn't even see the people, and couldn't care less that they are there for the most part. It is just so easy...it's like cheating.
I honestly don't really have a preference. Both are stable in social settings and working in working settings. Kim's was more work, Mira's is easier. I don't really want a dog that is naturally suspicious of everyone all the time...both Kim and Mira have shown they can recognize when something isn't quite right and act appropriately. I'd rather have a dog who's happily engaged and trends toward to thinking everyone is okay than the other end.
But I mean, to each their own. Most of the gah-gah yay happy dogs I know have owners who either don't mind it at all or who don't know how to get them back. Quite a lot of the people I know with suspicious dogs like them that way and get upset/jealous if their dog loves on someone else. I'm just not a jealous partner I guess lol.