So, you think your dog is stubborn?

Philippe

Everyone has their favourite breed of dog.

"Breed Enthusiasts" who have either owned, bred, rescued, been involved with or just have a general all round love & admiration for a particular breed of dog.

Its BECAUSE they love that breed so passionately that they believe that breed of dog to be extra special. And quite rightly so …. We ALL believe our dogs are special and we're all correct.

However! One thing that bothers me is how so many breed enthusiasts label their dogs:

*Hes a Labrador, of course he'll be good with kids …

NO - It doesn't matter what breed you own, you'll still need to supervise those child / dogs interactions and you'll still need to teach your child how to respect your pooch

Or:

Hes a Husky, that's why hes stubborn …..

NO - Some breeds may take a bit more effort to train but that's no reason to label them as "stubborn" …. The definition of stubborn means you must firstly FULLY understand the task that is being asked of you (You can't go and make a cup of tea if you have no idea what a kettle is or how to turn the taps on to get water out) and secondly, that you have all the tools you need to complete the task (you could ask me 100 times to make a cup of tea but if I don't have any teabags I can't do it) And then lastly, you need to be shown exactly how to do the task in a language I understand & using a motivation which I find worthwhile (you could tell me a hundred times to " ir a hacer una taza de té" which means "go make a cup of tea" in Spanish but I don't speak Spanish so I have no idea what you're saying … The fact that you're dangling a piece of hotdog in front of me isn't going to make me achieve the task especially as I'm vegan and never eat hot dog!)

None of this means I'm stubborn.

It means that some dogs are quicker to learn than others and are more motivated to learn.

And it means that some other dogs take a bit longer to learn, they need it explaining really clearly, a number of times and you really need to think outside the box to find that motivation ….

To recap:

If I don't know how to use a kettle & I don't have any tea bags and you are trying to motivate a vegan with hotdogs then don't be surprised that I don't (CAN'T!!) make you a cup of tea … I'm not being stubborn ….I just physically can not do what you're asking of me …