terminology question - Page 1

I am sorry if this is a stupid question or has been answered before. But I am new to this board... my question is....when a person is describing a dog and they say "clear in head" or "absolutely clear in head" what does that mean exactly? Are they talking about his/her focus and/or concentration? Thanks very much for all your kind help.

I would think- the dog sees things as they really are, in other words- has good judgment call.

charity I think LMH is correct in saying the dog has good judgement but also the dog understands biting on the training field and the focus is on the sleeve and not on the helper.... schutzhund is a sport. The dog should be biting the sleeve. The dog should be clear on his/her commands and be paying attention to the handler. Outs when told. I think most people talk about a clear head when it comes to protection. I think it goes beyond. The dog also knows his/her job in all three phases of training, the dog can focus on the duty at hand even with distractions. The dog can be trusted around children and in social settings.

Kevin, Thats what I thought also. (Sound mentally!) Dawn

The dog is calm, not hectic, not over-loaded, has drive-containment, not working in conflict (with either helper or handler). The term has more to do with having SOUND NERVES than it does with mental soundness.

this is a all round term -- meaning/impluying differnet things -- BUT basically it is a derivative of the genetics of the dog and it's experiences --- some dogs get crazed -- you can see it in the eyes as well as the behaviors -- but this can be to poor traininng or the facxt of poor breeding -- a dog can be hectic because it was trained in that way --- or a dog can have such a bent genetically ,i.e. high in aggression that it wants to agressso bad , for whatever reason the motivation [ not drive , such a stupid stupid word .. dogs have emotions , neurochemical connections , thoughts , and physiology that leads to motivation -- foolish .. DRIVE], that it cannot use it's mental faculties to think and problem solve , resulting also in the inablitly to SELF-CONTROL -- so it really is a statemnt about the genetic make-up of the dog combined with it's experiences as it relates to the dog's behavior

Clear in the head refers to sound temp of the dog and considered trustworthy in all situations...does not over react and withstands stressors normally. Matches the breed profile in temp/ability.

cherub --not so -- a dog can be gun shy ... stressed easily -- but does that mean the dog is not " clear in the head " -- ?? no just a fearful dog , but can be very clear in the head -- that fear can be due to genetics -- or just a very very foolish mistake rearing the infant puppy

I think I would have to agree with cherub. Clear in the head inables you to work with the dog accepting commands under all situations. If dog is easily stressed or gun shy then he probably will not accept commands under these situations. Dogs head has not been cleared to process command due to the stress.

cherub: your reply is right, self control.