Category: Dogs

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Meet Bruno

Bruno

Bruno is a Lagotto Romagnolo puppy. We brought him home today, and he is my seven-year-old’s daughter’s first dog. In the morning, she told us: “Today is going be the most memorable day of my life!” I believe she is likely right. For me personally, the days of bringing home my first dog and, many years later, our African Grey Parrot named Zorro are right up there in my memory along with the birth day of my daughter herself. Truly, our pets become members of our family. Glad to have met you, Bruno!

I have always been interested in dogs, but I haven’t heard about this breed until earlier this year, when we firmly decided to have puppy. This is ironic, because based on the description it is a perfect intersection of what my daughter, my wife and I were had been looking for in a dog. It is still quite rare in North America, but we were lucky to find Bruno, along with an incredible support from his breeder practically in our backyard. Well, actually, it is a 2-hour drive away, which proved to be no problem whatsoever for Bruno (no, as incredible as Lagotti are, he was not driving).

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Positive reinforcement

We are bringing home a new puppy this weekend. It has been my daughter’s dream, and we all are incredibly excited. I used to have a dog long time ago, but things have changed since then in nearly all aspects of dog ownership, from food to training approaches to the amount of information available. I’ve been enjoying the period of waiting for the puppy to grow old enough to be taken home by making most of it and reading the book I wanted to read even before we were considering taking a puppy – “Don’t Shoot the Dog” by Karen Prior. As with many great books, this one goes beyond dog training to a much wider context of shaping behaviours by positive reinforcement. It is uncanny how similar training of humans (indeed, education) is to that of animals. The book is so direct in making these analogies that it even took me aback a little bit: “I get it that it’s effective, but is it really alright to treat kids and loved ones like dogs?” I am over exaggerating the moral dilemma, but there is an unsettling aspect of whether behaviour shaping is too manipulative, at least when applied to human relationships.

I rationalize the issue for myself  by shifting my perspective to that of the trainee (e.g., the dog). This is beautifully illustrated by Jane Killion her “Puppy Culture” video, which was recommended by  our breeder. Take for example an exercise of taking a bone away from a dog and rewarding him with a higher-value treat for giving up the bone. On the one hand, this is, essentially, imposing your view of the social structure and overriding a perfectly natural canine behaviour (resource guarding). But on the other hand, you are enabling the dog to use his behaviour to manipulate the environment (your giving him a treat). So who is manipulating whom is a matter of perspective.