not to mention that most people who get a puppy to "raise it their way" don't do anything more than the people who have their dogs dumped in shelters. they think by being nice to him they are going to magically have a really nice dog. They have no idea that simply being a good person who doesn't abuse their dog is not enough to prevent aggression and bad behavior. Obviously most of the people on Chaz DO know that and when they get pups it actually does get what it needs to prevent aggression/behavior problems but for most people out there who buy for that reason they end up with a dog that has all the behavior problems that they were trying to avoid by getting a puppy.
Erin, I believe you're absolutely correct. But to varying degrees we're all "dog nerds" here at Chaz.
The fact that Purina corners the market in pet food is one indication showing the majority believes it's the best out there. I wouldn't expect that same majority to know much more about proper training.
In most cases I don't think the lack of proper training is intentional or malicious in any way. (Clarifying of course that this
only refers to people who are not blatantly abusing their pets.) I believe it's a matter of most people having good intentions, but just plain not knowing better.
So many believe outright myths or go by conventional wisdom, which is often not very wise but people persist in believing it anyway. It's all they know. Either that or it's what their family/friends have always done. They rationalize that the dogs they grew up with "weren't so bad" even if they weren't anywhere near as well-behaved as a well-trained adult dog. Other people lose patience too quickly, wondering why the puppy "still doesn't get it" after nothing more than a few inconsistent repetitions. (Those second types conveniently forget that human children also need to be told the same things a few hundred times.
)
I dunno, maybe I still have too much faith in human nature. (There's still a chance I can lose whatever's left when I get old.) It's just that I see so many dogs that really
aren't very well-behaved, but their families love them anyway and don't give them up. That would be the majority of dogs in my neighborhood, along with other places I have lived.
In this neighborhood and others where she and I lived, my heart heart dog Cheyenne (R.I.P. baby girl) was considered some kind of 'wonder dog' ... LOL. Same with our wolf hybrid Spike (R.I.P. sweetie). Of course they were to
me, but if I try hard to look at it objectively I know that they were very well trained and
that is what most people were reacting to. Because they just don't know that a lot of dogs can behave very well with proper training and consistency.
You are right in the sense that the "Slate" does have some stuff on it as the puppy is already 8-10weeks old. What I guess I mean is that a puppy with good genetics has a mostly clean "Slate" and that slate doesn't have any bumps or dimples in it; making it easier to write on it. Also with good genetics that "Slate" is less likely to crack or splinter......
But what Elegy is saying (at least how I read those posts) is that it's much more than 'imprinting' ... that right from the moment of birth (or conception if you will) that it's never truly a case of tabula rasa.
There have been recent studies that have proven that human temperament is to some degree genetically determined, much more so than previously thought. Not so much capacity for learning ... but the basic temperament traits themselves. Since they are also sentient, living mammals there's little reason to believe it would be any different in dogs.