An experience I had as a trainer!

I would like to tell you about a little experience I have had as a trainer in my club, I train a special team where dogs/owners drop in from other teams (in the same club) with special problems.

Well some time ago a very nice lady and her 8 month old female German shepherd came with a problem, the young GSD was very nervous, and that gave them some problems with concentration when training.

We talked for a while and I tried to become friends with the young GSD, she was a little skeptic but also very curious, then I offered her a dog biscuit which she liked and she loosened up. We were two trainers talking with the lady, and when I was making friends with the dog my colleague was asking the lady a few more questions, then one of her real problems showed up, she disliked that I was trying to become friends with her dog and certainly not that I was feeding her with biscuit.

The lady told me that her reason for not like the dog to become friends with other people than herself and maybe her family, was that she wanted the dog to become a protection dog and that if anyone would try to poison the dog, she wouldn't eat from anybody else, and also she wouldn't like strangers.

Now, the little hairs on my head was starting to stand up, this lady certainly got things wrong, this young dog would at this time be very afraid and properly run away, if someone broke into the family house, so we tried to convince her that if she gave the young dog some confidence and let her make friends with people and not always pulling the line to interrupt when the dog tried to make contact, the dog would be protective if it ever was necessary.

The lady was very skeptic and Maybe she will not try out for our advise again, which we off cause hope that she will, and then we would try to give her some nice exercise that she could train at home, and some brain training which I think the lovely youngster would love.

In this little story the problem wasn't the dog as the lady thought, but the lady's attitude that was a problem, in my opinion you don't train a dog for protection dog without help from professional, especially if we are talking about a young and nervous one.

End of my little storry

Connie

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