I can see how being a pet owner can be intimidating to some people. I’ve been to pet shows, and I know that you have to be well-versed in a certain set of behaviors to be considered one of the best breeders. I’ve also been in a situation where I was trying to convince my dog to jump on a couch and I was trying to teach him the proper way to do it.
But dogs are just dogs. If your dog is looking to jump on a couch, then I’m pretty sure you can put him on a train and bring him there. And if you’re not afraid of dogs, then I’m pretty sure you can put a couch on a train and bring it to your house. In fact, you can probably even take your couch to the train station.
Ive been reading a lot of articles lately about how dogs are so much smarter than we give them credit for. If youve ever seen a dog train, you will know that they can get a dog to do anything, except sit still for a long time. The same would be true with a dog, except that their brain is much more sensitive to subtle cues, and they also have more of a sense of when to move on.
As a dog owner myself, I have a lot of experience with this. We don’t want to be the sort of dog owners who thinks that a couch on the train is a great idea, but if we are we should probably at least try it. While the article I read suggested that this could be a great way to teach dogs how to be house-bound pets, I think we should probably avoid this option.
For one thing, a dog that spends their whole life indoors is going to be much more susceptible to many of the dangers that come with being outside. Dogs are pack animals, and they need to be able to defend themselves against a wide variety of threats. It may be good to do this, but we need to be careful not to make it a habit that we expect dogs to be house-bound forever.
I don’t think I can bring myself to agree with this one, but I think the most important thing we can do is to give dog owners the opportunity to show their dogs they can still be free. If we can make it feel like petting a dog is something you can do with your own body, then dogs can be that much more accepting of what it means to be a pet.
A good way to start is by giving them space to run around, in the same way that we give dogs space on the couch. If you can show your dog you can still get up and walk around, they will be much more accepting of you and much more likely to be open to petting.
A dog who thinks they can still run is not likely to want to run around in the house. But imagine having a dog who has been raised to be a pet owner, and they don’t know how to pet a dog. They may not even be able to walk, let alone pet, dogs. The good news is that we can teach them what to do in certain situations.
I know, it sounds like I’m being a little harsh. I’m not saying that they can’t be pets. I’m just saying it’s easier (and more rewarding) to teach a pet to do something than it is to teach them to walk or run. A dog raised as a pet owner, even if they can’t walk or run, could learn to do something like fetch a toy or fetch a ball.
The problem with that is that if we teach a pet to do something like fetch a ball or fetch a toy, they will still need training to actually learn how to do it. We could just teach them to do something like put food in their bowl or fetch a toy, but that just leaves us with the same problem we had with pet owners. If there is a problem with their behavior, it may be that we are not teaching them the proper way.
