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		Because he has been a work instrument during centuries, the dog has acquired numerous physical and mental faculties - which could be called "intelligence", this word meaning something differing from what exists for the human being, of course, that goes without saying. Now that the dogs, at least most of them, don't get jobs different from keeping company to one or several persons, it can be rightly wondered whether they're not about to lose gradually all these physical and mental skills which permitted them to fulfil a multitude of tasks. This argument often comes to explain, if not justify, the advantage of "dog disciplines", sports ones or not (I don't regard Obedience as a "sport" ...), the words "use" and "work" are often heard in France.   Personally I make a very significant distinction between these "disciplines", sports ones or not, and "work", the real work of the true "workdog", this one who carries out a task useful in the everyday life and not an exercise as a part of training sessions, competitions, etc. I have to admit that with my first dogs I got involved in some of these "disciplines" and that I rather wallowed in them. My Kuvaszes quickly got me away from this. For the Kuvasz has still kept large work abilities - real work, not sports or so - this at least for most of the Kuvaszes in Hungary. That drove me to think, then to prefer the real work rather than dog disciplines - even if I make an exception for all kind of search with the help of scent, provided however that no stuck exercises as Obedience ones are added ... (1) In my opinion, a good workdog is neither the one who is at his master's beck and call, nor the one who carries out perfectly what he has been taught to do, but the dog who, knowing the aim he has to attain, can find by himself means of achieving his ends, according to the specificity of every situation. On the course of my reading, I found things to reinforce my opinion - this lesson I took from my Kuvaszes. In "Pathologie du comportement du chien", Patrick PAGEAT, (French) veterinary, behaviour specialist and who teaches this discipline, writes a lot of interesting things ; in particular, he defines the words "education" and "training" in a way other than what popular speech got used to for several years in France : "education" and "training" are contrasted, while giving to "training" a concept of force, and even violence ; P; Pageat gives other meanings : "We use "education" every time the behaviours the dog must learn square with knowledge which is indispensable for optimal implementation of his social life and of his survival" ; while "the training aims at teaching the dog behaviours which have no functionally value for his species. ... The corollary is the resort to conditioning techniques in their strictest acceptance. The weakness of this state is its lack of adaptability." The dog disciplines are based on rules, on some things for the dog to do or on the contrary not to do, and this in an almost unchanging way (except in searching/tracking/etc), and this is obtained by "training", that is to say repetition which aims to strengthen the wanted behaviour and to prevent the undesirable one ; it's nothing but conditioning, automation, even in the extreme roboticization. But conditioning is proved to be antagonistic to adaptability, which permits the dog to find the appropriate behaviour according to each situation - and this squares with the real workdog. P; Pageat writes, further : "By  avoiding automation, one permits the future adaptations in the event of changes, and ... ". A simple example : the A-frame (Agility obstacle). A good many dogs enjoy to climb, and by themselves they run up to the top of the A-frame, sometimes stop there when they like to see the world from above, then run down either on the side they climbed on or on the opposite one, jumping down from the middle of the A-frame rather than staying on it till the ground ; in the rules of Agility, the dog must run up to the top, not to stop, and run down on the opposite side, always as quickly as possible, and especially he must not jump down from the middle of the A-frame, he must stay on it till a minimum distance from the ground : this last point is absolutely not natural for most of dogs, they must be trained with numerous repetitions, so with conditioning, till automation which will make the dogs accomplish "automatically" the required exercise, with inhibition of his natural tendency, his spontaneity. On the contrary, the real work dog, who has learnt not to execute some exercises imposed by his owner, but to cope by himself to attain his purpose, hasn't got this conditioning, this automation, and if he has to get over an obstacle similar to the A-frame to achieve his ends, he jumps down from it as soon as possible, simply because in this way he can save time ; however he's able to advance on the obstacle till the ground when it wouldn't be advisable to jump from above (for example because of the vegetation, the surroundings, etc). It's not certain that a dog who is very conditioned to run down the A-frame till its end, could be able to alter his behaviour if need be, some proved to be utterly confused, if not panicked, when the usual conditions are no more fulfilled and when they cannot execute anymore exactly what they have learnt. My words are not meant to be regarded as a condemnation of the dog disciplines ; first I respect the freedom of thought of other people, and if some owners enjoy to take part in dog disciplines as training and even as competing, why not ? Let everyone consider his way of life and his dog's one. In addition, these dog disciplines, if they contribute to make dogs lose a lot of their natural abilities - contrary to what is said, precisely ! - they have the advantage of permitting the dog and the master to share time together, and this increase - even create - the bond of friendship. For unfortunately, such people exist, who get a dog as a piece of furniture, apart from feeding him and taking him out, when it's nothing more than opening the door leading into the garden, very little and too little contact, communication, shared time, can be seen. I regard a training, even very (and too ...) considerable, as it is for competing, as a thing infinitely better for the dog than make him live beside rather than with his owners ... If a lot of dogs dote on this time spent on the training ground, it's just because they pass a favourable moment with their master ... Into the bargain, some really enjoy to learn something. I don't regard learning by itself as a negative thing, provided that no, or very few, conditioning (nor violence ...) is used ; to make new things be discovered, included new exercises, that develops precisely the dog's mental abilities, and sometimes the physical ones ; even in the case of the example above (the A-frame), if the dog learns to execute the exercise as the rule requires, he must learn to control his movements, conscious action supplants spontaneity, and he really learns something interesting, not learning such and such an exercise, but learning to control what happens inside of him ; however as soon as the exercise is acquired, it would have to be given up so as not to create conditioning, especially since the dog won't learn anything more - come to that, it's what my first Kuvasz bitch compelled me to do, she enjoyed visibly learning something new and she was doing her best to execute what I was teaching her, but as soon as she had understood and assimilated, she opposed fiercely any reiteration and refused to do what I was soliciting ; nonetheless if, after I had surrendered teaching during a few months, I asked her again, she was only too pleased to execute it perfectly, but just once, no useless repetition ! There's no need to go to a training ground to teach such things to one's dog, on the contrary, seeing that so rules, obligations and constraints can be avoided, and everyone can seek what suits best his dog, renounce as soon as the teaching is a success, and change permanently to prevent automation. However, the training ground affords another advantage : meeting the other dogs and masters (factor which often plays a part in the fact that the dogs are fond of this moment ...)  I regard the "education clubs" which can be found in France as a good compromise, provided the instructors don't use - and don't drive to use - force and even violence, for the dog learns hardly more than the basic orders, which are conditioning, right, but very useful in the daily life ("stay" can save a dog's life ...) And a minimum amount of education helps the pup to build up his personality. For if conditioning reduces the adaptability, its usefulness in some cases can't be denied. First a minimum amount of obedience is necessary ("the basic orders") to integrate the dog into the human society and put him in his place in his human family. But it must be admitted that conditioning may be proved to be indispensable for some dogs to be put again "on the right track" ; conditioning can help to prevent undesirable behaviours and to further the wanted ones : so it's precisely advisable to solve some behaviour disorders. Conditioning thwart the intelligence development, granted, but it must be acknowledged that in the case of some dogs who use their intelligence not to serve their master but to overcome him, the master in question should prefer a very thoroughgoing conditioning to avoid the undesirable behaviours and lower the initiative abilities of his dog ... Everything depends on the way the animals in general and specifically the dogs are perceived. For a very long time, mankind refused to see in the dog any intelligence in any shape or form, considering that his actions were the fruit of experience, the animal repeating the behaviours resulting in pleasure, and avoiding those causing troubles - when I got my first bitch, I had personally a talk with a dog behaviour professional who was still thinking so, it was really a whole lack of understanding between us. Though nowadays most people grant the dog a more or less great part of what can be called intelligence (ability to think, to decide etc), it really seems that this notion of machine-animal, who reacts "mechanically" to stimulations, remains  firmly rooted in the human being : isn't it the very  principle of the well-known method, and which date back to so long ago, consisting in rewarding for the wanted behaviour and not to reward or punish the undesirable one ? When I got my first bitch, all the books, all people (included in the dogschools) used this method. The dog discipline are nothing else than the finishing of this kind of methods, obtaining by means of reward/punishment--non-reward training the strengthening of the desired behaviour and the renunciation of the others, all this refers to a machine-animal who acts by reflexes, by conditioning, but who doesn't think by him-self, who doesn't decide by him-self ; it's the computer, very programed by frequent trainings ... Another point of view consists in granting to the dog (and to many other animals ...) the faculty of thinking - even if that's not with our human form, that is to say with words - of being able to evaluate a situation, to decide, to take the past experiences into consideration to decide in the present and not to react by reflexes, etc - and not to wait the directives of the master or anyone else ... My dogs are confirmed to be excellent hunters, and particularly with the "vermin", I could watch them many times (2) : I don't imagine neither the past experience (positive/negative) nor an "inner programming" due to the instinct to explain that they adapt to each situation to use the hunting method which is the more appropriate at one point ; it appears clearly a period of time before the action, that permits the dog to estimate the situation before deciding of his action, and in this case the action is right, it's the needed one at the right moment, and that explains why the dog achieves his aim at first attempt - otherwise they would be poor rodent exterminators ! Anyone who has already seen how fast a fleeing mouse moves, can easily understand how precise the action must be, the dog must anticipate the mouse's moves so his jaws close where the mouse is and not where it was at the previous instant ... Dogs use several methods to catch their prey, it depends on the prey by itself but also on the situation (once I've seen one of my dogs walking quietly in the garden, suddenly he took  an 1 - 1,5 m long leap, with the nose stuck on his joined forelegs, to ground as close as possible to the rodent he had perceived, very probably by means of his hearing : if he had run to his prey, it would have heard his step and would have had time to disappear inside a hole or anything else ; this is just an example to show that, to achieve his aim, the dog is able to think and to decide on his action). The pests control is really a work, the work of farmdogs through centuries. Another example, which I borrow knowingly from my first cat, even if of course my dogs could supply me with many ones too, but I would like not to turn down cats from my present considerations ; my first cat, then, was coveting the cheese which he was seeing me tidy away inside the fridge ; while I was away, he tried and then succeeded to open the door and seize the cheese ; I thought I would solve definitively the problem by putting an elastic round the fridge, considering that if he would succeed to open the door, it would close by itself as soon as he would let go of it to catch the cheese ; this proved to be efficient only during a few days, one evening when I came back, I found the empty cheese box lying on the ground, the fridge door still open despite of the elastic ... for he had made the egg box fall down between the fridge and the door to keep it open without needing to hold it so he could search the cheese at the bottom of the fridge ; how could this adaptation to a new situation (the door close by itself as soon as it's no more held) and the solving of a problem (put something to keep it open) be explained without granting the animal a kind of intelligence ? It seems difficult for many human beings to allow the animal in general and especially the dog these abilities to think, decide, anticipate, etc ; but it must be emphasized that it's easier for the owners to get more or less "robot-dogs"  (in France the word "mechanization" is fluently used in Obedience and some other dog disciplines ...) than a dog able to think and decide rather than wait the order, able of initiatives instead of just having behaviours "programed" by the master ... In my opinion, it's a matter of ethics. Either man wants a "mechanized" dog, easier to get along with indeed (and permitting the master to enjoy dog disciplines) or man considers the dog as an own personality, able to be him-self, to think by him-self, to decide by him-self, even if the communal life requires then a lot more efforts by the master who have to adapt to his dog as much as the latter can adapt to him - I own up to this, my Kuvaszes, who have taught me all that, have never been easy to get along with, but you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs ! To develop the intelligence of one's dog, to trust him, to give him a sense of responsibility, which doesn't rule out the managing and the teaching of plenty of things, that's above all a turn of mind. The dog develops his mental capacities by adapting every day to his surroundings, first his siblings and his mother, the other adult dogs when there are, all the human beings he can meet, as well as the animals from other species ; the adaptation effort proves to be more considerable with the other species (human beings, cats, etc), seeing that the communication rules differ. There's every chance that a dog growing inside a family (I mean people who share all their activities with him, for some others have very few things in common with their dog) will develop properly his intelligence. The dogs learn an enormous amount of things while watching our human activities, their memory go stronger, and they "integrate" into themselves all that can be useful, it's a kind of imitation : e.g. all those who open the doors by operating the handle and then pulling or pushing, exactly as they saw their owner do ; when one of my Croatian Sheepdog bitches, then 3 months old, climbed up to the middle of my stepladder to eat the cherries in the tree, the greedy pup just imitated me, she had understood that climbing up on the stepladder was permitting me to reach these so coveted fruits (3) ; when my Kuvasz male seized their toothpaste tube and pressed it in the middle to make the delicious food go out, he had watched the action of my hands on the tube and he had understood how he could obtain the wanted result, but the dogs don't only copy "stupidly", they integrate the copied part inside their own behaviour sequence, and my Kuvasz, before pressing the tube, turned and turned it again till the aperture was inside his mouth so the food was going out ... directly inside his mouth, of course I didn't did this myself ; when I got news from a little bitch born in my home, she was then only a few months old, I've been informed that his owners had hens, that at the beginning she tried to pick a quarrel with them but she understood quickly that her masters didn't agree and spontaneously she began to help them to bring the hens in - right, the herding instinct of this little farmdog could be thought to play a part, but I think it's just a question of imitation, with a helpful mind which leads her to be useful and to please her master. A dog who has a garden - worthy of the name - at his disposal  increases too his mental capacities (if not his physical ones), on account of all the varied experiences he can get there (and more the garden contains interesting things, better it is !). The grown-up dogs who rear pups do useful work, of course, but it helps too to develop their mental abilities, for this requires a continuous adaptation to the needs and capacities of every pupil (4). Of course the master can work on developing the physical and mental aptitudes by mean of games or learnt exercises, provided he can manage to avoid useless and even harmful conditioning, but also by trusting his dog, by giving him "tasks",  by giving him a sense of responsibility (and not reducing him to the level of a human baby, as it can happen unfortunately ...) A last example, once again given by my Kuvaszes, to illustrate this : when my first Kuvasz bitch still managed everyone, that is to say when my young male didn't dare stand up to her yet, I was once with them somewhere in the garden ; a sudden noise, dull and loud, made us all react ; I restrained my impulse to go there to know what had happened, because watching and protecting the garden, that was the "mission" of my Kuvaszes, and I wanted to give them a sense of responsibility ; usually, the bitch hurried up to go to know and the male, as an inferior, followed her ; but she had a toy between her legs and if she had dropped it, the male would have seized it immediately ; she restrained her first impulse too, and after they exchanged a look, the male went at a gentle trot to inquire about what happened ; the bitch stayed on the watch, ready to leap away at the slightest bark from the male, but he remained silent and came back to us quietly, the bitch began then to munch her toy again, trusting perfectly her fellow : she had accepted not to know  and to rely on the only judgement of the male. I did the same too (later I knew what had happened, it didn't require any intervention, actually). If the dogs are able to have faith in each other, to trust the other's judgement, the other's capacity to analyse a situation, even to assign one of them to a "task", well we the masters, why wouldn't we be able to give our dogs a sense of responsibility, to let them estimate the situations, to let them decide, to trust their judgements, their decisions, their capacities to solve problems ? (1) See the corresponding text (2) See the corresponding text (3) See the corresponding photos (4) See the corresponding texte NB  Original text in French from the book "Pathologie du comportement du Chien" : "Nous parlerons d'éducation chaque fois que les comportements que le chien doit apprendre correpondront à des acquis indispensables à la réalisation optimale de sa vie sociale et de sa survie" "le dressage vise à faire apprendre au chien des comportements qui n'ont aucune valeur fonctionnelle pour son espèce. ... Le corollaire est le recours aux techniques de conditionnement dans leur plus étroite acceptation. La faiblesse de cet état est son inadaptabilité." "En évitant l'automatisation, on autorise les futures adaptations en cas de variations, et ..." Original text in French : 12-15/06/11 Translation into English : 17-27 /06/11 Isabelle Coquinot
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