There is a major difference between what a dog needs to achieve its best performance and what it "can get away with" and still win ...Originally Posted by Black Hand
Every dog craves attention from its owner, and every dog needs basic care in order to perform at its best ... but some dogs are so good genetically that they can still "get away with" not having these needs met and yet still defeat average dogs.
I disagree that someone who totally neglects his dogs will be "equally successful" as a man of the same technical savvy and eye, who gives his dogs everything they need.
No way that works out on a large scale.
Agreed.
Very few dogs, worked properly as pups all the way into adulthood, are truly shy. (I realize a small few are shy, regardless).
Overall, most shy dogs are dogs that have simply been neglected by negligent owners, who don't bother to socialize their young dogs.
Agreed. I think a true bulldog is not a shy animal at all, but a fearless and confident animal. But even a fearless and confident animal still does better when fully-socialized and when having a good bond with his owner.
Mohammed Ali was a great athlete and a great fighter. Maybe he could whip 99% of all men alive, even if he didn't train, wasn't at his best weight, wasn't fed the best food, and didn't have Angelo Dundee in his corner. But when he faced the very best in the world, then he damned sure benefited from having all his duckies in a row in these critical "intangible" categories
By the same token, Sugar Ray Leonard could have whipped most of his opponents with any trainer, but when he was losing to Hearns in the 13th round of their first fight, again the key element of a World Class trainer with whom he had a great relationship fired Leonard up enough to take it to Hearns in the 14th and have the fight stopped.
So yeah, when you're talking about superior bulldogs genetically, sure they can whip average dogs without too much else besides food and water ... same as the greatest boxers ever can (and have) whipped average palookas ... but when any fighter (man or dog) faces another truly elite fighter, then "the intangibles" are going to kick in more-and-more ... who is at their very best weight, who has trained the hardest, who has been eating the most optimal diet, who is hydrated optimally for the long haul, who truly has a good bond with their trainer and can be revitalized and pumped-up in the corner, etc., etc.
If anyone remembers the difference in commitment, energy, and drive in Mike Tyson (when he had Cus D'Amato and Jimmy Jacobs in his corner, men he deeply admired and with whom he totally bonded) ... and the POS Tyson became when those men died and were replaced by brainless puppets ... the difference in Tyson's realized potential was literally night and day
Jack
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