The dog musing/vent thread

Maybe I'm not travelling in the right circles, but I've never known anyone to give up a potential sports prospect dog in favour of another more promising one. I feel like it's one of those old wives' tales that people who are doing agilliy/flyball/whatever The Right Way like to talk about behind closed doors.

More often I see people working to improve their sports dog's anxiety issues, fear issues, control issues, speed issues, etc.
 
I certainly know people who seem to go through a LOT of dogs... some very popular agility people who get a dog, and at the first sign of trouble, THIS ONE IS BROKEN GET ANOTHER. It's not how I would do things; I would imagine the time it takes to raise a puppy and get it started is more time than it would take to fix the majority of issues that crop up, but maybe not. It would depend on the trouble, and depend on the person's skill as a trainer. So there's too many variables for me to say when it's not me or my dog.

I do file them away in my head as the type of person who is quick to get rid of a dog, but. I never know anybody's story. Their approach to agility and dog ownership is obviously different than mine and that's the only real conclusion I can draw. We are all judged for any variety of things we do or don't do with our dogs, so.


I know I've written at length about people suggesting Auggie was broken and the best path of action was to just get another dog. It is not a suggestion I ever took very kindly to. One person in fact told me "I'm just trying to help you enjoy your dog more." Because quitting agility with him and replacing him would in some way help me "enjoy" Auggie more.
 
I'm not sure I'll ever be able to grasp the whole "get a new dog because current dog can't do x, y, z". Maybe from a working standpoint, but we're talking about sporting dogs here, not working. And even then... meh.

It's a dog. It's not like replacing your car. Or your computer. Or whatever hobby you have. It's a living animal that has feelings.

I don't know. I feel like your main priority when getting a dog is because you...want a dog. Not because you want to do agility or rally or whatever. That's a bonus, not a requirement.

Besides, the dog still has to live with you. Mals tend to be referenced often here when we talk about sporting dogs. This breed tends to be 'best' in bite-work but most people who have Mals wouldn't recommend the 'average' person to own them. So, yeah, you might get the best dog ever at flyball but what if it's a total nutso at home? I would rather have a decent-at-flyball but perfect-at-home than the opposite.

Seems like a mix of "I want what I want" and the "Grass is always greener on the other side".

Maybe I just haven't seen it explained well. :confused:
 
While I personally wouldn't do this, in a very slight sense I can almost understand it in certain situations.

Say if someone were to spend say $1500+ on a puppy from a well known sport dog breeder with the intentions of this being their new agility star. And by some fluke the genetics simply didn't pan out that way and the dog was near driveless.

They didn't get what they paid for. While I get that genetics aren't always predictable, and at the end of the day they are dogs - Living breathing creatures. To an extent, when you do your research and invest a significant amount of time and money into finding the right dog, you have a bit of a right to get something close to what you paid for.

As I mentioned, it's not something I can personally see myself doing.
But then again, I can't say I'm *that* invested in any dog-sport activity. I have fun training, competing, and getting the ribbons, but if my dog didn't enjoy it, then fine, I can find something else the dog enjoys.
 
I'm really glad I decided to try free shaping with Snitch, it's so fun to watch his little wheels turning and I can proudly say I haven't lured anything yet, it's a lot more convenient to not have to go through that whole fading the lure stage. He also seems to grasp things more firmly than puppies who I've lured things with. When he has something he HAS it.
 
Beanie said:
I certainly know people who seem to go through a LOT of dogs... some very popular agility people who get a dog, and at the first sign of trouble, THIS ONE IS BROKEN GET ANOTHER. It's not how I would do things; I would imagine the time it takes to raise a puppy and get it started is more time than it would take to fix the majority of issues that crop up, but maybe not. It would depend on the trouble, and depend on the person's skill as a trainer. So there's too many variables for me to say when it's not me or my dog.

I do file them away in my head as the type of person who is quick to get rid of a dog, but. I never know anybody's story. Their approach to agility and dog ownership is obviously different than mine and that's the only real conclusion I can draw. We are all judged for any variety of things we do or don't do with our dogs, so.


I know I've written at length about people suggesting Auggie was broken and the best path of action was to just get another dog. It is not a suggestion I ever took very kindly to. One person in fact told me "I'm just trying to help you enjoy your dog more." Because quitting agility with him and replacing him would in some way help me "enjoy" Auggie more.
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It definitely happens. I don't see it much in real life, thankfully. Have seen it some though. See it more online and with more 'important people' than my little old club.

I just can't file those people away as good trainers though. Maybe I am too judgmental but eh... I'm ok with that, I guess.
 
Airn said:
I don't know. I feel like your main priority when getting a dog is because you...want a dog. Not because you want to do agility or rally or whatever. That's a bonus, not a requirement.
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But that's just it - for some people the main priority is NOT "I want a dog."


Laurelin said:
I just can't file those people away as good trainers though. Maybe I am too judgmental but eh... I'm ok with that, I guess.
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Judgmental Judy time: I tend to think a large part of the problem IS that they aren't good trainers. So they have trouble and fixing it isn't within their toolbox, so instead they start over and hope they don't come across the problem again (or hope they come across a problem that is within their toolbox.)

BUT I do think that's different than "you don't love your dog because you rehomed it" which obviously some people think is a thing.
 
Greenmagick said:
I do think its rare, but I have known people who really treat their dogs as tools or equipment.
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I think "dogs as livestock" is a good comparison, although it might sound heartless to those who think of dogs as beloved family members.

If I had cattle, it wouldn't be because I want pet cattle. It would be so I could try and get my own cash chunk of the lucrative cattle breeding business around here. Cow semen. It's worth almost as much as gold. GOLD.
 
Beanie said:
I think "dogs as livestock" is a good comparison, although it might sound heartless to those who think of dogs as beloved family members.

If I had cattle, it wouldn't be because I want pet cattle. It would be so I could try and get my own cash chunk of the lucrative cattle breeding business around here. Cow semen. It's worth almost as much as gold. GOLD.
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Yes, dogs as livestock, while not something I agree with, I can see.

This particular one though, the dogs were ONLY tools to be used for work or competition. They were always crated unless working, never had free time to just be dogs, etc. It sounds different in writing but knowing the person and the way they were with them, you could see it. The dogs were expected to behave like robots. Turn on, perform, and turn off to be put away til the next time. Again, though, that is an extreme example and this person was FULL of ego and treated humans pretty crappily too.
 
Beanie said:
Judgmental Judy time: I tend to think a large part of the problem IS that they aren't good trainers. So they have trouble and fixing it isn't within their toolbox, so instead they start over and hope they don't come across the problem again (or hope they come across a problem that is within their toolbox.)
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I think this really hits the nail on the head for me with some of the revolving doors I've seen. Like... (general) your weaknesses aren't your dog's fault. Work through it, get help if you need to, but if you can't or won't work through it... I don't know. It's human nature for different people to enjoy the same activity in different ways or for different aspects, but at the same time, these are games and dogs are living beings. I struggle between being super judgmental and understanding.

This kind of thing has actually been on my mind a lot this weekend. It's become clear to me that if I want to continue entering skijor races, even for fun, I'm going to have to start training with a club because Squash has shown me that I can't continue to practice in isolation 99% of the time and then show up for a big event. But I don't particularly LIKE training my sport with other people, it's one of my escapes from all the ick in the world. So, I have some choices to make moving forward. But they are "here's what's wrong with my training" choices, not "here's what's wrong with Squash would another dog be better" choices.... and at least I can participate in my sport of choice with or without events and competitions, so it's a different ball game.
 
Airn said:
I'm not sure I'll ever be able to grasp the whole "get a new dog because current dog can't do x, y, z". Maybe from a working standpoint, but we're talking about sporting dogs here, not working. And even then... meh.

It's a dog. It's not like replacing your car. Or your computer. Or whatever hobby you have. It's a living animal that has feelings.

I don't know. I feel like your main priority when getting a dog is because you...want a dog. Not because you want to do agility or rally or whatever. That's a bonus, not a requirement.

Besides, the dog still has to live with you. Mals tend to be referenced often here when we talk about sporting dogs. This breed tends to be 'best' in bite-work but most people who have Mals wouldn't recommend the 'average' person to own them. So, yeah, you might get the best dog ever at flyball but what if it's a total nutso at home? I would rather have a decent-at-flyball but perfect-at-home than the opposite.

Seems like a mix of "I want what I want" and the "Grass is always greener on the other side".

Maybe I just haven't seen it explained well. :confused:
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But if your main priority is competing with a dog in whatever sport, you need to stack the deck in your favor. However, if a puppy doesn't cut it in the end, you need to be realistic about what to do.

I personally only have so much time in my day and so much money in my bank account and I can not afford a non-working dog to live here. Every dog that lives in my house has a purpose for being here, if they can't fill that purpose, then I have to decide if I want "just a pet". I personally don't, so I'll opt to rehome should the time come to choose. I've never had to rehome a dog before and hope to never have to. I'm super picky about where the dogs come from when looking for a new working prospect. My dogs are nuts at home and I am ok with that, I'd rather they be nuts at home and amazing on the field than ok at both.

Once you become so invested in a sport, monetarily, emotionally and physically, you have a better understanding of things. Sports are competitive and supposed to be. Dog sports are still highly competitive and you have to be honest with yourself about things if you want to succeed. I have so much time, money, effort and heart in IPO that I have to be careful when looking or breeding for a new working prospect, no kennel blindness or cute puppy syndrome is allowed.
 
Maybe I'm not travelling in the right circles, but I've never known anyone to give up a potential sports prospect dog in favour of another more promising one. I feel like it's one of those old wives' tales that people who are doing agilliy/flyball/whatever The Right Way like to talk about behind closed doors.

More often I see people working to improve their sports dog's anxiety issues, fear issues, control issues, speed issues, etc.
Click to expand...

I really only know one person like this, and the truth is - I think s/he is a piece of trash who goes through life that way. And as Beanie said - I think a huge part of it is "I can't train this so it must be broken".

It isn't something I am personally ever comfortable with, but if the dog is appropriate re-homed, I'm also not going to knock anyone for it happening once or twice over the course of their lives.

When it happens 5 times in a couple of years, I'm going to assume you can't train worth crap.
 
I think at that point you're saying the sport is more important than the dog. I get it (to some extent) for working dogs. LE specifically, but even SAR like I do. When it takes years and a ridiculous amount of money to certify, and you're doing that to serve the community and save lives (or, in my case, bring peace to families and help convict those responsible for the deaths), then I get having to give up a dog that didn't work out because you only have so much time, space, and money. And letting a companion live out their days with you can prevent you from doing your job. But, even then, it should be hard. It should be absolutely heartbreaking. Some people manage to do it. Others don't. But the thought of doing that for a sport, albeit one you're very invested in, just doesn't sit right with me. Because at the end of the day, unless your livelihood depends on it, no matter how competitive, driven or immersed you are, it's still a sport, it's still a game and one that you are picking over your dog.
 
Laurelin said:
Barn hunt class in March! Whoot! ORT test in May! Double Whoot!
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Also, just signed up for Denise Fenzi Academy's NW220 class. We are going to kill this ORT. lol

Too bad there's no NW1 trials within 11 hours of me scheduled this year so far....

Anyone in colorado? May be making a nosework trial trip this summer.
 
Laurelin said:
Thank you soooo much for telling me about it! Seriously! I'm excited!
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I'm kind of disappointed I can't take it, but I need to really devote myself to my one gold class to get my money's worth. I really hope they offer it again before the end of the year.

I'll live vicariously through you, Mia, and Summer!
 
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