How much praise? - Page 3

I don't want a dog who only works because I ask him, I want a dog who is high drive and gets great joy from working, that needs to work, this is the work ethic I cultivate and look for in a dog, these are the kind of dogs I own, and the only kind I would ever keep.  I need dogs with at least as much drive as I have.

So, if the dog decides that his/her idea of "work" is digging a hole rather than heeling or running the blinds, you're ok with that as long as he/she is getting great joy out of it?

I have never in my life seen a well bred GSD or any dog bred to work that preferred digging holes over training/working, so I don't worry about such things.  I have seen well bred working  dogs who become destructive because they aren't given a satisfactory outlet for their drives, but the fault lies with people who would be better off owning lawn ornaments, not the dogs.

Keith a well bred GSD should love to work, not just work because their owner has become their own personal vending machine,  with praise, cookie, toy, whatever, then going flat, pouting or quitting when they don't see that constant payout.   yuck.

I think you and I are not saying anything very different from one another.  I doubt you want to see a dog who works only for a reward.  So in a way yes the dog loves the work I choose for him because we are partners, obviously he does not do it on his own, but the dog derives as much satisfaction from  the physical and mental aspect/exertion  of the work as he does from working with me, because that component is equally as important as biddability.
 

oh well...at the end of the day, to each their own. Goes back to that saying, "do what works for you"....kinda like dog food. Every dog is different, and they are all motivated differently. No one here, can ignore the fact though, that dogs universally are very self-serving creatures. That's not opinion...that's FACT!

Of course they love to be engaged and to have a job but you make it sound as though the work itself is the primary motivation for the dog and it isn't.  The dog's primary motivation is pleasing you...or it should be.

Perhaps this is semantics.  Just like Pavlov's dogs drool when the dinner bell is rung, my dog gets excited the moment he walks onto the field.  This is equally because of his drives and the way he has been trained.  Equally my relationship with the dog as the way he feels when he is on the field.  A dog who does not have sufficient drives cannot work correctly for very long, because they don't have what it takes internally, they need too much from their handlers, they extinguish too easily and run out of gas. 

Perhaps it is simply semantics but a dog with all of the drive in the world but no motivation to please his handler would just go out onto the field and do whatever he wanted.

..... I think they call those things "terriers"  !!!

Anyway, I agree, a good dog has lots of drive and works hard for his handler.