# PAPER ADDED: Leadership/Dog Training



## taddy1340 (Dec 10, 2004)

Hey Fellas,

I'm currently enrolled in a Dynamics of Leadership course and I need to write a paper about anything to do w/ leadership. For a while, I've paralleled training dogs and being a good leader. However, I know some don't see dog training even closely related to leadership, but more as dominance.

I try to train so my dogs WANT to do what their asked of/told. Please don't misconstrue that as me saying they can say "no", but I'd rather have a dog have the desire to please because he wants to and it's fun compared to out of fear. As a military leader, I strive for the same in my work centers. I try to foster a positive work envirionment so my Airmen come to work and do what's best because they obtain personal satisfaction in doing the right thing. Now, as with dogs, if need be, they'll be told what to do.

I know I'm kind of rambling now, so I'll stop. But, do you guys think leadership plays an integral role in dog training and does it also have similiarities in being a great leader for people?

Thanks for your input!

Mike


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## mdaniel (May 2, 2007)

Dog Training is like the Military. You are given a command and you are to obey it. Sorry to say that the only differance is the dog gets praised for his good deed. As doing this on a daily base, the dog will do anything commanded . As dogs only like a short command and some can learn as many as 90 commands. I have been told, but I probable only use thirty.


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## stonebroke (Dec 16, 2004)

I understand what you are saying, but I don't think there is much of a correlation between being a leader in the military, workplace, or whatever and training dogs. Yes, it would be wonderful if dogs and people did everything we wanted them to because they wanted to, but it doesn't work that way. Sometimes what we want as a leader and/or dog trainer is the same as what the dog or the people we are leading want, but that's not good enough in either scenario. There are many, many situations where what we want as the leader or dog trainer is very different from what the dogs we train or the soldiers we lead want.

People and dogs do not function on even close to the same level. We have the ability to reason, we know right from wrong (well, maybe not all of us , etc. We work, join the military, etc. for our own personal gain...we want money. Sure, we want to feel good about our work but if there was no paycheck, very few of us would be punching the clock every day. Good leaders lead by example. We display those traits we expect to see in the people we lead.....that wouldn't work very well training dogs.


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## hunter9494 (Jan 21, 2007)

i think people are like dogs in one way, they are all a little bit different and respond differently to certain methods of teaching/training and pressure. as a dog trainer, you have to understand and recognize how a dog is responding to the training he receives and adjust your training sytle to get the best results.

one thing for sure, in dogs, if the natural drive to hunt/find birds is not present, it is very hard to train/turn up the desire in the dog. he basically has it or he doesn't.


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## taddy1340 (Dec 10, 2004)

Well, I wrote the paper...

http://www.dakotahuntingdog.com/Leaders ... aining.doc


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