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We must vary our rewards too, because terriers have an extraordinarily low boredom threshold. The element of surprise keeps them interested. From time to time the reward should be withheld, because gambling is as addictive to dogs as it can be to people, whereas nobody ever became addicted to a vending machine.Though they are hardwired to do their work — and we have ours cut out to see that they don’t start before they have exchanged their milk teeth for the awesome weaponry of the adult terrier — we handlers have to install sufficient brakes so that we can be there when anything happens, rather than trailing feebly in the wake of accelerating yaps. Or worse, that deafening silence.In stopping us from taking ourselves too seriously, the terrier is matchless.... the desire for collaboration that we get in such breeds as gundogs and herders is totally absent in terriers unless we make doing what we want worth their while. They drive a hard bargain.Training has a degree of potential for failure in any breed, but management always works. We need to be several steps ahead of terriers, and when they do oblige, the wise handler rewards appropriatelyQuite a few owners of well-trained gun dogs have a terrier tucked away somewhere, usually dismissed laughingly as the other half’s pet, sometimes coming out in the beating line to demonstrate various arcane skills or generally lightening the mood of the day by displaying regrettable behaviour.There can’t be many terrier owners who have not at some time seen the little varmint steam past the objective intended by the handler to immerse itself in some kind of trouble that you hadn’t realised was available.Everyone thinks they have the best dog. And none of them are wrong....my dog was just a blur until he was about a year old, when I finally got a good look at him.
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