| Re: Early indications of a good level of directability or willngness
There is much resistance to the concept of biddability/directability/willingness among working dog owners/breeders/trainers in North America.
Willingness however is genetic and has nothing to do with catering to a dog to produce the illusion of willingness, such as the way it is done in SCH training, with the dog looking up at your face during obedience because he's used to food rewards coming from the mouth. A willing dog will look at your face naturally.
frontier, when you say "a pup that uses it's brain and rationalizes that payment is required in the learning process (ie treat) in order to justify getting shut in a crate as a good thing. An independent thinker, a problem solver, a pup that does not need me to tell it what to do every second", in what area would this independent thinking dog use the qualities you described to meet your requirements?
My requirements are that the dog protect myself, my family, my property. I used to think that in order to have a strong dog it must also be a strong headed dog that requires strong corrections to bring it under control. The reason I believed this is because most of the tough dogs I saw were like this. I also thought that if in the end I can get the dog to do what I need it to do (and I can) then I'm not going to worry about willingness.That is not however the way it has to be. I do not enjoy any longer dealing with hard headed dogs because I know there's an alternative. Had enough breeders paid attention to this trait it would be more present in today's rottweiler. Willingness is independent of the dogs other temperament qualities necessary for protection work. There is a reason why the German breed survey lists willingness as one of the scoring categories.
If you want to see a soft dog with little willingness but very high aggression (will not back down from anything) you should check out some of the molosser breeds. These dogs will pee themselves if the master looks hard at them, possessing very little trainability. The willing rottweiler however recovers easily from corrections with just a little praise.  |