Noise Test Interpretation: What does it really mean? - Page 2

this test indicates one thing only.................. this is the best GSD ever to have graced our planet. No further testing is required, whether it be hips, DM, perfromance, or anything. This dog should be bred until his penis falls off [ if a male] if a female she should be spayed.

 Not directed to this dog in post. but as a generality : a thought about the make up of our dogs :
There is a reason for caution , suspicion , unsureness , uncomfortableness , hesitancy , all the way up this gradient to eventually fear. There is a survival instinct and self preservation within a person and an animal. To be void of such is not sound. And if we all were based this way , the population would be very small--- in a joking manner.

Any animal that does not at sometime experience all of these gradients , is not sound and it's life will be very short lived. A dog that goes reckless like the wind without any regard will soon become a dead dog. This is why we train canines , to aid them to discover what is threat and what is not. What is to be perceived as a danger and what should not. Yes we want dogs with good stress level and courage. BUT ... courageous does not mean intelligent / what is deemed as courage could go in hand with stupidity. We want intelligent , discerning dogs too, along with courage . At least I do if I place my life into a dogs hands. BTW , there are stupid dogs , just as there are ignorant people. Can you imagine a lead dog on an Alaskan sled team giving no regard to thin ice ? Courage and stupidity aren't a good combination .
BTW , relating to PDB posts on civility . Another reason I don't evaluate civil or non civil dog by looking at 1 video . I prefer an intelligent civil GS . Not a stupid , civil dog. 1 video does not give me enough information about a dog I would be interested in. For whatever it is worth , not that any one else might think that way - that is my standard.

Mithuna, now that it seems evident that the dog was with YOU when this happened (whether it happened deliberately or, as I now suspect, accidentally) and not with the regular handler, I will ADD to my assessment that this is one stoopid dog by pointing out that it was hardly a question of the dog being so bonded to, and trusting of, the handler that it could feel it was safe to ignore a possible earthquake ...

I dont know but this is going back on Saturday, thank God. Way way too much restlesssness.

Mithuna, there are very hard dogs afraid of thunder storms, there are real weak dogs not afraid of sudden noises,
and I simply EXPECT environmental soundness in a 3 years old dog, raised properly ( ! ) ... nature and nurture...

It´s always about the whole picture, not about one single part only

The dog has Zero off Switch and he has been a pain; he is very head strong to get his way, but has not shown any palpable aggression. He listens of a food reward is in the making; even with giving that food I have to be very careful because he literally tries to rip  it from my hand , before it is given to him.

The strangest thing is that he was with his owner for 2 years and when He was placed into my vehicle he did not turn around and look for the owner almost as if there were no bond between. The idea of the dog protecting the owner/handler based on the fact that the this high food drive dog is associating the owner/handler with his own food security seems odd. It is odd because although the dog appear to be protecting the handler/owner , the dog is really serving its own interest ( ensuring  its food security ).

With my own dog the relationship is very different in that it is very personable. Outside of what my club is doing, I am training her in some obedience, and she responds because she seems to want to do it .

 

 

 

I would expect that any dog that has survival instinct, would at least show some response to a loud, unexpected noise. The startle is natural and is important to survival. The recovery from the sudden loud noise and the behaviour afterwards is what I look at.

He is very high drive and cannot even rest..bounces off the wall all the time. I once spoke to Mike Suttle of Logan Haus in WV ( fall 2015 ) explained the " no fear " of jumping out even a 15th floor window after a ball by some Mals was due to the fact that their drive is so high they become completely oblivious to the environment. Being completely oblivious to everything else other than what the dog is fixated on looks to the observing eye as fearlessness. He further explained explained that it is also such high drives that allow them to overcome the inhibition to bite a person.
It make some sense because I believe that such intense activity is strongly coupled to the dopamine- serotonin system, where the activity itself drives the reward on the physiological level. A study on cocaine addiction and the dopamine serotonin system was done at Columbia Univ. using lad rats. All the rats involved in the experimental procedure was observed to self administer cocaine until death.
I often think that dogs that are willing to chase a ball until they literally pass out are accessing the physiological level of the brain's reward system, simply by chasing the ball; after sometime they are compelled to chase even when it is clearly not in their physical interest to continue to do so.

Mith, I think your assessment is correct, for once; it does sound as though this particular dog has no bond with his owner, after 2 years I would expect the dog to at least notice that he was being separated.  But then, he seems not to notice very much of anything ! (Did I call him 'stoopid' - yup, still that.)

However - and as I know nothing of this owner, I'll give him (?) a little 'benefit of the doubt' - it can be rather hard to establish the bond with an unusually difficult and over-active dog such as you describe.  Been there, got the T.  But not impossible, in the fullness of time, IF you know what you are doing.  People who have not had to own or handle this sort of dog do not really believe they exist.  I am not discussing 'prey' or 'civil' or 'drive' or anything here, just saying some dogs can be obnoxiously hard work.

What I notice is that the dog very quickly forms a bond with food. Once you hand feed him he quickly associates you with the food. In a few days he became quite protective of me but it seems more like his desire is to preserve food security, rather than me for my own sake.