Originally Posted by
Lemond1985
The majority of dogs, partly due due to their dispositions and partly due to their training, will never be 100% "under control" via voice commands, or even tugging on a leash. However some dogs are extremely obedient, even under the most trying of conditions. These are mostly working dogs, with a lot of training, but occasionally a relatively untrained dog can exhibit these traits.
The problem is that everyone seems to think their own dog is one of these exceptional animals, but very few of them actually are. Dogs will be dogs, I worry more about the owners.
Agreed, often the issue has more to do with the owners. This is how I know if a human student is actually learning. They start recognizing that most of their dogs issues have to do with things they actually “trained” the dog to do. I quit competition dog sport, the reason being the pressure one has to put on a dog the closer the team gets to 100% reliability. Now I am more of a glorified dog walker ;-) If most people could actually see the pressure they put on “hunting dogs” to “always retrieve” never break a sit.......they might get sick.