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Do You Lose Your Temper When Training?


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I apparently have been told on multiple occasions that I am odd.

I never lose my temper when training my dogs. Really I do not have a temper when I think about it.

Have you ever felt guilty of confusing your dog when trying to train and lose your temper and felt guilty afterwards?

Edited: I must ask visiting friends to find my glasses. LOL. My typing is getting worse.

Edited by Lablover
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I have lost my temper when training Zoe before. Mostly because of her dog aggression. It will be going fine, and she will be ignoring other dogs. And then for no reason she will have a go. It gets very frustrating.

But now I just make sure to give a good distance between her and other dogs, get her attention, and don't test it much. If I think it will be too hard, we cross the street. And if something unexpected happens (eg off lead dog, or dog that lunges at her while she is nicely at heel), I know it is not her fault, and do not get upset.

But classes used to frustrate me something chronic. It didn't help that everyone elses dog was super friendly and the owners would let them come into Zoe's face despite me telling them she was not friendly.

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I know how you felt Lia.... I would leave in tears and feel such mean feelings to my dog who would try and attack anything on 4 legs.

I tried to be so patient and keep teaching him and learning with him. So yes I have felt guilty of doing the wrong thing based on my temper.

Then my current GSD, well he is the opposite. I am a calm angel as he is so happy go lucky. I am sure the other dog was channeling his anger to me as I am always such a calm person (normally).

My Rotty is the same, he is a total love bug and does as I ask.

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Yes, there are times when I lose my patience and even temper when training my dogs, I'm afraid I am not perfect :confused:

If I'm starting to get frustrated I'll stop training, or change what we're training. If I'm just in a cranky mood altogether, we don't train at all!! I am all too aware of how many months of training can be ruined in just seconds of bad temper....

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Im not a superhuman and I have lost temper.

Never in the learning stage - when I teach something new it is all fun and play but when the dog knows what I want and has done this thousands of times and repetedly chooses not to do it than grrrrrr.

I bet that loosing temper for me is different than it is for someone else, I just yell, and check the chain harder. Bad person I am, have to control myself.

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Im not a superhuman and I have lost temper.

:confused::laugh: :D

Trust me I am far from superhuman. As mentioned I have been told I am odd as I have only lost my temper twice in my life, and this was when I rode and trained for 3 days events.

The first time I ever lost my temper, was when I was training an ex race horse. I spent months and months calming him down. I worked him slowly and methodically. I lived in Coffs Harbour at the time, so took the opportunity of riding him every morning at sun rise along the beach. One day he bolted on me. So I thought to myself OK, you want to go, LETS GO. He never bolted again.

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I don't lose my temper, but I do occasionally get frustrated, which unfortunately is harder to spot. Trouble is, it's not hard for my dog to spot, so I have to pay close attention to his attitude. I am not perfect in this unfortunately.

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Yep. I'm pretty even tempered but I do get frustrated. That's more likely to result in me making mistakes and that's when I stop training or at least move onto a different task. Sometimes a bit of time out for me and the dog allows the session to continue.

I've shed tears of frustration before... not a good look. :confused:

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It's difficult to do anything challenging in an unchangingly calm way - and destructive when you don't. Training animals has taught me to be much more patient and calm. I was horrible as a teenager. Nowadays I find that the total focus when teaching something difficult and observing the animal minutely is calming in itself. Training unhandled horses is probably the most effective at producing that focus and calm for me. Because if you don't have total focus, and make some blunder, there is a real chance of getting clobbered in some way!

Edited by sidoney
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So Sidoney, you come from a horsey background too? I had horses for years before I had dogs - I think it has had considerable influence on my training philosophy and methods.

Old Poodlefan saying... "dont train angry" :confused: Doing it to a horse can get you dumped on your head (or in my case, bum)

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I grew up with dogs from a baby but have ridden since say 8 years old and had my own horse/s since I was 13. Although I don't get to ride much these days - I have been doing much over the last several years to put me in the position of buying property and getting off a suburban block, so that I can go back to having them outside my back door. So to speak.

All my family has horses. Some of the horses are quite well known within their own circles. I have the fewest horses - I have 4.

I did used to work with horses in various fields for some years. Probably the most expertise I have is in taking young unhandled horses and making good equine citizens of them, suitable to go on with.

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I have also, but i usually just get dissapointed not angry cause i know he can do the things i am asking him to do and he doesnt

I am i reckon a fairly calm quiet person and thats how i train my dogs so Nova knows if i raise my voice(like in an annoyed way) he is in trouble.

When i get angry i put the dogs outside give them a bone or something and i go inside to cool off and then try again with a different approach later.

I dont really yell sometimes growl at Nova when he decides not to listen, actually the only time i yell is when he is off lead and i have to call him back

Glad i aint the only one who loses my temper sometimes i tend to imagine everyone as these perfect people who never have lost their temper with their dogs

Natasha

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Yes! Definately can get angry and lose my temper when training - luckily I haven't done anything damaging to Dieter like yell at him... because frankly if he can't perform what I want him to then I'm doing something wrong.

He didn't want to learn 'bow' - I did! He didn't want to sit in the sun for an hour with an incompetant instructor - I did! Wait, no I didn't, that's why we stopped that! :laugh:

Currently trying to learn bow and he's so enthusiastic when the clicker and treats come out that he turns himself inside out trying to provide what I want and I sometimes wish he'd just do things slowly and ease off a little - that gets me angry an enthusiastic dog (my biggest problem :confused:)

If I feel myself getting frustrated I get Dieter to do a few tricks he knows really well to end on a positive note and then we have a bit of a play.

I've shed tears of frustration before... not a good look

Oh I got so angry with Dieter and disappointed in myself when we didn't pass an obedience level. My training friend asked me if I was ok and I just broke down - meanwhile Dieter continued to carry on like a d!ckhead. (Angry with Dieter because we knew all the exercises, I was as confident as I had been going into a test and he decided that day that his lead was the most fun toy to ever play with and started to pull on it and chew it -- never had done this before)

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Yep. I'm pretty even tempered but I do get frustrated. That's more likely to result in me making mistakes and that's when I stop training or at least move onto a different task. Sometimes a bit of time out for me and the dog allows the session to continue.

I've shed tears of frustration before... not a good look. :confused:

I am the same. I don't really get angry at Reilly, but I piss myself off when I make stupid mistakes. Just tonight we've had a rather crap training session, he is too tired, I am tired, not a great match.

Nat

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I had my GSD pup at training one night after a very long day. The whole night he was pulling and pulling wanting to jump all over the other dogs. He would walk for 2 seconds and then starting trying to jump all over the dogs. I had a lot of difficulty getting his attention and the instructor was getting frustrated with him. I kept trying to pull him into line but I got frustrated and gave him a light smack on the bottom with the end of the lead - he didn't even seem to notice.

The instructor then had a go at me for smacking him and I felt bad for getting frustrated at him and he was still pulling and pulling - so we went home.

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