“To sit and lie down on command means the dog is physically passive. By training these commands with the intention to condition a relaxing response (each training session starts when the dog have relaxed) two things are achieved.”
This is really interesting to me, as well as how this has fallen apart a bit with competition training. It makes a lot of sense that these high energy working dogs need a foundation of calming exercises. Where the competition dog lying in a perfect sphinx position for 10 minutes is not getting more relaxed.
“In Sweden all working dogs follow their handler home and live their life as companion dogs when not in duty. This sets a certain standard not only on the dogs but also on training, the dog needs to be properly socialized and obedient to function as a family dog.”
I think this is really neat as well, since I am from the USA where most police/military dogs appear to be kenneled (even if they go home with the handler). Not asking the dog to be a “normal dog” opens the opportunity to be lazy about developing an “off switch.”
Thank you for your thoughts,
Kim