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This was posted about in the War Room, but the WR is about politics, and this post isn't about politics at all. It's about dogs and humans. The breadown below is just in white text if you're not interested in reading all of it.
Here is the news story:
www.theguardian.com
Here are the Cliffs:
A couple disclaimers:
I would not claim to have hit "expert levels" but I can confidently say that I know a lot. From what I have learned I have applied to the training of my Akitas (I now have two) and I have brought them to a much better state of mind than most people do. Being a part of multiple Akita Groups, I can see for myself what is going on in a large number of Akita homes. You cannot eliminate instinct, but you can give them experience, socialization, rules, boundaries, limitations, etc and give them the tools and the guidance to calm down and trust you to lead. If they do that, they're going to be much easier to manage.
I say this because I am going to apply what I have learned to this story.
My take:
Kristi Noem demonstrated throughout her entire story that she doesn't understand dog behavior at all, and she doesn't know how to handle a dog that is even remotely difficult. I will break down her failures here, and I do this because people need to be better at understanding dogs if they bring one into their home. While some people are just completely apathetic, I believe that most people respect that humans domesticated dogs to live for their humans, and that the least we can do is try to understand them a little better so that they've given a chance.
First issue with the story: Noem took a very young dog with a high prey and high level of energy out on a hunt with zero training. How do I know it had zero training? Easy: The results. No trainer worth a damn would have told her, "Yes, this dog is ready to join your hunt" based upon how it actually behaved on the hunt. In addition, her own story describes her as wanting the dog to learn from other dogs - and this is assuming quite a bit. That's not exactly how it works. The GWP is a very independent dog breed, and you cannot throw that dog - especially at that age - into a group of other dogs and expect it to simply follow and ignore it's prey drive. That is setting this dog up to fail. Not all dogs are followers, particularly breeds known to be independent. This dog required human training first to bring it to a balanced state of mind and to a higher level of obedience. She never even had a good recall on the dog. Cricket never had a chance.
Second issue with the story: Noem, after the disastrous hunt, stopped by a neighboring farm with more small prey animals walking around. She did not properly secure her dog. This is further evidence that she didn't know what she was doing. How can you not secure a dog that just showed it was not controlling it's prey drive and had no recall? Yet here she was, exposing that same dog to other small prey animals without properly securing her dog. Her fault.
Third issue with the story: Dogs can bite or nip at humans for a wide variety of reasons. The bite itself is not the determining factor of whether or not a dog should be considered "aggressive". Anyone who trains dogs and understands even the basics of dog psychology knows this. A dog can bite of out fear. It can bite out of excitement. It can bite out of defense if it is in pain. It can bite for territorial purposes. You need to know the state of mind of the dog before you can properly say a dog is aggressive. In this story, we know the state of mind of the dog when it nipped at her (didn't even bite), because she said it. She described Cricket as having the time of it's life going on this chicken killing spree, overwhelmed with excitement. The dog was in a primal state of mind, lost in pure overwhelming excitement.
A dog that is in extreme excitement absolutely can - and often DOES - turn and nip at someone grabbing it. This is because of the heightened levels of excitement it is experiencing, and when something grabs it, it redirects and releases that energy toward what is grabbing it - often as a bite. This is not an aggression issue, it is an out of control mind lost in excitement. This is an EASY fix in dog training. You train the dog to calm it's mind BEFORE it gets to the extreme levels of excitement. This isn't even hard. You pay attention to the dog's behavior and when you see it focusing too much you give it a correction to snap the brain out of it's building excitement and you return it to calm. It takes repetition and consistency, but it really is that simple. Eventually the dog will learn to calm itself and wait for instruction from the human.
Cricket was absolutely able to be calmed down and snapped out of it's extreme excitement, as demonstrated in her story. Noem described grabbing Cricket and pulling it to a gravel pit. She did not describe Cricket biting her or fighting her as she did this. This means when she grabbed Cricket and got control of her, and the dog snapped out of it and returned to a calm submissive state of mind. This demonstrates that the dog was perfectly responsive to the human given proper correction. Noem never described Cricket being aggressive and biting except that one moment where it was in extreme excitement and she grabbed it. This was not an aggressive dog, it was a young pup that had no training, no discipline, and was being led by a human who didn't know what they were doing.
The end result was that Noem shoots and kills her dog for her own failures. This dog was perfectly trainable and was not given a real chance at all. She could have rehomed this dog or invested in proper training. However, in her own words she hated the dog and resented it's behavior. Then when her kids get home from school the first thing they asked was where was Cricket. Awful.
Life on the farm:
I have heard many people excuse all of this using a few repetitive storylines. The first is that this is just the way it is done in rural America and on the farm. This is not true. SOME farmers may do this - as evidenced by the story - but you cannot say that this is what farmers do. Many farmers have responded to this story condemning how she handled her dog. Moreover, you can YouTube search right this minute videos of farmers working with their young dogs who have done similar things. They didn't just shoot their dog dead, they tried to work with the dog to correct the behavior. In some cases - even without training - they succeeded. In others, they failed but rehomed the dog with a family who didn't have small game around.
The second excuse I have heard is that once a dog kills small game there is no going back and the dog is unworkable. This ALSO is absolutely false. Once more, you can go to YouTube RIGHT NOW on your own and pull up videos of farmers who have rehabilitated dogs who had killed their small livestock. Dogs are highly trainable animals, and everything you teach them is you teaching them to restrain themselves from their instincts. A retriever dog doesn't just chase everything and bring it to you the moment you throw it, they are trained even by people who don't know dog training to RESIST their instincts and wait for you to release them to go retrieve. They REALLY want to go retrieve but they get trained to resist and show patience.
In the end, I am not trying to make this into a "Kristi Noem is evil" judgment. This is a post about how humans don't generally understand dogs at all, and when a human is ignorant of dogs they might end up doing something to that dog that is completely unfair, which also could lead to a dog losing it's life.
Here is the news story:
Trump VP contender Kristi Noem writes of killing dog – and goat – in new book
South Dakota governor includes bloody tale in campaign volume – and admits ‘a better politician … wouldn’t tell the story here’
www.theguardian.com
Here are the Cliffs:
- South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem adopted a German Wirehaired Pointer. The GWP is a dog bred to hunt small game and it comes with a high prey drive for small game. It also is notoriously hyper and has very high energy. Requires training.
- At 14 months of age, Noem took the dog Pheasant Hunting with her and some other people who had trained hunting dogs, hoping her dog would learn to hunt from the other dogs. It was not trained beforehand and it didn't do what she had hoped it would do. It kept chasing the birds away and running after them into the water, ruining her hunt. She tried to recall it with a E-Collar but it didn't work (and wasn't trained on the E-Collar, and nor was she trained to use the E-Collar.)
- Noem's dog, Cricket, was just 14 months old. The Wirehaired Pointer doesn't reach maturity until 2 years of age, so this was still technically a puppy or "teenage" dog.
- Noem expressed that she was very embarrassed and angry at that dog. She described hating it.
- On her way home she stopped at a neighboring farm. Cricket was not properly restrained and it got out and charged the farm's chickens. Cricket went on a killing spree of these chickens, gleefully. Noem described Cricket as "having the time of it's life" running everywhere with extreme excitement killing the small game.
- Noem could not recall Cricket (untrained) and she went to grab Cricket who then turned to nip at her. She then got a hold of her dog.
- Noem described her dog as "untrainable" and "aggressive" so she drug Cricket to a nearby gravel pit and shot it dead.
A couple disclaimers:
- I don't expect to change many minds. People notoriously choose a side and stick with it no matter what, and will rationalize away to keep their position.
- This is 100% NOT about politics. I can't stand today's left (but find old school left much more tolerable). I'm not "on the right" either, but find them typically much more tolerable. Therefore I am not taking my position out of politics, because if anything I much prefer people on the right but I am going to come after Kristi Noem (a Republican) a bit here.
I would not claim to have hit "expert levels" but I can confidently say that I know a lot. From what I have learned I have applied to the training of my Akitas (I now have two) and I have brought them to a much better state of mind than most people do. Being a part of multiple Akita Groups, I can see for myself what is going on in a large number of Akita homes. You cannot eliminate instinct, but you can give them experience, socialization, rules, boundaries, limitations, etc and give them the tools and the guidance to calm down and trust you to lead. If they do that, they're going to be much easier to manage.
I say this because I am going to apply what I have learned to this story.
My take:
Kristi Noem demonstrated throughout her entire story that she doesn't understand dog behavior at all, and she doesn't know how to handle a dog that is even remotely difficult. I will break down her failures here, and I do this because people need to be better at understanding dogs if they bring one into their home. While some people are just completely apathetic, I believe that most people respect that humans domesticated dogs to live for their humans, and that the least we can do is try to understand them a little better so that they've given a chance.
First issue with the story: Noem took a very young dog with a high prey and high level of energy out on a hunt with zero training. How do I know it had zero training? Easy: The results. No trainer worth a damn would have told her, "Yes, this dog is ready to join your hunt" based upon how it actually behaved on the hunt. In addition, her own story describes her as wanting the dog to learn from other dogs - and this is assuming quite a bit. That's not exactly how it works. The GWP is a very independent dog breed, and you cannot throw that dog - especially at that age - into a group of other dogs and expect it to simply follow and ignore it's prey drive. That is setting this dog up to fail. Not all dogs are followers, particularly breeds known to be independent. This dog required human training first to bring it to a balanced state of mind and to a higher level of obedience. She never even had a good recall on the dog. Cricket never had a chance.
Second issue with the story: Noem, after the disastrous hunt, stopped by a neighboring farm with more small prey animals walking around. She did not properly secure her dog. This is further evidence that she didn't know what she was doing. How can you not secure a dog that just showed it was not controlling it's prey drive and had no recall? Yet here she was, exposing that same dog to other small prey animals without properly securing her dog. Her fault.
Third issue with the story: Dogs can bite or nip at humans for a wide variety of reasons. The bite itself is not the determining factor of whether or not a dog should be considered "aggressive". Anyone who trains dogs and understands even the basics of dog psychology knows this. A dog can bite of out fear. It can bite out of excitement. It can bite out of defense if it is in pain. It can bite for territorial purposes. You need to know the state of mind of the dog before you can properly say a dog is aggressive. In this story, we know the state of mind of the dog when it nipped at her (didn't even bite), because she said it. She described Cricket as having the time of it's life going on this chicken killing spree, overwhelmed with excitement. The dog was in a primal state of mind, lost in pure overwhelming excitement.
A dog that is in extreme excitement absolutely can - and often DOES - turn and nip at someone grabbing it. This is because of the heightened levels of excitement it is experiencing, and when something grabs it, it redirects and releases that energy toward what is grabbing it - often as a bite. This is not an aggression issue, it is an out of control mind lost in excitement. This is an EASY fix in dog training. You train the dog to calm it's mind BEFORE it gets to the extreme levels of excitement. This isn't even hard. You pay attention to the dog's behavior and when you see it focusing too much you give it a correction to snap the brain out of it's building excitement and you return it to calm. It takes repetition and consistency, but it really is that simple. Eventually the dog will learn to calm itself and wait for instruction from the human.
Cricket was absolutely able to be calmed down and snapped out of it's extreme excitement, as demonstrated in her story. Noem described grabbing Cricket and pulling it to a gravel pit. She did not describe Cricket biting her or fighting her as she did this. This means when she grabbed Cricket and got control of her, and the dog snapped out of it and returned to a calm submissive state of mind. This demonstrates that the dog was perfectly responsive to the human given proper correction. Noem never described Cricket being aggressive and biting except that one moment where it was in extreme excitement and she grabbed it. This was not an aggressive dog, it was a young pup that had no training, no discipline, and was being led by a human who didn't know what they were doing.
The end result was that Noem shoots and kills her dog for her own failures. This dog was perfectly trainable and was not given a real chance at all. She could have rehomed this dog or invested in proper training. However, in her own words she hated the dog and resented it's behavior. Then when her kids get home from school the first thing they asked was where was Cricket. Awful.
Life on the farm:
I have heard many people excuse all of this using a few repetitive storylines. The first is that this is just the way it is done in rural America and on the farm. This is not true. SOME farmers may do this - as evidenced by the story - but you cannot say that this is what farmers do. Many farmers have responded to this story condemning how she handled her dog. Moreover, you can YouTube search right this minute videos of farmers working with their young dogs who have done similar things. They didn't just shoot their dog dead, they tried to work with the dog to correct the behavior. In some cases - even without training - they succeeded. In others, they failed but rehomed the dog with a family who didn't have small game around.
The second excuse I have heard is that once a dog kills small game there is no going back and the dog is unworkable. This ALSO is absolutely false. Once more, you can go to YouTube RIGHT NOW on your own and pull up videos of farmers who have rehabilitated dogs who had killed their small livestock. Dogs are highly trainable animals, and everything you teach them is you teaching them to restrain themselves from their instincts. A retriever dog doesn't just chase everything and bring it to you the moment you throw it, they are trained even by people who don't know dog training to RESIST their instincts and wait for you to release them to go retrieve. They REALLY want to go retrieve but they get trained to resist and show patience.
In the end, I am not trying to make this into a "Kristi Noem is evil" judgment. This is a post about how humans don't generally understand dogs at all, and when a human is ignorant of dogs they might end up doing something to that dog that is completely unfair, which also could lead to a dog losing it's life.
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