Post by oksaradt on May 11, 2009 13:24:31 GMT -5
While I’d like to say that these posts are planned and thought out, normally they come as a result of current training experiences or questions from others. The “Pet vs Partner” dilemma with working dogs is predominant in SAR. SAR is considered a professional canine vocation even if most of the resources go unpaid; Thus, the conflict.
“Pet” can have a wide range of implications in our society. It can imply from a “child replacement” to that annoyance left out in the backyard for the kids to play with. If a constant companion, a compromise is worked out between humans and canine that both feel comfortable with. Often times the roles of all involved gets confused as to what is intended in nature, but as long as minimal conflict ensues a truce develops. Usually this means the dog meets the owner’s needs for company and comfort without creating too much annoyance. In the U.S. of A., this usually means the dog is expected to figure out what the humans want without any structured communication.
A pet often becomes a means for the humans to enjoy something vicariously that they don’t allow themselves. This creates lots of confused, spoiled, and overweight canines (and cats) that provide lots of discretionary spending at the vet when health issues ensue. It means the dog gets to play ball or Frisbee when it makes the humans feel good about it. It often means the dog gets to free feed (or food is left out for the dog 24 hours a day). Dogs being gorgers and multi-dog households creating food possession, this often again creates overweight dogs as well as creating a dog that has no reason to respect the human since it can get food whenever it pleases out of the magic bowl.
Pets are often excused for not being “obedient”, for not sticking to task, etc as to put demands upon them might change the image we have of our dogs and ourselves. Pets give us an excuse to feel good about ourselves whether that means we’re the tyrant at work and the “softie” at home or worse, the passive at work and kicking the dog makes us feel superior at home. That many parents do this to their children is a whole other issue. Overall, pets are only expected to perform when it meets the emotional need of the human owner.
“Working Dog or Canine Partner” implies the dog is trained to perform a specific task reliably and for compensation. That compensation can be food, praise, toy, play, click, lack of annoyance/pain, the work itself, or a combination of any or all. For the dog to get the compensation for “free” causes that compensation to lose value in the working relationship. Dogs, like us, in one form or another will routinely test the rules for compensation, or reward system and if they can get the milk for free, don’t worry too much about working to buy the cow. If we aren’t lucky enough to have one of those dogs that love the work itself, then forms of compensation become a critical issue.
A partner has expectations placed upon it (or should) as it is part of a team. The human has a role to play and should strive to fulfill his/her part, but must depend upon the dog to do its job to the utmost of its ability as well. The professional sports player that just goes through the motions lackadaisically gets negative responses from the crowd and his sponsors. The human handler must be on the guard for this as well. Dogs often just go through the motions they expect we want if 1) their health is poor, 2) the reward system has no value, or 3) they are confused about the job expectations. It’s up to the handler/owner to figure out which and fix it as quickly as possible with checks and balances to determine if that was the root cause.
The working partner gets many perks that (unfortunately) many pets don’t get. The handler must maintain a healthy canine partner, so routine check-ups are required, quality food, daily exercise regimen, and regular training sessions are a must. If the dog can’t continue to perform for health reasons then the handler has to be objective about benching or retiring the working partner. An example, (not uncommon in the circle of handlers I work with on a national basis), is if a dog slows down. The handler checks the dog over first then takes it to a vet and requests a complete work-up, sometimes wanting blood tests, x-rays, whatever to be performed. If a fracture is found, the handler asks to be referred to an orthopedic specialist where the dog’s joints are examined and the prognosis of possible outcomes are discussed. If the problem is genetic, the breeder will be informed. If the problem is structural due to work stress, what can we do to fix it and what can the handler due to give the best possible outcome. (With a pet, often the outcome is going to be, “guess he’ll be limping and sore when it rains.) The costs are not cheap and often involve physical therapy afterwards. For someone’s athlete in the family, most don’t think twice about follow through. With the dog, the handler/owner has to weigh the pro’s and con’s as to the expected career of the dog after this and how this will affect their method of work. So, canine partners normally get better health care than pets in the bulk of our society depending on the owner’s financial status. I live in rural farm country where many still consider the cost of a bullet much more cost effective than having to take the dog in for euthanasia, or for that matter treatment. On the coasts, many pet owners don’t blink twice about paying hundreds of dollars to get fluffy’s teeth cleaned. I can tell you that my wife (my vet) considers me the most critical and annoying client she has. To her credit though, she does goes the extra mile for my dogs every time.
So, the working partner has better opportunities for a better standard of living, but at a price. That price is the handler must treat the dog almost as an employee/partner in their expectations of work output. Now, it would not be fair to deploy a dog (with great drive but no training) out into the field for hours and expect any sort of work performance. The foundation of training has to be laid with increasing demands on a graduating basis. In HRD, it’s been my experience with my dogs and others that the skill and experience levels of the dog can continue to increase through out its career. Area search dogs have more athletic demands upon them such that their career is normally shortened by how well the joints hold up to demands the job is placed upon them.
The handler/owner’s attitude toward his/her dog must alter though to stop seeing their dog as their “pet” and begin to see it as their “canine partner”. I was working with a bloodhound handler this weekend who told me his dog was shutting down on a trail. My experience with bloodhounds has been that if there is scent then they don’t shutdown. They’ll overheat, they’ll collapse, they’ll dehydrate….all handler maintenance issues, but they don’t shut down. This was a beginning trail team and the trail layer had messed up on their direction of trail with their flags. The trail layer saw us on the radio and told us the direction he’d gone. We went back to the last point I’d observed the dog working scent, cast about, and re-acquired scent and disregarded the flags. The dog took off again. The owner of the bloodhound is a great guy, hungry for knowledge, and should develop nicely with properly laid trails to build a foundation on. He sees his dog as his pet though and this skews his perception of what the dog is doing. The handler was becoming disappointed in the performance, so he excused his dog as “shutting down” or getting tired. The trail wasn’t that arduous or long.
I get odd looks from handlers I work with when I discuss reward systems as I suggest that we need to almost get in the mindset of a drug pusher when it comes to the reward system and our dog. I grew up in the 70’s and watched where freebies were given out for minimal expectations until the user was hooked and then the pusher controlled their world. It is no different with a reward system. If the handler is lucky enough to identify an obsession in their dog, life is good. This is why so many scent dogs are picked primarily on ball obsession. The trainer knows the “drug of choice,” what the dog simply can not live without. I once checked out my first dog by taking her ball and placing it in plain sight in an inaccessible spot. She sat there for three hours staring at the ball. When I retired her, she got to have a ball with her at all times. She would stuff it in my lap when she wanted me to throw it or play tug with it, but she kept it with her at all times. Up until retirement, she only got to play with the ball (which took several forms through out her career) for making finds. She traded me the ball for food as her food drive was off-the-scale as well. Thus, I could throw her the ball from anywhere when she was targeting the scent source and she’d bring it back to me for food.
Now, the “pet” owner will begin to feel guilty if he hasn’t played ball with the dog in a day or two. He makes himself feel better and either just tosses the dog the ball or goes out for a session of fetch. The handler of a “canine partner” plans times without the reward to make the reward gain importance AND sets up problems for the dog to work, so it can get its reward fix. I tell the handlers I work with, “If you must go play ball with your dog, set some problems up for it to work and then knock yourself out.” I can usually tell the difference in performance in dogs where the pet owners felt guilty versus the handlers set up training opportunities. It’s seems like a simple change in mindset, but for many humans it is a hurdle they can’t overcome.
The “pet vs partner” dilemma can take many forms. A handler can place strong emotional attachment on his/her dogs for various reasons. If the dog is sensitive to this emotional attachment and the handler is stressed, then often the dog assumes it is the source of the stress. The dog begins to guess as to what it’s either doing wrong or not doing. I see this a lot in GSDs wanting to make their owner happy and guessing as to how they can make that happen. Often the result is the dog appears to “lie”, i.e. false alert when nothing is there. Most times this is because the handler has taught the dog to indicate/alert either with a subconscious cue or the handler has decided they were right in the past regardless of what scent was doing and are exhibiting these same behaviors. Either way, dogs don’t lie. Dogs don’t know how to lie. Humans teach the dog to guess and reward them for guessing in the wrong situations; Thus, the dog appears to lie.
Working partners can retire to become pets, though I still thought more of mine even if retired. Pets only work if the price is right and it breaks up the boredom. Rarely do pets work the long hours and harsh conditions that many search dogs (and their handlers) get into in performance of their task. Rarely do pet owners expect their pet to go that extra mile to find the scent source, so it might just go unfound.
Regards,
Jim Delbridge
“Pet” can have a wide range of implications in our society. It can imply from a “child replacement” to that annoyance left out in the backyard for the kids to play with. If a constant companion, a compromise is worked out between humans and canine that both feel comfortable with. Often times the roles of all involved gets confused as to what is intended in nature, but as long as minimal conflict ensues a truce develops. Usually this means the dog meets the owner’s needs for company and comfort without creating too much annoyance. In the U.S. of A., this usually means the dog is expected to figure out what the humans want without any structured communication.
A pet often becomes a means for the humans to enjoy something vicariously that they don’t allow themselves. This creates lots of confused, spoiled, and overweight canines (and cats) that provide lots of discretionary spending at the vet when health issues ensue. It means the dog gets to play ball or Frisbee when it makes the humans feel good about it. It often means the dog gets to free feed (or food is left out for the dog 24 hours a day). Dogs being gorgers and multi-dog households creating food possession, this often again creates overweight dogs as well as creating a dog that has no reason to respect the human since it can get food whenever it pleases out of the magic bowl.
Pets are often excused for not being “obedient”, for not sticking to task, etc as to put demands upon them might change the image we have of our dogs and ourselves. Pets give us an excuse to feel good about ourselves whether that means we’re the tyrant at work and the “softie” at home or worse, the passive at work and kicking the dog makes us feel superior at home. That many parents do this to their children is a whole other issue. Overall, pets are only expected to perform when it meets the emotional need of the human owner.
“Working Dog or Canine Partner” implies the dog is trained to perform a specific task reliably and for compensation. That compensation can be food, praise, toy, play, click, lack of annoyance/pain, the work itself, or a combination of any or all. For the dog to get the compensation for “free” causes that compensation to lose value in the working relationship. Dogs, like us, in one form or another will routinely test the rules for compensation, or reward system and if they can get the milk for free, don’t worry too much about working to buy the cow. If we aren’t lucky enough to have one of those dogs that love the work itself, then forms of compensation become a critical issue.
A partner has expectations placed upon it (or should) as it is part of a team. The human has a role to play and should strive to fulfill his/her part, but must depend upon the dog to do its job to the utmost of its ability as well. The professional sports player that just goes through the motions lackadaisically gets negative responses from the crowd and his sponsors. The human handler must be on the guard for this as well. Dogs often just go through the motions they expect we want if 1) their health is poor, 2) the reward system has no value, or 3) they are confused about the job expectations. It’s up to the handler/owner to figure out which and fix it as quickly as possible with checks and balances to determine if that was the root cause.
The working partner gets many perks that (unfortunately) many pets don’t get. The handler must maintain a healthy canine partner, so routine check-ups are required, quality food, daily exercise regimen, and regular training sessions are a must. If the dog can’t continue to perform for health reasons then the handler has to be objective about benching or retiring the working partner. An example, (not uncommon in the circle of handlers I work with on a national basis), is if a dog slows down. The handler checks the dog over first then takes it to a vet and requests a complete work-up, sometimes wanting blood tests, x-rays, whatever to be performed. If a fracture is found, the handler asks to be referred to an orthopedic specialist where the dog’s joints are examined and the prognosis of possible outcomes are discussed. If the problem is genetic, the breeder will be informed. If the problem is structural due to work stress, what can we do to fix it and what can the handler due to give the best possible outcome. (With a pet, often the outcome is going to be, “guess he’ll be limping and sore when it rains.) The costs are not cheap and often involve physical therapy afterwards. For someone’s athlete in the family, most don’t think twice about follow through. With the dog, the handler/owner has to weigh the pro’s and con’s as to the expected career of the dog after this and how this will affect their method of work. So, canine partners normally get better health care than pets in the bulk of our society depending on the owner’s financial status. I live in rural farm country where many still consider the cost of a bullet much more cost effective than having to take the dog in for euthanasia, or for that matter treatment. On the coasts, many pet owners don’t blink twice about paying hundreds of dollars to get fluffy’s teeth cleaned. I can tell you that my wife (my vet) considers me the most critical and annoying client she has. To her credit though, she does goes the extra mile for my dogs every time.
So, the working partner has better opportunities for a better standard of living, but at a price. That price is the handler must treat the dog almost as an employee/partner in their expectations of work output. Now, it would not be fair to deploy a dog (with great drive but no training) out into the field for hours and expect any sort of work performance. The foundation of training has to be laid with increasing demands on a graduating basis. In HRD, it’s been my experience with my dogs and others that the skill and experience levels of the dog can continue to increase through out its career. Area search dogs have more athletic demands upon them such that their career is normally shortened by how well the joints hold up to demands the job is placed upon them.
The handler/owner’s attitude toward his/her dog must alter though to stop seeing their dog as their “pet” and begin to see it as their “canine partner”. I was working with a bloodhound handler this weekend who told me his dog was shutting down on a trail. My experience with bloodhounds has been that if there is scent then they don’t shutdown. They’ll overheat, they’ll collapse, they’ll dehydrate….all handler maintenance issues, but they don’t shut down. This was a beginning trail team and the trail layer had messed up on their direction of trail with their flags. The trail layer saw us on the radio and told us the direction he’d gone. We went back to the last point I’d observed the dog working scent, cast about, and re-acquired scent and disregarded the flags. The dog took off again. The owner of the bloodhound is a great guy, hungry for knowledge, and should develop nicely with properly laid trails to build a foundation on. He sees his dog as his pet though and this skews his perception of what the dog is doing. The handler was becoming disappointed in the performance, so he excused his dog as “shutting down” or getting tired. The trail wasn’t that arduous or long.
I get odd looks from handlers I work with when I discuss reward systems as I suggest that we need to almost get in the mindset of a drug pusher when it comes to the reward system and our dog. I grew up in the 70’s and watched where freebies were given out for minimal expectations until the user was hooked and then the pusher controlled their world. It is no different with a reward system. If the handler is lucky enough to identify an obsession in their dog, life is good. This is why so many scent dogs are picked primarily on ball obsession. The trainer knows the “drug of choice,” what the dog simply can not live without. I once checked out my first dog by taking her ball and placing it in plain sight in an inaccessible spot. She sat there for three hours staring at the ball. When I retired her, she got to have a ball with her at all times. She would stuff it in my lap when she wanted me to throw it or play tug with it, but she kept it with her at all times. Up until retirement, she only got to play with the ball (which took several forms through out her career) for making finds. She traded me the ball for food as her food drive was off-the-scale as well. Thus, I could throw her the ball from anywhere when she was targeting the scent source and she’d bring it back to me for food.
Now, the “pet” owner will begin to feel guilty if he hasn’t played ball with the dog in a day or two. He makes himself feel better and either just tosses the dog the ball or goes out for a session of fetch. The handler of a “canine partner” plans times without the reward to make the reward gain importance AND sets up problems for the dog to work, so it can get its reward fix. I tell the handlers I work with, “If you must go play ball with your dog, set some problems up for it to work and then knock yourself out.” I can usually tell the difference in performance in dogs where the pet owners felt guilty versus the handlers set up training opportunities. It’s seems like a simple change in mindset, but for many humans it is a hurdle they can’t overcome.
The “pet vs partner” dilemma can take many forms. A handler can place strong emotional attachment on his/her dogs for various reasons. If the dog is sensitive to this emotional attachment and the handler is stressed, then often the dog assumes it is the source of the stress. The dog begins to guess as to what it’s either doing wrong or not doing. I see this a lot in GSDs wanting to make their owner happy and guessing as to how they can make that happen. Often the result is the dog appears to “lie”, i.e. false alert when nothing is there. Most times this is because the handler has taught the dog to indicate/alert either with a subconscious cue or the handler has decided they were right in the past regardless of what scent was doing and are exhibiting these same behaviors. Either way, dogs don’t lie. Dogs don’t know how to lie. Humans teach the dog to guess and reward them for guessing in the wrong situations; Thus, the dog appears to lie.
Working partners can retire to become pets, though I still thought more of mine even if retired. Pets only work if the price is right and it breaks up the boredom. Rarely do pets work the long hours and harsh conditions that many search dogs (and their handlers) get into in performance of their task. Rarely do pet owners expect their pet to go that extra mile to find the scent source, so it might just go unfound.
Regards,
Jim Delbridge