Thread: What is the correct distance

Originally Posted by Tahr

never trusted one of them.

Why not Tahr?

I would have thought the whole point of owning, training and running a dog would be to reach the the point when you do trust them to do thier job and all it entails.

Originally Posted by popgun

Why not Tahr?

I would have thought the whole point of owning, training and running a dog would be to reach the the point when you do trust them to do thier job and all it entails.

Its splitting hairs a bit (by me), but having confidence in a dog is different to trusting them. They will and do let you down. So I have confidence in my dog to the limit of where I confidently predict she understands and will likely do the right thing through her training and experience. Out side of that is uncharted waters. So I keep mine inside the the envelope of confidence, not the one of trust.

I never trust a gun dog around stock. I never trust any dog around kids.

I might ad that my dog is only average, and so am I. But I've had 50 years of thinking about this stuff.

Originally Posted by Tahr

Its splitting hairs a bit (by me), but having confidence in a dog is different to trusting them. They will and do let you down. So I have confidence in my dog to the limit of where I confidently predict she understands and will likely do the right thing through her training and experience. Out side of that is uncharted waters. So I keep mine inside the the envelope of confidence, not the one of trust.

I never trust a gun dog around stock. I never trust any dog around kids.

I might ad that my dog is only average, and so am I. But I've had 50 years of thinking about this stuff.

Thanks for the explanation, I hear what you're saying.

I appreciate 'average'... most if the time it seems more realistic than loftier goals

finding the bench mark is the hard part....... even for average.

In my experience enjoyment is tied to confidence and/or trust (or any other word you might prefer) whether it's in your own or anyone (man or dog) elses ability to perform.

For example your not going to enjoy mountain climbing if you don't have confidence in your ability to not fall off! Similarly, hunting with a dog isn't much fun if you don't have confidence it's going to perform (e.g. hunt, heel, steadiness etc).

My benchmark is a dog that does its job consistently, whether competing or not.

By the way, I haven't reached my benchmark yet