Confidence

I've been wondering alot about molding a dog to be super confident. I've read a few times that a dog that wins a majority of the time becomes more dominant, more aggressive and most of all more confident which is why we must win a majority of the time so that those traits wont come into play with the dog. Don't we want a confident dog? Well, what about spring pole and flirt pole? Would these excercises make a dog less confident?

I understand that there is a control issue involved here when it comes to a dog wanting to be the Alpha of the house. That's where training and obedience interjects.

 

i know from my experience that a dog has to know that he is not the alpha of the house. that means that he is inferior in rank to any other member of the family. springpole and flirt don't make a dog less confident, i quess it only makes him more confident, and as a bonus is a great exercise for the dog. you want your dog to be confident, you don't want him to be dominant with the family. for that, you have to do a litlle obediance with him, and treat him right, and all the memeber of the familly need to do the same,to show him that he is not above anyone, that's what i did with mine and he is great with my family.

 

So my question is, how can these excercises make the dog more confident if the dog loses almost all of the time?

 

It sounds like you are talking about building confidence through PP excercises (i.e. letting the dog "win" the ball, or "win" the sleeve.)

Those excercise might build confidence in certain ways, but I do not think they are going to build the type of confidence you are talking about.

But I could be wrong, who knows???

 

I don't know if the dog knows that he's losing.....whenever i see a apbt doing the flirtpole or springpole they look like they are having a blast.

 

i think that mabey u are looking at it from a diffrent point of view than the dog is, working the spring pole is something they love, they think they are really giving it hell lol, they dont c it a loosing battle in thier minds i dont think, as far as ive noticed it gives them lots of pleasure, builds srength, ect. so i think its making the dog confident and happy jmo i think when i stand out in the yard screamin yeah get it, get it and hes shakin the hell out of the spring pole he gaining confidence.

 

Ok, what I'm comparing it to isnt too far fetched. I'm saying that if I play tug with my dog and he constantly loses then that is said to be letting the dog know that he isnt the Alpha and this also makes him more submissive in general.

I'm talking about building confidence in a way that the dog will not back down from any task because he knows he can complete it.

 

They are having a blast trying to achieve the mission of tearing it down, chewing it up, tossing it around and shaking it. Look at their face when you take it away and what do you see? I'll tell you what you see, a dog that didn't complete what it wanted to.

 

You are wayyyyy off. I don't condone these dogs participating in any type of event where HA is involved. They're not made for it.

 

lol.

If you will read, that is how schutzhund dogs are trained - by letting them "win" at games.

And while I do not agree w/ using pit bulls as guard dogs, most schutzhund dogs are NOT HA in any form. To them getting the sleeve is the game to them, no different from playing tug of war

 

Well what exact sports or comps are you trying t get him into? That might help us understand what you want a lil more.......what do you activities do you want him to be mor econfident at? Like weight pulling? Hunting? it just kinda depends, there are differnt motivitaing things that pertain to differnt activites, ya know? But if your wanting him to be more "game" I'm afraid that is kinda in his genetic make-up ya know? However if your trying to get him to do something specifc mayeb try positive rewards when he DOES do it so he knows what is expcected of him.

 

i don't think a bulldog will ever turn away from a challenge. they'll always try to complete it. that is what they where bred for. and if you read on any forum and in any magazine you will see that tug of war builds confidence in the dog, because you let him win a couple of times, but not all the time ! that way, you force him to give a litlle bit more each time, and he will become to build up courage. IMO

 

I figured someone would bring up gameness in this thread. Like we say in the miltary there's always at least one.
As far as a specific activity, I don't see wh yhe has to compete in anything specific to display his confidence. I just want an overall confident dog. No ned to get specific. I just brought spring pole and flirt pole because it's always been said that you should not let the dog win as much because the dog becomes more dominant. What's wrong with that? I personally want a dominant dog, so I guess it just depends on preference.


ABK: Please stay away from associating this with anything other than what I've brought up. Technically the dog doesn't win the sleeve because it stays with the human. When a dog wins something it takes it away itself to do as it wishes with it. I'm familiar enough with schutzhund to know that I prefer not to use it in comparison

 

Whoa, nazi at all, ha ha? I only asked what sports becuase some of us have no idea what your talking about. If you dont mean gameness then what things is he displaying to make you think he's not confident? If anything maybe is IS confident so he dosnt feel the need to dispaly bravado.......I guess we dont know what you mean exactly, do you want him to be aggressive?

 

UM........well if you want specifc answers it kinda help if we knew what you meant.

 

what do you want the dog to be dominant over?

 

Ok I get it now.....he's only been beating around the bush this whole time and getting defensive for NO reason, ha ha. I think he wants a dominant dog over other dogs........for whatever personal reasons. Scrathcy....did you get a pit bull thinking it was gonna rule the whole block and get dispapointed when he was a secure happy resiliant dog? If so that only means he is a GOOD dog who can interacct socially.......what wrong with that?

 

sorry if this way outa line,but from reading the entire post it seems like youre saying you just want some hard ass dog that will intimidate other people and animals,once agian sorry if im wrong but im just calling how i see it.If a dog knows its the top dog ,very often they dont act overly aggresive or dominant they know that theyre in control and dont need to show it all the time.

 

I'm trying to remain civil in this thread and trying to call me out isn't gonna make or break anything. I said I'm looking at what builds overall confidence. I don't have a problem with my dogs confidence level at all. I'm just asking what could be done to hold that confidence level and what should I do to prevent it from dropping. Why don't you people remain respectful of my thread and try to answer my questions as best as you can and if you can't then with all due respect, don't post. If you want to speak on another activity then start your own thread but for me to even be stating any of this is like telling kids not to speak unless they have something nice to say. I've said nothing to be ridiculed and here it has started. Being mature isn't difficult.

 

If that's what you assume, I refuse to sit here and argue with someone who has their opinion formed already.