Confidence

im not trying to argue with you,just wondering what kind of dominance you are wanting in your dog.If the dog is healthy ,well taken care of and exposed to many different situations it will help his confidence ive always found that the main reason behind dogs not being confident is fear.Just take him lots of places ,and,expose him to as many different situations as possible.That would be a step in the right direction.

 

That helps alot. Not being sarcastic. You went from being a smart ass saying you think I want the baddest dog on the block like i'm an idiot to actually giving me good advice, talk about split personalities. Thanks though!

 

Scratchy: Maybe we are thinking of different things?? In the dog sports I know of after a short "fight" the handler lets go of the sleeve & the young dog gets it to do w/ what he wishes.

 

Alright kiddies. Take it to pm's.

And Scratchy, I do occasionally let my dogs "win" when playing tug. However, even if they get to "win" & take the toy/rope away to chew on for a time being, they had better listen when I say to "drop it" or "leave it". No matter what, I still control the toys & ultimately, the game.

As for builing confidence, it would really be helpful to know in which areas you are talking about. Some dogs are confident with strange humans around. Socialization might help this. Some dogs are confident when it comes to playing/interacting with their owner. Passive playtime doing something that the dog enjoys will help this. Obedience training is a huge confidence booster as the dog gets praise & rewarded for it's correct/right behavior, thus it builds up confidence in itself. In weightpulling, the rule of thumb is to never let the dog not complete a pull. If you have to have someone push the cart while the dog pulls so that the dog thinks it's actually doing the work, so be it. Just keep praising.

 

split personalities?that really offends us!lol

 

If we as humans cant understand WTH you want how do you think your poor dog feels?

The only reason we got crazy is becuase we repeatedly tried to figure out what the heck you were talking about.......we still dont know but best of luck to you.....in regards to whatever that may be, ha ha CRAZY!!!

 

Well, yes we are. Never seen it done that way. It does sound like a game which makes me wonder, what is the point? I don't think personal protection is a job for a dog let alone to be played with. Anyway, back to my topic.

What could be done to maintain, or improve confidence? Before anyone else asks, I'm talking about a dog that's not afraid to bark when he senses he should all the way to a dog that doesn't let go of its' hold when it has one? Please think legal people, please.

 

You're really killing me here.........

 

funny...thats what he guy in my basement said last night........

 

I think he's messin with us!

 

IDK, what's so difficult to understand. Let me put it in bold and caps for ya:

HOW DO YOU MAINTAIN OR IMPROVE A DOGS CONFIDENCE LEVEL?

 

I think you're messing with yourself

 

IN WHAT?????? Sports, socially, gameness, bite-work, protection, playing, human interaction, hearding, agility......thats what I mean. There are diffenret techniques for different things,and were not saying your dog HAS to perform in any of the above listed and we would genuinally love to help if we knew what you were talking about

 

That's what I'm using for my analysis. When we play tug with our dogs we let them win sometimes but when it's on a flirt pole or springpole they never win. Wouldn't something as simple as that decrease a dogs confidence. By no means am I saying that a confident dog should listen to its' owner. Obedience can build confidence, IMO, especially when treats are involved. Positive reinforcement helps. How would we use that same reinforcement in flirt pole or spring pole?

 

I see what's happening your over-searching. In all of those activities two things can end as the result. The dog either A. wins or B. loses. What type of reinforcment and how can it be used in flirt pole and spring pole as the original question asks.

Now if you don't or can't understand that, then please respect my wishes and don't post here anymore. Really, please?

 

Wow, you got it.....keep in mind its a public forum, ha ha and AS I suggested in ym first post positive reinforcement....ie praise so he know when a good job has been done is a great tool.......even with a flirt or spring pole thats really all you can do, plus its physical exercise MORE then a mental tool

 

Ok, you made sense of 1/3 of it. Now here goes the rest. How do you use positive reinforcement during spring pole or flirt pole being that the only time you can give a dog the treat is when it lets go and in actuality we don't want the dog to let go thus we're praising them to do so. It makes no sense that way.

 

When my girl is on her spring pole or when we are playing tug-o-war I entice her with "get babe, get girl, good girl" and I notice a huge boost in energy and confidence when I encourage her versus when she is just going at it herself. My motive for getting her all riled up and eager to go at the spring pole or rope was so that i could teach her to stop on command. Her keyword is ....dont laugh....."that'll do Rory" and now no matter how hightened her arousal gets all I gotta do is say that and she immediatly drops it. I wanted to be able to control he arousal cause on the pole or rope she really gets pissed, hair stnads up, the whole nine yards.....she's a typical moody bitch, ha ha however I've been happy with her ability to turn it off and on even though it took some work.

 

So can a flirt or spring pole really help a dogs confidence because ultimately they don't get what they were just trying to attain. I'll admit, I may be being a little too technical or analytical, but I also gotta admit Lipships had me wondering how much more technical could I get.

 

Well how does your dog reacct to it currently? Maybe if you use it as a reward that might help? But when I first get home and Rory and I start to wrestle and she starts to get sassy or to rough I go grab her pole and let her go.......SO now when she gets frusterated with me she will take it out on her pole. My friend brougth her lil dog over that was really trying to take over Rory's domain, i had to keep Rory in check and she got pissed and let out some energy on her spring pole. I swear she does it to show off too.

Do you play wrestle with them? I say look for the thing that gets him worked up most and while he is aroused redirect his energy to the spring or flirt pole and praise him as he goes at it. The more I sya "get it girl, get it" the more she shakes shakes shakes......does that kinda help?