Greatest American Dog

Not really sure who you are directing your post to but in case it is in response to mine, of course any dog can be trained, but I was referring specifically to the challenges. A toy breed dog bred basically to sit on laps will not be able to keep up with Sporting, Working, Herding or a combination of the two (Galaxy) if the challenges continue to be dependent on speed, agility and physical strength. From the preview it appears that's the route they are going. I don't care how he's been trained, the little dog is sunk.

Train a dog to do anything? Neither my cats or me have been able to train my dog to use the litter box,

We enjoyed the show and the maze challenge. I felt for JD when he got stuck with Laurie in the first challenge, but it at least worked out okay. I just feel for JD and Galaxy all together. Seems like no matter what JD does it isn't good enough. I thought he worked the maze excellently - showing what his dog could do. Galaxy listened to him even with the distraction of the puppies - which is what I think most of the maze event was about.

shelcat1121 wrote: While Leroy may not have been herding the puppies by rounding them up, he was definitely "waiting" for them and looking back to see if they were coming, and going back to get them. And when they weren't with him, he ran back to see where they were and led the way.

<< >>I have trained several dogs to use a litterbox. . . so, again . . . right trainer and communication and you *can* train a dog to do anything.And to think that little dogs aren't able to do things like big dogs--wrong. Yes, if it involves physical strength maybe you are right but for training, tricks, obedience, agility, etc. Little dogs are just as capable . . . again: right trainer+good communication=all goals met! I have four dogs ranging from 10 lbs to 130 lbs. They are all quite capable of doing many of the same things and they do!

agiletrainer: I agree with you! Not sure how many times I've already said it: there was *NO* herding going on from *ANY* dog in this episode!!!! None of the dogs even cared about the pups and if they did it was b/c they were stressed and wanted to get away from them (the nipping from a few dogs which I totally thing is fine). Puppies were a poor, poor, poor choice for this. I am truly upset they did this challenge.

I would agree that you can certainly teach little dogs to do a lot...but there are limits. I've seen a large dog retrieve a 5 pound dumbbell in his mouth...a small dog can't do that. Having events that are timed clearly put them at a disadvantage as well. Small dogs simply don't run as fast as big dogs, and no amount of training can change that. And frankly, most of these challenge simply have nothing to do with training! Certainly the last one didn't and this one clearly wasn't something that they had a chance to train for in any way. So I certainly agree with the complaints about it being biased for large dogs.

Maybe the producers can make amends for favoring the big dogs by including an obstacle course in the next challange that includes running through an 8" pipe.

The puppies where a bad idea. Some dogs just don't tolerate puppy antics period, it has nothing to do with age, puppies have bad manners and some dogs are just more sensitive and intolerant.It was difficult for the smaller dogs having to deal with puppies that were bigger than them, Andrew did a wonderful job of tolerating the puppies until one almost stepped on him. He responded appropriately to discipline the puppy. Timed events over the same distance do discriminate against smaller dogs. A minaturized (same turns, less distance) and smaller puppies would have made the event a more even competition.Star was extremely uncomfortable, and Bill pushed her, possibly too hard. But as said before the judges are inconsistent, some times its you aren't pushing your dog hard enough, other times you're pushing too hard. Star put out obvious signs that she was stressed, but Bill didn't pick her up and force her around the maze, she did eventually follow him.Nobody did any herding, JD did do a good job of directing his dog to stop when she was losing the puppies, nobody else even tried this (although I doubt Bill, Laurie, & Beth Joy could see their dogs). Theresa did say she was trying to keep Leroy calm, I think she learned from the other big dogs mistakes of calling the dogs too fast where they lost the puppies, and I do think dogs can have different recall speeds based on if they have been 'revved up' or not.A better challenge. A longer/more complicated maze, with the owner elevated so they can see their dog. They must help the dog thru the maze using voice commands. This is a challenge to your training (can you teach your dog left, right and back up) and connection. Again to keep it fair to the smaller dogs their maze is a miniaturized version with the same turns, but less distance; or the allowed time is extended and times compared via ratio (eg. Big dogs 5 min limit, dog did it in 3 min, ratio 3/5 = 0.6; Little dogs 7 min limit, dog did 5 min, ration 5/7 = 0.71; Big dog wins)What they should have done

dang the website, that did have paragraph breaks to make it easier to read.

Double spaces fix that problem for me.

Yes. I agree that distance and certain things limit a small dog. I don't think they are capable of *everything* a large dog is capable of doing . . . I was just stating that it's not a matter of them not being able to be trained to do something (not related to the challenge at all) just saying in general . . . Of course a small dog can't pick up a 5lb dumbell as swiftly or easily as a large dog but I can tell you that my 10 lb JRT has picked up some insanely large objects to compete with other dogs. It *can* be done for some dogs!

dianne your babies are adorable, thanx for sharing them on your avatar i think it mighta been cool if each dog rescued pups of their own breed, it mighta been more fair size-wise.. on the other hand, using all the same breed of pups offered a consistency in the pups' temperament.. goldens are easy going and eager to follow along (as a rule) so that was a pretty good choice, and us bird dog lovers were glad to see some retrievers on the show for a change i still think the judges were looking predominantly at what tone the trainer/owner set and how the dog responded to it, that's what their comments seemed to indicate to me..but elephants??? yeah, ee-gad, now there's a herd we wouldn't wanna see! i think (i'm guessing) they're gonna set up a circus performance.. looks like bill and star will be the trapeze act! fun fun fun

Why do you think agility venues have separate classes for dogs according to height? 'Nuf said. These challenges just were not thought out well enough. And from the previews it looks like next week is going to be more of the same. We see Andrew running up a ramp and Bill crying again. Geez Louise!

AGILE,I do beg to differ. I was referring to my own experience in my own situation...not dogs that work stock. I am also talking about natural instinct not trained herders. When they are herding a nearly totally deaf and half blind animal they most certainly DO shove her. Please remember my dogs are PETS not farm animals...we don't have any sheep or goats...lol.....and the "big sister" they herd wouldn't have a clue what was going on if they DIDN'T shove her. By the way...my original post about shoving was humor.