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Post by Mark Baldassarre on Jan 15, 2006 22:49:12 GMT -5
Ron
There are far better ways to test the little beasts hearing than a startle test. Startling is really not a good thing. Nor is it the way to test hearing. It tests well, startle response! You may for example want a street dog to react to gun shots { that's against conventional "wisdom"}. You also want your hunting dog to. But you don't want them to startle. Startling is obviously a reaction, but it's a negative one. Desensitizing/conditioning produces a dog that won't think twice about things. Some dogs have this genetically, some don't. By doing the conditioning you make the otherwise nervy dogs better dogs. You also add insurance to the good dogs. Even genetically great dogs can have negative experiences during critical periods and have problems. Conditioning affords some insurance against that. A good breeder will document what is going on, and place pups in accordance. I know of someone who had a dale, and when there was a thunderstorm the dog would literally nuts the bed! Was that dog a shitter...YES. Could conditioning have "eliminated" {get the pun?}the problem? Very possibly. The dog would likely have shown itself a shitter in other ways. That pet family was/is so clueless they wouldn't care. Despite my "talks" w/these people they went and bought another shitter {dale}. Of course it doesn't matter to them that the new dog is also junk. Breeding first, conditioning, rearing then training. That's the order things should go, but rarely do.
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