What motivated you to train your dog?

[Jean Cote]

Hi fellow Dog Trick Academiers!

I am feeling mighty curious tonight and thought I would create this poll! We are all here to learn and share with one another about our dog training experiences, but one important question to ask is: “What motivated you to train your dog?â€. In other words, “Why did you decide to train your dog?â€.

In this poll, you will be allowed to vote for more than one answer. If none of the answers correspond to you and your dog, please select “Other†and share with us in this thread your thoughts.

I will be looking forward to the results!

 

[landseer]

What did motivate to train my dog?

Hello Jean and hello Academiers!
What motivated to train my dog? Well, I guess for me it's the same reason parents have to educate their children. Infact I seldom use the sentence "training my dog" but educating my dog.:msnheart: Too many people think our dogs are terrible, not educated or as awful as many other ones. I'm sure dogs have a special power and we should help themp to allow this power to come out. As I'm into Pet Therapy, I have seen what dogs can give and what we can have from them. The patients I work with (I work in an Health Care Assisted Living) are psychotic. You can see them sad, not balanced, violent: but when dogs come to visit them....WOW:ywow:...they seem to be other people! Educating my dog means to me walking hand in pawme, my dog and people who approach us just like a "ring a ring o' roses":yhug:Just like Lakota People say "Mitakuye Oyasin" = "To all my relatives" meaning that we are all related, every creature is related one another and I like to think this when I educate or train my baby:dogsmile:
Mario aka Landseer and Chantal

 

[bipa]

I suppose almost everyone's first experience with training, assuming they got a puppy, is with housebreaking. Getting the little critter to stop going in the house is the first major challenge. Then perhaps the next one to come along is "leave it" or "stop chewing everything in sight!" :dogtongue: (we're still working on that one with Bonnie, who decided yesterday that my fleece blanket was a great chew toy and put a hole in it -sigh)

So my very first and primary reason was to stop or hopefully avoid from developing any problem behaviours. Safety is another concern. A good, reliable recall can save a dog's life, especially if he gets loose near a busy street.

But then there is definitely the fun factor! Teaching a trick for no good reason except to spend time together, and provide mental stimuation for both dog AND owner. Not only does the dog have to figure out what is wanted, but the owner has to figure out how to teach. And sometimes the roles seem to get reversed, and I end up learning from my dogs! :dogsmile:

 

[marieke]

It's most of all about having fun and having a well behaved dog for me. And it's good excercise for me too!

 

[storm22]

ive alsways liked training our other dogs but as i was getting a working breed (storm) i wanted to keep up with his needs really so i started going to training and agility and now i dont want to stop its soo much fun for me and the dog and its good for the older ones to learn new things too

 

[emmasmamma]

I didn't vote because mine is a combination of reasons. First of all Emma is very strong willed (much more so than my previous poodle) and I took her to obediance training to help me with learning to get her to have better manners. (The head trainer called her a "Diva") I wanted her to have good manners because I work in a long term facility for mentally retarded individuals and I wanted to be able to take her in for visits. Beyond that, I want to teach her special tricks to channel some of her energy and create a stronger bond between us.

 

[l_l_a]

I voted "other". While my dog and I both love it because it's fun, and it's great mental stimulation for him and fulfills his breed's need for "work", those are extra benefits to me. There are other ways for him to get mental stimulation besides training, and there are other activities we can do together that we both enjoy which are not training per se (though may require some training beforehand). So my primary motivation for training my dog is to be able to manipulate his behavior with his cooperation so that he can live safely and peacefully in our complex modern human world.

Our modern human society is in so many ways completely artificial and dangerous to dogs and at odds with their natural instincts. They can't possibly comprehend and navigate on their own all the dangers in the world we have brought them into. they rely on us to make judgements for them to keep them safe and in good standing with the public. If they can listen to us, cooperate with us and behave in the ways that we and other people would prefer them to behave, then they can have more access to more environments and activities and thereby live fuller lives while still being safe and responsible.

 

[Jean Cote]

For some reason I thought "Impress family & friends." were going to rate higher as this is a tricks training website. Judging from the results, you guys love connecting with your dog much more.

 

[storm22]

i think impressing them is just a bonus with how much time you spend with your dogs, mind you my sister thinks i spend too much time with my animals lolz

 

[amanda85]

i dunno which to vote... maybe i need an option 'all the above' ...

 

[Jean Cote]

Actually it's a multiple vote, so you can pick all of them if you wish.