Do You Find

[Simply Grand]

Yes, we had a talk about why you do not ever hit dogs. Turns out his step dad smacks his dog on the nose when he's "naughty" so he's learnt it from there.

[BlaznHotAussies]

I'm always chattering to mine. My FIL says that if you talk to dogs all the time they switch off and don't listen when you give them actual commands. I can't say I agree though, Tundra can tell when I'm asking him to do something (or "Getoutofthewaydammitdog!") or when I'm just waffling.

And oh my, I'm so impressed at how many commands he's got! Today I had some chunks of cheese and he knows in (crate), out (crate), lay down (and that's a proper lay down without sitting first), shake hands and he's pretty good at "stop there" when I step away to throw a toy for him to catch. Hm. That doesn't seem like many commands when it's written down but he's so willing, I loves him.

Today I did some crate training with Cilla (she's probably been crated before but I'm taking it slow with her) and she was great, then after our little training sessions when we were hanging out in the lounge room she chose to go lay in the crate of her own accord

Oops, sorry, got off track

But yes I talk to them a lot, still doesn't affect their listening to commands. They're smarter than that.

[Flashsmum]

I am always apologising to Whitney, she's such a big galoot always attached to me, so often bump her or step on her feet. Harry gets a profuse apology because he's usually not the one I'm treading on!

I read a study a few years ago somewhere that if have your dogs around all the time and talk to them a lot, they can understand as much as a toddler. Not sure how true it is with Whitney, but Harry certainly understands a lot more that I give him credit for, and often surprises me with what he figures out from just a conversation.

Edited November 23, 2015 by Flashsmum