Why don’t people train their dogs?
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Anonymous
| Very often they have no idea how. Or they think it’s mean to make the dog obey them, even though a hierarchical world is what a dog instinctively desires. Or they’re lazy. Lots of reasons. PP is correct that few dogs are untrainable. I knew a family that had an energetic and intelligent sled-type dog. The dog ran the show. They went to a professional trainer. The dog was fine with him, because it was the owners who needed to be trained first. They finally gave up and gave the dog to a person they worked with. I saw it a few months earlier and it was perfectly obedient. Because what mattered was the owner’s behavior. |
Anonymous
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The only reason is selfishness. There are, unfortunately WAY too many selfish and awful dog owners these days.
They think they don't need it. They think everyone should love their dog as much as they do. They're lazy. They're too cheap to own up to the responsibility. They don't want to commit to reinforcing the trainer. All 10000% owner selfishness. |
Anonymous
+1 Everyone has a reason why their dog's behavior is okay and we should all be fine with it. But mostly it's that they don't actually have the time or energy, they think it's "mean," or they are lazy or overly indulgent. And entitled, because we're all supposed to LOVE their furbabies and if we don't we're the heartless monsters. We don't currently have a dog because I think having a pet is a responsibility, and if you can't properly train your pet and provide them the exercise and attention they need, you shouldn't have one. But a lot of people don't feel that way. They get a dog because they or their kids want one, period. |
Anonymous
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My dog is reactive on a leash but perfectly well behaved at home. I’ve worked with trainers but it’s never clicked and frankly it’s not worth it to me since it’s fairly easy to cross to the other side of the road if I see another dog approaching. A couple of times unrestrained dogs have approached him which scares him. There’s been some growling in these cases but really he is just a fluff ball and he doesn’t bite (it would be the unrestrained dog’s fault if he did in that circumstance, but again it hasn’t happened). Dog does great at daycare or off leash at a dog park, so it’s really a leash situation.
As for the barking at our window/door, I do not train that out of him because I like it. I wanted a dog that would let me know when people approach the house. He doesn’t bark except in that situation (for example, if he is outside in the fenced in yard, he doesn’t bark). Basically the things that mattered to me, like being socialized for doggy daycare or being tolerant of visitors in the house, are the things I trained for. The things that didn’t, I didn’t. |
Anonymous
| Hope you’re not including my 4 month old puppy in that. She always pulls at the leash, but we’re training her. She’s just … a puppy. |
Anonymous
| I don't mind a less than 10 pound dog pulling the leash or jumping and I would never address that in training if it wasn't hurting either of us. Puppies always get a pass learning, they are usually chasing down leaves for fun while leashed so it looks like chaos. |
Anonymous
As long as your dog never jumps on anyone else, fine. |
Anonymous
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They are lazy.
Getting a dog is really easy, training one is hard. Puppies are cute even when they misbehave, and then one day you have a full grown dog who is a nightmare and no longer that cute. Actually kind of scary. People are dumb. People develop love and affection for their dogs and then make excuses for their bad behavior. Like a lot of parents, these dog owners don't understand that training your dog is an act of love, and that the best thing you can do for the dog is teach it how to behave safely and respectfully in the world. Instead they let their dogs do whatever they want and then get offended when people are not excited to be jumped on, barked at, lunged at, etc. So there you go -- people are lazy, dumb, selfish, and oblivious. Did I miss anything? |
Anonymous
All this, but also, in my neighborhood a lot of the bad dog owners are singles or childless couples who got dogs for companionship during the pandemic but did not consider that once they were able to socialize and travel again, they would not be able to offer their dog the companionship the DOG needs. They never trained their dogs because they don't know how and the dogs were younger and cuter and more forgivable during Covid isolation, and then since then, they just leave their dogs home alone a lot or drop them with doggy daycare and aren't actually trying to stick to a schedule or provide their dog with what he needs. Some of these dogs are likely behaved okay with their dog walkers and sitters, who in many cases know how to deal with dogs, but they are very ill behaved with their often absent owners who selfishly adopted them when they were at home and lonely and now are doing the exact same things to their dogs that the struggled with during the early days of Covid. I feel so bad for these dogs. I hate their owners. At least someone who gets a dog for their kids might expect their kids to love and play with the dog. A single 30-something living in an apartment who is gone for 10+ hours a day and travels two weekends a month just expects that dog or shuffled between daycare and sitters on an irregular schedule and then be functional and well behaved with no effort. It's really enraging. Selfish morons, I loathe them. |
Anonymous
Puppies definitely get a pass, because they're learning. But small dogs still need to be trained. |
Anonymous
+1, leash pulling is not a big deal to me unless it's clear the person with the leash can't control the dog (if the dog is big, strong, or the person is just particularly lax). I would work to train that out of my dog because it makes walks stressful, but if someone else's dog does that and they can keep the dog away from me and my dog, I just view it as their problem. If your dog jumps on me, unless it's like a new puppy, I get annoyed. A dog should not be putting his paws on strangers on the street! That is totally unacceptable behavior, and when I see it in a dog over a year old, I know that owner is just bad. There is no excuse for that. |
Anonymous
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As someone who spends excessive amounts of time training my dog (we do dog sports together), the simple reason is because it's hard. It takes time.
For all the complaints about people who treat their dogs like their kids, the reality is most people treat their dogs as afterthoughts. They want the loving companion they had growing up without realizing the amount of work it takes. As children, they were oblivious to the work their parents put in and think dogs are just easy and manageable by nature. The average dog owner is actually pretty clueless about dogs. |
Anonymous
My dog jumps on people as a way to be affectionate. Dog is harness. However, why are you getting that close to a dog who is jumping on you. You also need boundaries. Ours is just excited. |
Anonymous
My dog is also reactive on a leash. He is great off leash (doggie daycare for instance) but gets lunge-y on a leash. We’ve hired a trainer and done exercises (this was pre-kids when we did have time), but there was just not much progress. Our solution is that he mostly gets exercised in our backyard and walks are done at non-peak times (i.e. not during the right after work hours rush). It is what it is. He’s old and sick now. |
Anonymous
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Well…..
I have raised dogs before, taken them to training, trained them myself etc etc. My dogs were not perfect, but very well behaved. Then, I got a dog during the pandemic. I tried to enroll in puppy classes, but there were only online classes. Whenever I walked him, every time I saw a person, I would cross the street because that is what we did during the pandemic. See a dog or person coming, cross the street. Guess what I did inadvertently? I trained my dog to be afraid of people and dogs. He is on medicine, I have paid thousands of dollars for training and he is a little better. NOW, I no longer take him for neighborhood walks. He is on leash in the yard and I take him in the woods behind our house on leash, that is all. He can’t handle it because during his socialization sensitive period, I wasn’t able to socialize him. Is it my fault? Yes Am I taking responsibility? Yes Do I think I was irresponsible? No. My mom lives with my husband two kids and me, we needed to keep safe. We all got through without COVID. The dog behavior was the causality, but it is something we are living with. |