Training a Dog to Come, Even When They Don't Want to

[Murgen]

Speaking of horses, has ayone here seen the guy that will take an unbroken horse and have him halter broke within an hour? He uses it as a Christian ministry of sorts, but he comes to Ontario a few times of year. Always wanted to go watch one of his "shows" but haven't had the chance yet. I forget what he calls himself.

[Jeannie]

Thanks Kato! I will give that a try. Sounds like it may be just what I'm looking for. I used to just indiscriminately give my dogs treats. Then I stumbled across an article that recommended making them work for it. Now, they have to do something - sit, lay down, give me a high five, speak, etc. It has made a difference in their attitude. The long down may be just the ticket to help them turn the corner!

[Faster horses]

On the fellow with the Christian Ministry horsemanship, there may be more than one, but a fellow proclaiming the same thing came through this area a few years back. We have some friends that obligingley took a horse to him to be ridden for the first time in front of a crowd. As a result, that horse is basically ruined. Those people that make those claims are probably correct MOST OF THE TIME, but not always. They don't know what every horse is going to do and this one gave him some trouble and in trying to get it all solved in an hour, managed to really mess up the horse in the process. The folks have finally given up on her and I think she will be canned. Too bad, she was a nice young, well-bred little horse. Just too much, too quick~

Even in halter breaking horses, each one reacts differently. I think these guys that proclaim what THEY can do, should be more into what the HORSE can do. After all, it is the nice horses that can be halter broke in an hour. What about the other, perhaps more sensitive horses? My take on these guys are they have big egos and do not have the horses best interests in mind. And horses can't tell time~so it could take all day to do it right...

Boy, I really threw on some cold water, didn't I? Didn't set out to do that, but EGO bothers me. There's a lot of ego when someone brags about doing something in an hour. Especially when I saw the result and it wasn't good.