Work ethic?? Important?

Dogs that have a very high work ethic, rarley can thier body keep up with that work ethic and with a good human sense and intervention they will burn themselves out, rather eeking out too early or just being eeked ot thier whole life with no rest...
This type of dog takes a very sensible trainer as where a dog that isnt so high strung can come along alot better...
Rest is the key word with a dog that has a alot of energy and drive...

 

I think a lot of you are confusing a dogs work ethics as opposed to how a dog acts while not working. How a dog acts while not working has no real correlation on a dogs worth ethics. For example a hyper dog who cant keep still and runs his chain all day long does not always transfer into good work ethics. There are hyper dogs that are just moderate workers while there are laid back dogs that are really hard workers and vice versa as well as many other variables. Also a dogs work ethics have no real correlation with gameness as there have been a lot of curs with good work ethics. LMAO

 

I mostly agree with sai's reasoning. We had a son off Emmitt that had the worst work ethic I've ever seen. Had to put the slat mill on cinder blocks to make an angle and force him to run it. Would loose interest in the flirt and spring poles. Only thing he would do is road work and even that was at his own pace. This dog,, while a very big pain in the ass to bring into shape showed to be as game as they come. He just didn't want to do the work to get ready. Even at show time he was slow to scratch and slow to start. Every time he scratched it was a slow trot over. But he was always coming. Mutt didn't even start to warm up until about the 1/2 hour mark. I just chalked it up as some are just not willing to exert more energy than they feel they need to at any given time. His laziness had nothing to do with how game he was as he proved to many to be just that, a lazy ass gamedog.

 

Thinking back in time, I purchased a pup out of Tennessee. This pup was a Colby/ Jeep cross. At the time I was just getting into dogs. When I made it home with this pup and let him out of the car, with no hesitation he struck into my older male like a grown ass dog...was glad to see the older dog just knock him away and play with him. This dog grew up to be something special....the only thing was he would not work. Now he played tug-a-war and such...but no running at all small jog maybe, I found myself I front of this dog more than I liked...he wouldn't fetch a ball run a bike anything.. Everything he did was at his pace until he really wanted something....a dog or feed time.

As stated before I had to find ways tho it was hard. I ended up making a 50 feet or so tie out from tree to tree. Feed all the dogs but him and let him run crazy back and fourth to build his heart rate..such as wind sprints. Walk him better yet pull him( and for the record he was not over worked in any way) for road work. He was a pretty laid back dog for the most, and game he was...even with the Colby in him lol.

2 dogs of the same caliber but 1 lazy & the other buck wild. At this point one is no better than the other till shape time imo. Buck wild keeps himself half cocked at least. I have to hope lazy wants to work. It just like humans being competitive in any giving sport. Who do you think will be able to pull weights longer.....lazy or buck wild....I hope this makes sense...

 

I totally agree with slim about introducing/teaching your dog about work ethics at a very young age as they are very impressionable at those younger ages. Like the saying its harder to teach a old dog new tricks LOL.

 

I am sure there are high energy dogs with a poor work ethic, but that is probably due to a poor trainer who didnt funnel that enrgy through work...
I am also sure there are plain crazy dogs that are energetic and wouldnt know how to work as they were never tought or the dogs to stupid to dirrect his energy towards work...
I also know there are plain lazy dogs that have a great work ethic, that could be a multitiude of things to theyre just bored to they like the human interaction and thrive off of it as most good canines should...
I know of a lazy type that got bored ever so often and would jump up on the slatmill and run it with out a collar or human near him, his owner said would wake up in the middle of the night to a frieght train in the laundry room, lol...
An old timer told me if a dog is chewing on things all the time that he is most likly stregnthing his jaws, but if he chews on stuff too much he wears down his mouth and ruins it and sometimes all those dogs need is rest, i think the same would apply towards the rest of the body...

Mayfield talks about it in cycles and how crucial rest is to the body, he stated he was on a seven year conditioning cycle himself...
everything in life thats worthy cycles including the sun...

 

Slim12 Im with you on that one I like to introduce my dogs at a very young age five months old to the mill even if they just sit there i encourage them to work it helps in the long run just getting them to loosen up a bit

 

I am sure the difference between on how you raise them is much the same as the difference in raising livestock and raising athletes...

 

Some dogs that appear to be lazy could just be dogs that have the ability or trait that enables them to conserve energy for the time when they really need that energy. GR CH Yellow was a good example of a dog that possessed this trait, he would only do just enough to get that win and nothing more.

 

A master at conserving energy. These high ability intense hard working dogs tend to be their own worst enemy when its time for them to do "the thing" due to the fact that they tend to tire and exauhst themselves out very early into the pull. You really need a dog that knows how to pace himself and conserve that energy for those closing stages deep into the weight pull and it is during these stages that the lazy dog or what appeared to be a lazy dog would start to shine. An endurance dog yes?. When you are working with a sprint dog (intense high ability hard biting dogs) the conditioner/handler will need to monitor the dogs progress during the weight pull due to the fact that these sprint dogs will tend to go flat if the pull goes on too long, they are not bred for the long haul but expected to get the job done in a shorter order so if the pull starts going into the two hour stages you would need to consider picking that sprint dog out of there if he shows signs of extreme exauhstion. The endurance dog on the other hand is a completely different story because after having conserved that energy for the deep end he will be able to function at that stage of the weight pull because he would have kept that energy he needed in reserve. Watch out for them dogs that appear to be lazy my friends, he might show you something that you wouldn't have believed to be possible :-)

 

A strong work ethic is a very good thing I believe, especially to the newcomer who will need to put a dog through keep for the real thing at some point.

My young male took to all the tools with no coaxing and just loves to work. My younger female was just plain scared of the spring pole and flirt pole. It took her a very long time with lots of encouragement to use these tools and now she's a pro and also loves to work.

I liked Rollbar's story about working CH Bettlejuice. He said Juice was a good worker but if you leave him alone too long he would stop working. Beetlejuice would stop on the high ground of the ginny and wait and when he saw Rollbar coming he would start trotting, acting like he never stopped.

Dogs are individuals and have their own little characteristics about working. Knowing each individual dog and its work habits is important when in keep.

 

Alot of very good posts in this thread. Thanks for all the feedback.

It seems in the opinion of most that it's preferable, but not necessary to have a calm confident animal with good work ethic when it's time to work?

Personally I've seen and owned alot of the types listed on this thread myself and had differing degrees of success in getting them in shape.

From my experience the just plain lazy dogs are the worse in shaping as they have no interest in work and basically the whole keep turns into road work. (Sometimes they don't even do road work effectively).

The really high strung animals who run the chain all hours of the day are inconvenient and noisy, but they seem to keep themselves in decent shape even if they're not tool savvy with the equipment. These dogs I don't generally mind because they'll usually burn the wheels off a bike during road work. Biggest downside from my experience with them (like stated in a previous post) is them potentially running themselves flat. Another issue I've had with one particular gyp is that she would rail herself out running so much. Naturally a 32-34 and she'd run herself down to 28 if you didn't crate her at least during part of the day. She literally ran a 12 inch trench around any chain spot she was on in a few days. Bright side is she was naturally in phenomenal condition IF she had been crated regularly and got sufficient rest.

The calm confident animal with work ethic when it's time is hands down my favorite though. I own an 18 month old male now who is the hardest working animal I've ever laid my eyes on in regards to working when it's time to. He's never seen a piece of equipment he wouldn't work and he'll literally work himself into a heat stroke if I'm not careful. On the chain he's real laid back and low key unless he sees me working another animal. To me he is the definition of work ethic. Not a high strung noisy animal, but a true worker that loves every minute of it.

Now I have another question in direct relation. Do y'all feel that work ethic and lack of intelligence are related? I ask because the smartest animal I've ever owned would often grow bored with the flirt or spring pole and only enjoyed road work. He was also a pacer with great ability and plenty of mouth to get the job done early but he'd choose to pace himself and wait for the finish (which he always got). To me it seemed as if he didn't see the point in chasing a hide in circles or tugging against a spring. He would work both good as a pup but seemed to mature out of it so to speak. As a grown dog he'd just kinda look at me like "really bro this again?". Lol

Thanks again for all the great responses.

 

Variety is the spice of life. I've found dogs like that thrive when you're constantly changing things up, beach runs, water fetches, road work, hikes in the woods, the more mental stimulation you give them the more effort they seem to put out consistently