puppy hate

[my_daroga]

In Stanley Coren's Why We Love the Dogs We Do: How to Find the Dog that Matches Your Personality, the psychologist and author of The Intelligence of Dogs seeks to provide a fool-proof method of choosing the right sort of companion for your personality by combining research into historic figures and a new breed classification system based on

Comments

[my_daroga]

Well obviously I'm a mutt-advocate, but there are generalities one can draw from the things that make dogs up. And I just have no affection for the dogs this book wants me to love.

And while mutts are good, having some lab or whatever's no guarantee--Mr. Darcy clearly has a lab coat (har har) but almost none of the behavioral properties.

"Dominance" takes many forms; for your dog to be really happy, you have to at least be the "leader of the pack." Even if this just means using Nothing In Life Is Free--asking for something from him before you get something. A bit of structure makes them happier.

[a2zmom]

I think any test that uses the words always and never is suspect unless we''re talking problems based in Euclidean mathematics.

[my_daroga]

Granted--but like I said, it wasn't so much that I thought the personality bits were inaccurate--just the results.

[inlaterdays]

Oooh, Imma take this test when I have time. The perfect dog for me was my Australian Shepherd, Aife, who died of cancer at age 13. :( Best dog EVAR.

[my_daroga]

Aww. The only Aussies I know are way too needy; but I can see the attraction.

[inlaterdays]

She was a "Velcro Aussie"...stuck to me like glue. We were like symbiotes almost. I ran with her every day and took her to the park almost every weekend. She helped me bring the groceries in from the car (she'd carry boxes of dryer sheets and stuff like that). She could do all sorts of tricks - speak, roll over, play dead, shake, shake with the other paw,etc.

[my_daroga]

So you were the right person to have one; the one I'm most familiar with would be like that if she wasn't a neurotic freak. Which might have to do with her dad not giving her enough to do.

She pees whenever she sees me, but not because she's afraid.

She insists on sitting on your lap but will not stop trying to lick your mouth.

She gets insanely jealous if you pay attention to the other dog.

Like Border Collies, they're so smart that if you don't use it, the go a little nuts.

[my_daroga]

Well obviously I do too; but that doesn't mean that breed groups are without interest. Mutts are made of something.

[my_daroga]

i think preferring mutts is its own statement, though.

I do too; which is why I don't feel I'm going against that preference to be interested in the existence of breeds with specific characteristics.

[rahirah]

I got everything but Protective, and only Clever came up twice. We've never owned a dog from that group. Of course, all but one of the dogs I've ever owned has been a mutt, anyway.

[my_daroga]

The mutt question is important, of course. Especially since while you're supposed to be able to predict behavior or personality from what went into the dog (or what you think did), that hasn't exactly been my experience.

It's all malarkey, I know. But the spectacular unhelpfulness of it is impressive.