Me waiting with Amber outside the supermarket...
Amber was lying down, a man came over.
Man: "So cute", giggles
Amber: Sits straight up, wagging tail, panting slightly
Man: Continue giggles, waves his hand in front of Amber
Amber: Jumps right up to man, licks non stop, panting harder
Man: "Wow why is she so excited?!"
Me: "Amber loves people, but this is too much"
Man: "Yeah over excited!" Continues waving hand
Me: Scolds Amber and pull her back
Man: "Hey don't like that", continues giggling and play with Amber
Me: "She is over excited I have to stop it"
Man: "No, puppies are all like that"
Me: She is old enough already
Man: "How old?!"
Me: Already 1 year old plus
Man: Laughs, "still young! I have even seen dogs that are 5 years old and this excited!"
Me: "Which is why you always see dogs that causes problem"
Man: Stops smiling, "but I think she is still too young"
Me: "That's why we have to teach her from young, slowly"
Man: "Yeah, slowly" said thanks and walk away
Amber went back to her calm self, sat back down.
You can imagine the sort of conversation I had with most people when we talk about dog behaviors, I noticed that even so, many people still cannot stand dogs that do certain things like pawing, barking and jumping up on them, yet they do not understand why, which I believe is also the reason people turn to accepting their "fate", that dogs are supposed to be like that all along.
This is not true even in dog world, an example on the above scenario, where Amber pawed excitedly nonstop and the guy got a bit uncomfortable.
Dogs do not start pawing at other dogs without the other parties acknowledgement, they would first hint that they want to play, signs includes jumping around, fake pawing, fake play bites, running back and forth. When this happens, if the other dog(who is being signaled at) do not like the behavior it will walk away, and if this playful dog ignore the sign and continues to play, it would be barked at, or worst bitten. This is noticeable even in puppies, especially when they are playing, they learn to stop unwanted behaviors by ignoring, yelping or showing aggression.
If you feed energy to a dog, for example giggling and waving towards it, you are just telling the dog that you want to play. As for a high energy dog like Amber, she wouldn't reject playing, hence going frenzy-like pawing and hugging towards the person's friendly gestures. While I would like to train Amber not to be over excited when meeting other people/dogs, I'd still try my best not to be too harsh outside, especially towards those that do not understand dogs. Whenever I try to use children as an example to explain to people, I came to understand that the way parents teaches children in this generation is already changing, it is almost impossible to reference children teaching as an example anymore.
To explain, teaching dogs are not as easy as most people think, you have to act as it's leader, using human intellect yet conveying the message in dog language. Most people do right treating the dog as their own child, but they forgot that it is a dog child, not a human child, we may use human signs and languages in some of our training but that is only because it is easier for us to remember and understand. Training a dog basic obedience takes about 1-2 years, on high level energy dogs like Amber takes longer, the key is to never give up.
Amber was lying down, a man came over.
Man: "So cute", giggles
Amber: Sits straight up, wagging tail, panting slightly
Man: Continue giggles, waves his hand in front of Amber
Amber: Jumps right up to man, licks non stop, panting harder
Man: "Wow why is she so excited?!"
Me: "Amber loves people, but this is too much"
Man: "Yeah over excited!" Continues waving hand
Me: Scolds Amber and pull her back
Man: "Hey don't like that", continues giggling and play with Amber
Me: "She is over excited I have to stop it"
Man: "No, puppies are all like that"
Me: She is old enough already
Man: "How old?!"
Me: Already 1 year old plus
Man: Laughs, "still young! I have even seen dogs that are 5 years old and this excited!"
Me: "Which is why you always see dogs that causes problem"
Man: Stops smiling, "but I think she is still too young"
Me: "That's why we have to teach her from young, slowly"
Man: "Yeah, slowly" said thanks and walk away
Amber went back to her calm self, sat back down.
You can imagine the sort of conversation I had with most people when we talk about dog behaviors, I noticed that even so, many people still cannot stand dogs that do certain things like pawing, barking and jumping up on them, yet they do not understand why, which I believe is also the reason people turn to accepting their "fate", that dogs are supposed to be like that all along.
This is not true even in dog world, an example on the above scenario, where Amber pawed excitedly nonstop and the guy got a bit uncomfortable.
Dogs do not start pawing at other dogs without the other parties acknowledgement, they would first hint that they want to play, signs includes jumping around, fake pawing, fake play bites, running back and forth. When this happens, if the other dog(who is being signaled at) do not like the behavior it will walk away, and if this playful dog ignore the sign and continues to play, it would be barked at, or worst bitten. This is noticeable even in puppies, especially when they are playing, they learn to stop unwanted behaviors by ignoring, yelping or showing aggression.
If you feed energy to a dog, for example giggling and waving towards it, you are just telling the dog that you want to play. As for a high energy dog like Amber, she wouldn't reject playing, hence going frenzy-like pawing and hugging towards the person's friendly gestures. While I would like to train Amber not to be over excited when meeting other people/dogs, I'd still try my best not to be too harsh outside, especially towards those that do not understand dogs. Whenever I try to use children as an example to explain to people, I came to understand that the way parents teaches children in this generation is already changing, it is almost impossible to reference children teaching as an example anymore.
To explain, teaching dogs are not as easy as most people think, you have to act as it's leader, using human intellect yet conveying the message in dog language. Most people do right treating the dog as their own child, but they forgot that it is a dog child, not a human child, we may use human signs and languages in some of our training but that is only because it is easier for us to remember and understand. Training a dog basic obedience takes about 1-2 years, on high level energy dogs like Amber takes longer, the key is to never give up.
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