4 ms·
What if you never trained them to pull, and they never observed that behavior? Would they still want to do it?
by brap 1y ago
What if you never trained them to pull, and they never observed that behavior? Would they still want to do it?
- rini17 1y agoIt's pretty hard to avoid any situations where pulling is possible. Such as on leash. You usually have to intensely train working dogs not to pull on leash. They would still fixate on other behaviors they are trained on. And if not trained and neglected, often have destructive behaviors.
- jncfhnb 1y agoJust a guess but I would imagine the behavior is deeply instinctive by this point.
- testing22321 1y agoWe got a purebred Aussie sheepdog (kelpie) that failed its tests at a year old. They were going to shoot her, so she became our family pet. She was obsessed with rounding things up - cats, ducks, kids, you name it. Part of her dna for sure.
- hshdhdhehd 1y agoCute breed. I saw one at the dog park this weekend. The most energetic one!
- rendaw 1y agoIf she was tested (for shepherding?) it sounds like she was probably trained...
- jncfhnb 1y agoSheep dogs will herd instinctively. Just not as effectively as those with training.
- AngryData 1y agoI had a dog when I was younger that was from a dog sled line but was many generations removed from pulling sleds. She seemed to love to pull on stuff, ropes, leashes, toys, people holding her, or whatever else, so we bought a dog harness and attached a garden wagon to her a few years in. And she was absolutely obsessed with pulling it around and seemed like she would have happily run herself to death pulling it around if we let her. The harder you tried to hold the wagon, the harder she would pull and the more fun she seemed to be having. It is just anecdotal, but I 100% believe there was nothing she found more entertaining and fun than to pull that wagon because of her genetics. There was no training involved, within seconds of hooking her up with a harness she just knew what she had to do.