Excuses, Excuses

Seeing as how it is related to my last post, I thought now was a better time than ever to rant about excuses. I hate them. I hear them alot.


There are more, many, many more- but those are just the ones I hear the most.

My dog does it really good at home!
if your dog will play with you, or listen to you at home- and not in training then you need to make home more difficult- add things to your training at home to add stress, or excitement. Food, Toys, Noise, other dogs can all be added at home to your training so that when they come to class the stuff we throw at you is easy! Of course you only make things harder for the dog when he is already doing it great- don't increase the difficulty until the dog understands what the job is.

He's a insert breed here! (that's why the dog can't lay down, or stay, or come when called)
uh huh. I think not. All dogs have the want to either please themselves, or please you. With the right motivator you can teach any breed of dog. I do understand that for dogs with the big chests (Italian Greyhounds) it can be more difficult to train them to lie down (in general and on hard surfaces) but that doesn't mean it is impossible! It just means you have to work that much harder. I have seen some pretty stellar IG's.



It annoys me when people use their dogs breed for an excuse for their general bad behaviour- I have gone to a few jack russell trials. Oh My. Packs of the little beasts growling, lunging, barking, fighting. No one stops them. I saw a handler get pissed on by her dog- in the conformation ring! But it's a jack- they are supposed to be like that. Wrong.

He was a rescue (or abused) -take your pick

This drives me nuts. It may take a dog with past issues a little longer to get something but really- it is no excuse. Boone is a perfect example. When I got the dog I was a little shocked. I admit. I wasn't quite sure what to do with him at first. But I dove in head first and will ya look at that. He can do stuff. And pretty darn well. His weirdness is no excuse for bad training.


Train your dog. Don't give me excuses as to why he can't do it- train him to do it- or ask for help, and then rejoice in the fact that your dog can do it!

In my last post I talked about how I made excuses for Wicca's lack of understanding stay. I annoyed myself. I am fixing it. End of Story. No more excuses!