Smarter than the average bear?

A lot has been written about the intelligence of dogs and most of it has been written by people who know more about the subject than me. But Jennie’s comment last week about how intelligent dogs are harder to train than “slightly dim” dogs got me to thinking. Here are a few of those thoughts. As usual, I probably have more questions than answers.

Remember the study that came out a few years back that said border collies were the smartest breed? Ask any BC owner and they’ll tell you that doesn’t mean they’re automatically a breeze to train or live with!

Measuring canine intelligence is a dicey proposition and too often we tend to decide which breeds are smart or not by the numbers of each represented among winners in the obedience ring. Somewhere along the line, the ability to win in the obedience ring has come to equate a higher level of intelligence.

Of course this is ridiculous. Folks who have played the obedience game with an open mind know every dog is an individual and words like smart or dumb often reflect the person holding the leash much more than the dog.

A more accurate declaration would be “Easier to train” equals “Wins in the obedience ring.” There’s a reason golden retrievers, not whippets, dominate the obedience scene. How many times have you heard someone say, “I’m getting a golden/sheltie/fill-in-the-blank next time because they’re easy to train”?

I think most folks would agree, some breeds ARE easier to train than others, especially for higher-end competition where tiny performance details may separate the top four winners. At a recent trial I attended, golden retrievers accounted for nearly 2/3 of the entry in Open and Utility. This is not an accident. They are well suited for demanding obedience competition.

Notice I did not say some breeds are EASY to train. I said EASIER. Even if done well, with patience, respect, realistic goals and a lot of time, training ANY dog to the UDX level or beyond is never easy. It takes a tremendous amount of effort and dedication on the handler’s part to make it happen. And that’s never easy. If it were, everyone would have an OTCh.

But some breeds seem to excel, while others rarely make an appearance in the obedience ring. Is it because certain breeds are so mentally superior they understand what we are trying to communicate in spite of our clumsy and often flawed training efforts? Or is it because they don’t object to the constant repetition/correction approach some trainers feel is necessary? Or because they are willing to tolerate heavy-handed training methods that would have other breeds saying, “Screw this, I quit.”

I’ve always felt that the relationship between dog and trainer was more responsible for a team’s success than the dog’s genetic material. But let’s not deny the facts — if you get a puppy from a litter with OTChs. going back for generations on either side of the pedigree, chances are that puppy is going to be extremely “trainable,” regardless of the breed.

The pedigree proves that genetic line is mentally predisposed to successfully work with humans and physically able to do so for long enough to earn high-end titles. This is a wonderful thing. Breeders would be foolish not to make it part of their programs and exhibitors who enjoy that particular breed would be foolish not to recognize it. Does this mean everyone should rush out and get a golden retriever or sheltie from a specific kennel so they can "win"? Of course not. Not unless you truly, truly love goldens or shelties. But if you love Fluegelhunds, then keep loving and training Fluegelhunds.

I don’t think an OTCh.-loaded pedigree necessarily means those dogs are “smarter” than dogs who might not be achieving on such high levels - they are just very amenable to working happily with humans and have been trained by experienced owners, leading to a high rate of success, as measured by titles and scores, in competitive venues. Which, ideally, is what many of us want.

We often don’t recognize intelligence when it’s living with us. The “slightly dim” dog is willing to keep repeating things over and over, exactly the same way each time, while we tell him how SMART he is, while the “smart” dog may start asking questions or re-inventing the wheel or doing God knows how many crazy ass things that make the trainer think “What is WRONG with that dumb dog?”

Looking back at the dogs I’ve trained as an adult, I think my shelties were of average intelligence but they possessed a joie de vivre for training and showing that amplified it. I do feel my Belgians have been on the higher end of the intelligence scale (some of their problem solving has been freaky scary) but Phoenix is by far the most difficult dog I’ve trained. Although a lot of that is of my own doing, he is a free-thinker, creative, inventive, pushy, sensitive, reactive and absolutely un-interested in doing the same old, same old day after day. This is not a recipe for an "easy" dog to train.

He can be a total sweetheart or a complete challenge to live with. One thing is for sure, now that I’ve come to realize he needs more from me than commands and consequences, our training is NEVER boring.

Regardless of how brilliant or dim-witted we think our dogs are, we need to be more invested in building a relationship with them that allows us to learn together. Phoenix has made it very clear that I need to learn more about HIM — not just what I can train him to do — before our obedience ring work is going to improve.

You might be a redneck if . . .

. . . you've ever used vet-wrap to keep an ice pack in place. Yep. That's my foot with an ice pack vet-wrapped around it.

You might be a middle-aged woman if  you pulled ligaments in your foot by . . . get ready for this . . . it's crazy wild . . .

 . . . standing up.

In keeping with my long history of getting hurt in odd ways (vacuum cleaner handle in the eye, bungee cord to the face, etc.), I have once again found a totally ridiculous way to get hurt without trying.

It happened at the school program I did with Phoenix on Thursday. We were almost done. The kids were petting Phoenix and I was crouching on the balls of my feet, giving him treats, which was totally stupid because A) Phoenix adores kids and B) crouching like that is really hard on my knees. It was about to be really hard on something else, too.

I stood up and something in my left foot went POP! Ouch! WTF??? SOB!!! The pain was incredible. Like someone had driven a truck over my big toe. I seriously could have thrown up. But image is everything. We finished the program, with me balancing on one wobbly leg. Then I limped out to the van, took Phoenix home and went back to work. My foot hurt so bad I called the local clinic.

"There's not much we can do for toe injuries," the nurse said, her tone of voice clearly indicating that unless it was hanging by a flap of skin or had a bone poking out of it, I should just hang up and get on with my life.

It FELT like a bone was poking out of it. It felt like red hot nails were poking into it. She asked how it happened and I tried to explain that one minute I was fine, then I stood up and well, that was that.

"Sounds like you've hyper-extended your big toe," the nurse told me. Apparently this happens when you have a sudden shift of weight or balance and your toes end up trying to compensate for your whole body. It's fairly common in athletes.

Yeah. Ha-ha. How common is it in middle aged women giving dog obedience programs in the library?

"You've probably pulled or torn some ligaments," the nurse continued helpfully. "There's really nothing to do but put ice on it, elevate it and take an anti-inflammatory. And stay off it. It will take a week or two to heal."

A week or TWO? Stay OFF it? Yeah, sure. 

Oh, and I was supposed to keep flexing it so it didn't stiffen up.

Flex it? I wanted to cut it off!

TG the Granger agility trials aren't THIS weekend or I'd be hiring a rent-a-handler. Let's see . . . two runs a day times three days . . . Michele, Rilda, Tammy, Marsha, Paula and Tracy . . . that comes out nicely. If the boys want to play, Jeff, Terry and Bill could take a turn.

As it turns out, I THINK I'll be okay to run my own dog next weekend. The last 48 hours have been pretty crappy but my foot feels a lot better today. Do you know how hard it is to ice and elevate a foot? You can elevate a foot or you can ice a foot but doing both at once is not easy. Hence the vet wrap idea (thanks, Renee!). 

The part of my foot that hurts most is the right half, top and bottom. That part was so swollen by Thursday night my toes couldn't even touch the floor. It's bad when you can't touch your toes. It's even worse when your toes can't touch the floor.

Thanks to gimping around at work Thursday and Friday, my entire foot ached by the end of the day. The right side hurt from the pulled ligaments. The left side hurt from me walking on it funny. My left knee hurt from the awkward way I had my foot propped up on my desk at work (finally, an excuse to put my feet on the desk!). And the right side of my body was complaining because the left side was out of kilter and it was being asked to over-compensate.

Seriously, if you had told me when I was 20 that life after 40 was going to be like this . . .

Kids say the darnedest things

The school programs yesterday were fun. Phoenix has done demos for community groups, Kiwanis, etc., but not for a bunch of kids who would laugh at him. He loved it and was quite the goofball.

The kids had a problem distinguishing between German and Belgian shepherds, though. I am probably getting paid back for posting the funny script from Hogan's Heroes about Belgians being smarter than Germans.

Here are a few of the best quotes from yesterday:

Girl: “What kind of dog is he?”
Me: “He’s a Belgian shepherd.”
Girl: “Oh. So he’s not a REAL shepherd.”

Boy: “What kind of dog is he?”
Me: “He’s a Belgian shepherd.”
Boy: “What kind of a dog is THAT?!”

Boy: “We have a German shepherd, too.”
Me: “Phoenix is a Belgian shepherd.”
Boy: “We have REAL German shepherd.”

Boy: “What kind of treats are you giving him?”
Me: “Cheese.”
Boy: “You need to give him more. He’s too skinny.”

(This one is my absolute favorite)

Boy: “How many dogs do you have?”
Me: “Two.”
Boy: “So the other one is a normal dog?”

I can't help it, I have to . . .

In case you have zero interest in college football, the huge Iowa-Iowa State rivalry game was last Saturday. The Iowa Hawkeyes are usually the kick-ass powerhouse and the Iowa State Cyclones are usually the kickees. But not this year! I graduated from Iowa State so need to wave my cardinal and gold pride one more time.

Moving on to other things - I love Jennie's comment from earlier this week (Sept. 13, Obedience Stereotypes). She wrote (paraphrasing here): truly intelligent dogs are harder to train than slightly dim dogs. I love this concept! And I seriously want to explore it further, just not today. No time.

And no, it isn't going to be hard for me to give up obedience trials between now and April because there are only two obedience weekends I would have entered anyway. If Phoenix and I were totally rocking our teamwork, I might be willing to travel a bit more to pick up some other shows, but given that our current status is very un-rocking, I'm content to put trialing on hold. Besides, we've got tons of agility trials to go to, so not like we'll be staying home for the next 7 months.

Later this morning, Phoenix and I are going to the local high school to give a program. Actually, we'll give three 15-minutes programs. Phoenix hasn't ever done the school scene but he is such a dork about kids I'm have no doubt he'll enjoy it.

The 7-month vacation

Well, it's not exactly going to be a vacation.

But Phoenix and I are staying out of the obedience ring for the next 7 months. That's not a magic number, it just happens that a lot of the nice local (day trip) trials start in 7 months (April) and I'd like to start showing him again then.

April. That seems like years away. We've got a lot to do between now and then!

A lot of people have asked what I'm going to do in terms of training now. I've gotten lots of suggestions, ranging from give him a year off from obedience to try rally to get a puppy.

You people are funny. Really, really funny.

I do not think I could go an entire year without training obedience. Seriously. I can train less, do fewer and shorter sessions. But I cannot NOT train. Working with my dog is like an addiction. If I miss a couple of days, I start craving it, needing a fix. I treasure the time we spend together and that's even more important to me now, as Phoenix and I face the challenge of re-establishing that obedience is something to be enjoyed, not something to be endured without enthusiasm and constant reminders that he's not doing it well enough to suit me.

Rally. Hmmm. Theoretically, I have nothing against Rally. It has its place. I will not be in that place with Phoenix until they stop cramming Rally courses into 40 x 50-foot rings where there are only three steps between stations. It seems counter-productive to teach a dog to heel with power and impulsion, then take him into a ring where he has to stop or turn just as he hits his stride. But maybe that's just me.

Finally - get a puppy. While I have no doubt that would shake Phoenix out of his funk (whether it would be for good or bad is anybody's guess), it would also throw our entire household into chaos and upheaval. I'm so not ready for that! I promised Jamie that I would not get a puppy while was still with me. I want to enjoy his senior years and I know if I get a puppy, Jamie would slip quietly into that place where old dogs simply exist on the fringes of the household while the younger dog(s) demand all the attention.

So what are we going to do?

I'm shifting our focus from "re-training" to "re-animating."

There is no doubt in my mind that Phoenix understands how to do the Open and Utility exercises and how to do them well (straight, fast, clean, smooth, etc.) That may seem like a profoundly foolish statement from a dog and handler team who hasn't managed to pass Utility since finishing our UD last spring and has, for all intents and purposes, fallen completely to pieces.

But in keeping with my theory that Phoenix has lost the "want to," thanks largely to me putting so much pressure on him that he felt he could never be right so why bother (once again, what I TAUGHT was not what he LEARNED), he doesn't need any more "training." He's been "trained" to the nines and that has not gotten us to a good place.

He needs to know he's right. With previous dogs, I could always tell when they had a "light bulb moment" and figured something out - they KNEW they were right and there was no stopping them after that. The confidence and joy in their work carried into the ring and they were brilliant. Somehow, I missed that with Phoenix even though he showed me he had mastered the skills and could do the exercises. He never had the light bulb moment where HE knew he could do them and that I was truly pleased with and proud of him.

In other words - I'm going to get off his case. Training is going to be much less formal. There will be rewards but he will work for them, no luring, no over-treating, no cookies for no reason. Well, maybe a few. Because he's awfully cute. Especially when he does that Malinois tooth clack thing. Mal owners know what I'm talking about. (Do other breeds do that??)

My immediate goal is to have a happy dog in the ring. Not a perfect dog. Not a dog who never makes a mistake. Just a dog who enjoys his job and is happy to make an effort to do it with me. Once we have that, I'll decide where to go next.

Obedience stereotypes?

I hate breed stereotypes. You know, “Shelties are shy,” “Rottweilers are mean,” “Hounds are stupid,” “Toy dogs are yappy,” etc.

My two un-favorites are “Tervs have no work ethic” and “Malinois have rotten temperaments.” Guess they forgot to tell Jamie that when he got his OTCh. or Phoenix when he was giving the wheelchair-bound, special needs person kisses to their mutual delight over the weekend.

Most stereotypes are perpetrated by people who have never lived with or trained the breeds they’re passing judgment on. Yeah, there is probably a grain of truth (a single, tiny grain) in each statement because heaven knows not every single dog born on this planet has exceptional temperament and intelligence but automatically condemning a dog because of his physical appearance is the product of ignorance.

You and I know better than to believe blanket stereotypes and we spend a lot of time trying to show John Q. Public that how a dog is treated and trained usually has more influence on the final product than the dog’s genetics.

Sometimes I wonder if we need to transfer a similar approach to training methods. How many obedience “stereotypes” have you followed blindly, never questioning them, even though you’ve never tried any other method to see if it might work for your dog because you were afraid that would be against the "rules"?

Here are a few "rules" I followed without question for years before Phoenix started changing things:

• You can’t let your dog “get away” with anything. (By the time you realize he’s gotten away with something, well, um, he’s already gotten away with it and it’s too late to do anything about it.)

• You have to show your dog who’s the boss or he won’t respect you. (Respect and fear are not the same.)

• You have to make him do it. (Yeah. Right. And what if you can’t? Then what?)

• You have to teach a forced retrieve or your dog will never be a reliable retriever. (No. You don’t.)

There are probably more that I can’t think of at the moment. If you're running up against a brick wall in your training, maybe it's time to re-think some of those "carved in stone" rules.

Things that make me crazy

Granted, there are a lot of them.

Most of them have to do with my job.

Which is stupid, because I should just shut up and be happy I have a job.

I am happy I have a job.

It involves dealing with the public a lot.

Which makes me crazy.

This morning Funeral Home A sends me an obituary for the paper.

This afternoon, they send me a revised copy of the obituary.

An hour later, they call me with changes to the revised copy. 

An hour after that, they e-mail to say oops, we sent it to you by mistake and the family doesn't want to pay to have it run in your paper.

Which leaves me wondering at what point did anyone actually TALK TO THE FAMILY or let them proofread the obituary before sending it out.

See what I mean?

This happens all the time.

Thing number two: we have been without an editor at our paper for six months. I have absorbed a lot of the editor's duties. I have not absorbed any of that position's salary.

We finally hired a new editor. He started today. He is in his office. The lights are on. I presume he is home. People keep giving me his work, like he is not there. This is not making either one of us feel very good. It is making me want to hit someone very hard with a large, blunt object.

But I am not a violent person. I smile. I say, you need to give that to Brian. Brian is the new editor. I am not Brian. I am no longer doing Brian's work. Well, actually, I am still doing a fair amount of it. I hope that will change soon. I am not holding my breath.

And finally, crazy-making thing number three: what ever happened to commitment? 

I scheduled an interview a week ago. Before I hung up the phone, the party I was going to interview said, you'd better call us that morning to see if we're going to be around that day.

WTF? I thought we just made an appointment. Why WOULDN'T you be around? That's why I called to MAKE the appointment in the first place, so we could find a time that was mutually agreeable.

Ack!

Okay. Done. Rant over. Still crazy.