The Crazies.

So yeah.  What the title says.

Have you ever spent so much time with someone one on one and begin to realize that they may be slightly unbalanced?  The unnerving part is that I won't notice for several months and the instant my husband meets them he lets me know that they are nuts.

So....let's say that you let this person believe that they are always right in terms of dog things.  You start to subtly add in your own experiences and research, but you're always wrong.

The crappier part comes in when that person has helped you so much...but also shown you things that don't work for your dogs, because they believe in a "every dog has to be trained the exact same way" mentality.  When you try and point this out, you're told that you spoil your dogs too much and you don't control their lives well enough.

The bottom line occurs when you have an incident with your dog, and you vent your frustration to this person.

Person then states that you shouldn't allow your dog to act that way and shame on you.

Now....Rocket is an intact Male Doberman.  A breed very well known for same sex dog aggression.  You do everything in your power to control the situations he is in because you know this and the damage that could occur.  When someone allows their young, intact male dog to run at your dog, barking and shrieking.....and you're holding your dog's collar to keep him behind you, but the little dog automatically runs up to your dog's boy parts and gets up close and personal...WTF DO YOU THINK IS GOING TO HAPPEN.

I had control of my dog.  I grabbed his buckle collar instead of his prong and swung him in circles behind my back to keep the other dog in front of me.  I got an apology from his owner and we went to work.

He knows when to focus.  He knows how to behave in a busy ring with other intact males.  He KNOWS what is expected.  It's when we are not actively working that he is allowed to be himself....which includes all the same sex male DA he was born with.

Yet somehow...I was in the wrong.  I let my dog growl at another dog.  Rocket got a "shame on you!!!" and a finger shaking.

Seriously?? SERIOUSLY?  My dog is not. like. other. dogs.  He is meant to provide protection for me, to work with me up close and personal.  It is NOT in his nature to welcome strange males into his personal space, let along let them sniff his boy parts.  It is NOT in his GENETIC CODE to allow this.

I do a damn good job managing him, and it pisses me off to no end to hear crap spewed at me about my breed....when I did my research...and person has never had one...not even a working breed.

And they wonder why I wear headphones when I train.