One breed of dog that I dream of owning is a Siberian Husky. They are a working breed so that means they have abundant energy for activities good for them. When they're bored, they need a good outlet so they won't be destructive at home. I was also told that putting them in obedience school will the owner tame them so that they won't be as destructive. Of course, that would cost money and you can always teach your own dog to be housebroken if you have the time and patience.
Would you enroll your dog?
I'd only use formal obedience training as a last resort to be honest, as in the past I've always been able to train my dog to be house trained myself.
In my opinion all it takes is a lot of patience, care and attention, and if you can't give any pet that, then maybe you shouldn't have a pet that needs to be trained in the first place, and maybe better off with tank or cage based pets.
This is a sad story because we had hired a dog trainer when our 2 dogs were still less than a year old. The trainer comes 3 times a week and spends 1 hour session for each dog - Barbie the pekingse and Pipoy the pug. But after the 3 months of training, all our puppies could show was recognizing the command SIT. Other than that, they would ignore us. Can you imagine the money we had spent for the trainer?
(05-16-2016, 10:14 PM)Corzhens Wrote: [ -> ]This is a sad story because we had hired a dog trainer when our 2 dogs were still less than a year old. The trainer comes 3 times a week and spends 1 hour session for each dog - Barbie the pekingse and Pipoy the pug. But after the 3 months of training, all our puppies could show was recognizing the command SIT. Other than that, they would ignore us. Can you imagine the money we had spent for the trainer?
As you say, the trainers don't come cheap and your story mirrors other tales that I've heard were the trainers have made with little or no difference to the actual behaviour of the dog/dogs. Not only that, sometimes it can work too much the other way and the dogs have got used to the trainers voice and actions too much, and so the only person they will be obedient to are them.
Thats why I think as dog lovers, we need to try and train our own pets and using the trainers is a final option if we're not getting the results we want or are expecting. People tend to think that training a dog is easy but as your an experienced dog owner yourself @Corzhens then you yourself will already know that it can be a case of easier said than done.
I want my dog (lab mix) to get obedience training. He pulls like crazy when I walk him, I can't really take him to public places like the beach because I have to fight to keep him from lunging at people, he barks like crazy anytime someone comes near us or my front door, and he barks like crazy whenever I vacuum also. Oddly, he does well in the dog park and we have no problems there.
I also dream of having a Siberian Husky. Such a majestic dog. Its eyes enchant me so much.
I would never put my dog in obedience school, because she's already amazingly well behaved, but if I had a dog that was causing too much problems (like Marley from Marley & Me) or if I spend a while trying to teach him to do its necessities outside but it won't cooperate, I think I would try taking him to a professional. But only if the case was really radical and I couldn't solve the problem alone.