Bruce m. Conkey
UKC Forum Member
Registered: May 2016
Location: Palatka, FL
Posts: 5106 |
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After watching the response of people the past two months with the issues this Country has. I don't think people have displayed enough of their own intelligence to be able to past judgement on a dog.
Throw in the kennel blind, jealous, egotistical, aspect of owning dogs.
"The Proof is in the Pudding" It is kind of like the question. Is a GMC Truck better than a Chevy truck. It depends on which one you own. Listen to all the answers you get on that and then see if you have faith in someone figuring if a dog has intelligence. If they own it they think it is smart. Because we quit culling hounds. Now all dogs are smart. That is how we justify keeping them around.
We have to just put the "Coon" back into coonhunting. Coon in a tree wins hunts. Coon in a tree makes the owner happy. Coon in a tree goes a long ways in making everything work out. When actually the dog is just doing what its genetics designed him to do. A fox hound that runs fox and not deer. Is he intelligent or just genetically designed to run fox. A coonhound that naturally won't run deer. Is he intelligent or just genetically designed to run coon. If you are going to hang a label of intelligence on a hound. Please just make sure it aligns itself with what the dog is suppose to do. If you had a Coon Hound bred dog and it was the best quail dog in the Country. That dog might be labeled the most intelligent dog in the State. But it has failed its genetic breeding purpose totally. Breeding that smart hound to bird dogs will mess things up. Genetics first. Environment second. Training third. If you have to do to much training, look for a flaw in the Genetics. Genetics won't lie as it is the foundation. Trainers fool themselves. Because their EGO is bigger that the dogs. You can have all the dogs you want that you labeled intelligent. I just want the one that can put a coon on the limb in spite of all my shortcomings as a trainer.
Lets go back to the jungle for a minute. Elephants will walk through the jungle and naturally or Genetically follow one another with their Trunk holding on to he Tail with the elephant in front of it. You go to the circus and you seen elephants going around the ring doing that. Then you see one elephant or several standing on their heads in the center of the ring. People cheer at how well they are trained. The training involved two things. Getting the elephants to walk around the ring and then standing on their head. People think and wonder how they get them to grasp the elephant in front of them tail with their trunk. That is natural, no training needed. Coon Hound owners are the same way. Most don't understand the natural things designed by their genetics the dog should bring to the table. It is not all amazing feats of wonder when a coon hound does something. The foundation is genetically based. The trainer just brings it out and allows the dog to perform. If you have to train the dog to tree. Your genetics are lacking. If you have to train a dog not to be mean, your genetics are lacking. If you have to beat a dog to make it hunt, your genetics are lacking. We need to stop looking for intelligence so we can train a dog. Start looking for and learn to spot genetic ability that only needs to be unleashed in a controlled, disciplined way. Then you have a good dog that will reproduce.
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Last edited by Bruce m. Conkey on 05-24-2020 at 02:28 PM
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