VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, [9], 10 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 23:32:30 05/22/09 Fri
Author: Norman Epstein
Subject: Re: Boerboel Training
In reply to: JLR 's message, "Boerboel Training" on 13:08:15 05/21/09 Thu

It does not take a rocket scientist to train a Boerboel or for that matter any dog however different breeds can tolerate different methods. To begin with breeds/dogs that have been selected over a long time frame, for breeding because they learn faster and enjoy training i.e., work ethic, than others who don’t, do in fact learn faster. To believe a mastiff which has, for the most part, not been selected for those traits learns a behavior or behaviors faster than dog breeds that have been selected for those trait for sometimes hundreds of years is wishful thinking, or you have never trained a breed such as a “working” GSD or Border Collie etc.. Try this, if you think your dog knows the command “sit” try giving the command while he is off leash at the other end of your yard while interested in something else.

The mastiff is handler sensitive breed and reason this trait is attendant to the breed/type is no accident because that trait was selected for, as few want a 150 pound dog that challenges them when things are not going their way. Additionally, and for the same reason, the mastiff will usually shut down when faced with repetition in their training. For that reason the trainer of a Boerboel must be more creative in how they train. The use of reward is not just the preferred method of teaching a behavior to a Boerboel; it is IMO the only way to teach sustained focused obedience. For example, when I was training my Boerboel for his Schutzhund one title, tracking was one of the disciplines that he had to pass. The other two were obedience and protection. My Boerboel had tracked a Schutzhund one track many times with articles. One fine morning he decided to stop tracking, he wasn’t lost just didn’t want to continue. I couldn’t just let him walk off the track because, on another occasion he might have, if lost or got into a difficult portion of the track. So I put some pressure on him to make him at least get to the next article. This is how I trained, with success, all of my Schutzhund titled GSD’s but that was a big mistake with my Boerboel because from that time on he was very reticent and I could no longer trust him to finish the track. Therefore I had to be satisfied with a Schutzhund A which is a working degree inclusive of obedience and protection but not tracking. Moreover as a young dog the first time I jerked him he backed up but I stopped this and because he was young I had enough time to rebuild his trust in me. Oh well live and learn. On the flip side the dog could handle a strong correction while in drive e.g., protection training. Again I have found in order to successfully train a Boerboel you must be creative, use reward for a correct behavior and most important have excellent timing and plenty of patience.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

[ Contact Forum Admin ]

Forum timezone: GMT-7
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.