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Finished reading a book called Dog Sense by John Bradshaw. I was surprised I got to finish reading it with Henry up extra early and we played video games most of the day. I would read about five pages before he through the controller at me and asked me to beat a level. I guess it could be worse right. He could be out with friends getting into trouble. I'll take that time with him any day. We made a fire today. Lots to burn. He didn't help since some of the flames got to be about 15ft high. Probably not too safe. We survived without hurting ourselves. We make sure the hose is right there in case we needed to use it. I was out later this evening sitting by the fire while my boy stayed inside. The thoughts of this recent book were intriguing to me. It was more of a science based book about how the dog functions and how ultimately we could use this evidence to train better and help save the lives of dogs.
One thing that I found very interesting is that there at the time the book was written more dogs born in the US than there were homes to put them in and euthanized a little over a million dogs. That to me is an epidemic. One thing that made me think is the stance on spay and neuter. He raised an argument that talked about breeding practices concerning this. One thing was that purebred dogs were being bred from show lines or working lines. Not much in between causing the dog who was bought or adopted to be a companion dog. Usually when the dog is pure in lines and is adopted or bought for this purpose to be just a companion dog it is missing some of the things that it needs to be truly happy. Like the breed specific things. This ties into spay and neuter because what if the breeding practices change completely and learn to monetize the companion dog. Learn to breed for that instead of show. As the dogs are now confined to space more so than ever they're having to learn to adjust to this waiting and confinement more and more. The laws don't seem to want to help our four legged friends either. For example always on a leash, can't be out side to roam freely, vaccines. 30-40 years ago most of the companion dogs were allowed to roam freely and able to explore and return home. The working breeds still had lots of jobs to complete. Now we are turning into a time where we are becoming more urban. This book stated that the cat numbers vs dog numbers leveled. More people are turning to cats do them adjusting well to the new urban America. It argued that spay and neutering some of these great dogs that fit the mold for this ever changing lifestyle for a companion. Were devastating and may be an up hill battle to help keep dogs from entering into shelters for behavior problems. It's really hard to say if that's true or not. It does make sense. Although at least in this area, I've heard of more and more breeders breeding for this type of thing. Medium to low energy purebreds, that are easy to train, potty train, social, good with cats, dogs, and other people.
There's a lot of debate of what should the companion dog actually have for the social traits? Who knows.
This book tied into all of this with training methods. Some that use the traditional theory of dominance behavior. Or positive only, and then a mix. One thing this book highlighted and I highly agree is that there are so many different types of trainers. There is not once selected type of training that should be used or that is standard. Everyone has there own sense of what that should be. It is an unregulated business. Maybe one of the last unregulated businesses. I believe that knowledge is power and understanding is the greatest outcome of knowledge. When you can hire a trainer that has great knowledge with dog behavior and tremendous amount of empathy for the dog and the owners, I believe both parties will win. I believe the dog will live a healthy happy life and some job will be created to help fulfill the needs of that particular dog. We have to empathetic to the dog. Only about 10,000 years ago it was a wolf which was nomadic. Only in the last 25-50 years did the dog really start to be suppressed of it's traveling ways, or working ways.
All and all it was super fascinating and a highly recommend to any dog owner. It was not a book around training. There actually is hardly any training in it. But for me for the general dog owner, It would give me tools to use before hiring my next trainer.. I mean i'd still hire myself but if I wasn't training of course.
You all enjoy the first weekend of the official summer season. I will be on my way to see my Bro tomorrow afternoon.
Let me know what you thought! Thanks for reading.