Ah neri,

You are an animal lover. It is a very wonderful thing to train animals. It is amazing what they do, & how close it brings them to us.

I was training little animals like rats before 11 yrs ago when I got into owning & showing my new American Eskimo dogs. What an enlightening process. I spent so much time with my first one. We trained initially for showing conformation which in AKC would allow food to get attention, but UKC doesn't....kinda have to trick them. Then I trained him for obediance which doesn't allow food at all. All they can do is follow voice commands for both on & off leash. We titled champion in conformation & got the initial obediance title only because he hated to fetch the dumbbell. From that, we went into agility training which only allows hand signals.

My younger eskies I haven't trained much, but they really know the words "go ranch" & break into a barking spree wanting to get into the car...also the "go car" gets the same response. Another fun one is when my husband & I stand far appart & tell them to "go to mommy" & they take off in a run, almost knocking me over...then I tell them to "go to daddy" & they turn around & run back....we could continue that for hours before they get bored.

It sure is is such a wonderful experience that brings us closer to our doggy children isn't it?

During the past 11 years, I have also gotten into training horses.. again, food is not practical for that kind of training. It is all reining, body position, & leg aids that signal to the horse what he is to do. The transitions have to come rapidly while showing Dressage especially, so you basically need to be one with your horse.

I'm glad to have found someone that is into training animals. I will have to look up your posts.....I started a post last year under the pets, & misc information about funny stories about pets. You might want to see some others cute stories too.

Thank you for sharing....keep it up...of course, my favorite subject,
Debbie