Monks of New Skete - Page 2

Mirasmom - 13 years old! Long live the queen (Mira).
IMO, I think black looks regal on a GSD.

Pryor's & Dunbar's are in my study. I'll preview the
others.  Another great read:
Of Wolves And Men

I will not forget my original, personal foundation of all dog books,
See Spot Run. 
I actually had a dog who went by that name. It was an ACD.

I am puzzled by the fact that some of you think their training methods are harsh. Tin cans, rolled up newspapers is how I remember my grandparents dog training methods. My grandparents had wonderful dogs. How can one condone the use of e collars yet think a rolled up newspaper is harsh. It seems to me to that a swat across the nose with a rolled up newspaper, or shaking a tin can with pennies is less hurtful than some of the training methods I have seen. Remember these Monks are raising puppies to be family guardians and loving pets, not K-9 police dogs.
Our 14 year old chow cross is getting rather ornery in her old age. My husband desperately needed the dogs in the house a few weeks back, Maya the shepherd came running to him, no problem, but the chow ran the other way and my husband was so pissed off. He was chasing her she kept running as she simply felt she didn't need to go in. He grabbed a long branch that had fallen on the ground, ( he is not an aggressive man ) and when he came close to her he smacked her with it and told her back to the house. She ran as fast as she could back to the house and now as soon as you say come, she comes.
That's his desperate times calls for desperate measures training method, and I am sure the humane society would have written him up watching him chasing the dog with a stick. Oh, how I wish I had my video camera for that. ( don't worry he only smacked her once on the bum and not hard ) but it worked.

Dmitri Belyaev, A Soviet scientist who closely monitored silver foxes in a
fifty year longitudinal study.  It is quite an interesting topic.

Another one:

Trut. L. (2001). Experimental Studies of Early Canid Domestication. In
the Genetics of the Dog.   Ruvinsky & Sampson




 

Let's face it. Most of us have done things with our dogs we wouldn't normally have done out of anger, frustration or necessity. I once broke a canoe paddle across the back of the very hard-headed female in my avatar. She was about to jump out of the canoe, and dunk us in the water, which might have proved deadly as it was October, and the water was very cold!

Yes, I broke the paddle, after giving her 3 whacks, each one a bit harder than the one before. And it stopped her from jumping. And she still loved me, and lived to the ripe old age of 14 and a half.

The true GSD temperament recovers quickly from hard corrections. Though I certainly don't recommend the method I had to use, I learned from the incident. Next time we went canoeing, I made sure she was wearing a long enough leash that I was able to reach it in an emergency!  

You can abuse a dog with a rolled up news paper or E Collar or flat collar or or or.  The tool is just that...a tool.

Mindhunt you are absolutely right. Hands are for love not hate. However, despite our rational mind during training sessions, there are just some times when we don't have time for rational thinking. This is when the rolled up newspaper or a branch or a wooden spoon come in very handy. No different than disciplining a child back in the good ol' days when a smack on the ass, got some respect. Now with the time out chair and trying to reason with them we have created all sorts of disciplinary problems.  Sorry, I digress. And I am the least violent person you could imagine.

I had a real hard working line GSD that we named Capone...

One night my wife and I were watching TV in the bedroom (he was about 6 months old at the time) and he was purposely making noise and just being a pain in the ass. I had placed a metal coffee can (half full of pennies) on a night stand next to my bed. So I grabbed it and yelled lie down and shook the hell out of the can. The dog hit the floor at about 110 MPH. 5 Seconds later he stuck his head up, looked me right in the eye and barked twice, then he layed back down. The barks were paused, it was apparent from the barking tone he was saying "screw you". LOL

As he got older, when firmly told to do something he would look you right in the eye and burp. Then he would do what he was told. But he could make himself burp and it was his way of saying screw you. I could have written a book about his attitude, he certainly lived up to the name Capone. He was a punk, totally loyal and protective to the family. But he was a defiant punk.

Tooo funny, ML!  The girl in my avatar, the one that got whacked with the paddle, was a bit of a rebel, and would often decide she just HAD to have one more pee after I'd called her. Then, once she'd finished, she pretended to 'forget' I'd called her, and start sniffing around some more. At that point, I'd head towards her, and grab her collar, and give her a correction.

She soon learned when i said "TAshaaaa!' in that annoyed sounding tone, she'd better knock off the dilly-dallying and do as she was told!

Didn't stop her from trying the pee trick again, though...    She never stopped testing the limits!