doberbutts:

On a slightly different track, an interesting thing to note:

I’ve frequently repeated the old adage that an untrained dog is not stubborn, because stubborn implies a willful decision to do (or not do) something, and an untrained dog that’s not listening to you is usually just… a dog that doesn’t know what you want.

But I also frequently tack onto that another piece of advice:

If your dog is completely unwilling to be lured or shaped into a specific position, no matter how many different tricks you try to get them to choose to go into that position themselves… take a step back and observe them out of training. Do they take that position naturally when they’re just hanging around in the house? If the answer is no, you need a vet.

It’s a hard one for a lot of my clients to hear, because it seems completely off the walls. What does not sitting when told have to do with getting a shot from a vet? Of course, it’s a lot more complicated than that.

The first time I encountered this problem as a ~professional~, it was with a chihuahua mix rescue dog that my mentor had assigned me to train to an “adoptable” standard. This little guy would do everything I asked him, with a lot of enthusiasm. Except sit. No amount of luring or shaping would get him to sit. Observing him offleash in the play rooms and in his crate, he never sat. If he wanted to not be standing, he’d just lay down. Forcing him into position would “work”, sure, but his position was hardly natural. He was adopted before I could get the rescue to push through paperwork to get him to a vet, but I’d bet money there was something orthopedic going on there.

In the past several months since I moved, I’ve encountered a lot of this. Not surprising, considering I moved to an area with a very high rate of tick-born lyme, and lyme attacks the joints and makes certain movements painful. In dogs, lameness is one of the most obvious signs. I would say one of every ten new clients has a dog that absolutely refuses to sit. I’ve advised each of these clients just the same- observe your dog at home and tell me if they sit on their own. If they don’t, take them to the vet.

Upon following this protocol, my clients have found everything from lyme to bone spurs to impacted anal glands to hip dysplasia to destroyed kneecaps. One dog had a bullet lodged in a nerve on her thigh. She was a recent rescue from a Southern shelter with a lot of mystery scars (what looks like an acid burn on her shoulder) and zero backstory. One was a rottie who was estimated to be four years old, with joint damage so bad on her knees and hips that the vet now thinks she’s closer to ten. One young puppy had an old break in a leg that never healed right- an injury that was completely missed until that point.

None of these dogs are stubborn. They are all in varying amounts of pain, and said pain prevents them from performing the fairly simple task I’ve asked them to do. If solvable- once the pain goes away, the dog sits and downs without question.

I notice the same thing with wide-chested dogs, and dogs with dwarfism. They frequently struggle to sphinx-down. They’ll lay on their sides, or with their back legs kicked out, but not as a sphinx. It’s almost like they get “stuck” halfway down, and then either choose to try laying on their side if they want the treat badly enough, or choose to walk away if they’re too frustrated. I warn all of my brachy breed and dwarf breed clients about this problem, and invariably almost all of their dogs struggle to do it. There’s something to do with the very structure of the dog itself, not allowing them to take a specific position easily. Many of the puppies of these breeds will eventually figure out how to sphinx-down comfortably and the problem goes away, but not all. Similar to how many puppies will sit with their legs kicked out at funny angles, rather than folded beneath them.

If you’re having trouble getting your dog to take a specific position, consider that it might very well be something to do with the way your dog was put together in the first place. Consider there might be more to the story than just what you see on the surface.