hi all,
Seems I need to clarify something! Well I'll try! My words off caution refer to using the techniques suggested in the e-mail posted before mine. These techniques are using a canine psychological approach to controlling your dog, many `behaviourists' use them, but just as `whispering' has been used by horse trainers, there is always more to whispering than reading it from a book and then practising it as written! I've witnessed some horrific whisperers, and in one case stepped in and told the person in no uncertain terms to get of the farm before I did the same to them! I then showed the owner how it should be done and why, and that their horse did not have a problem....except with the `whisperer'!
This is the same with dogs, and why I will not go into details of techniques on the Internet, as with anything psychological you can go too far, and because you often do not see any `physical damage' the scars can run much deeper and last much longer than the `weals of a whipping'!
The dog takes simple signals from us to mean something in their own mind, Some we give are intentional i.e. Training. Others are not and mean one thing to us and something completely different to the dog, and often we are unaware that we're giving them. For example, doting too much attention on a new puppy ( and we all do it!) actively raises its status! There is a fine line to be made for when a puppy needs the attention to help it settle in to your routine and its new environment, and when it is demanding attention, and making you sing to its tune, because its cute and because we like doing it any way ` and what harm is it doing!' With most dogs, the average dog person can muddle through, however you've now got a Munster, and as I have indicated `communication' is something they are quite good at, so you have to up your game and become an `above average' dog owner. This isn't as difficult as it first may sound, the dog is a very simplistic animal, so the hardest part to learn from our point of view is to dumb everything down to their level, and be aware when they are asking questions. The Munster is IMO very primitive in its social make up and their communication is also set at a very primitive level, body language and eye contact form most of the basics, ( and is also why you are often un aware you've made a statement to the dog without knowing it). This is one of the reasons I recommend restricting `free running', as if your unaware of what the dog is telling you at close quarters, how on earth are you going to understand it at 50 metres + and at speed? Believe me, they like us get fed up of asking and getting no response and then take the attitude `I'll do it myself then!' and they do, its called bogging off!!!
Dogs don't lie, and they also tell you what they are about to do before they do it, once you grasp this and understand the signals you can modify the dogs behaviour by pre- empting rather than correcting, and this is real gundog training, working not as a master/servant but as a working partnership and `communicating'!
So now what are you still reading this for go and have a conversation with your dog they know some wicked stories about the Retriever down the street!
Peter