we were always cat people. we would see people with thier dogs in thier cars and look at each other inquisitively and chuckle " people and thier dogs". then one day BROWNIE ( i'll tell her story in another blog) showed up at our doorstep. she was a chocolate lab who had slipped her collar at a neighbors some miles away and adopted us. the neighbor said she was our dog if we wanted her. my inner voice agreed so we kept her.
not knowing anything about dogs i resolved to do what i always do when i don't know something. i went to the library ( this was before the internet) and searched through the dog books. one of the many i checked out was a book on dog language. I forget the title ( wish i hadn't because many have asked me since) but it was a thin book showing the basics of dogs language. i say the basics because i've grown to realise that they have a large vocabulary. roughly equivalant to a three year old childs. not only do they use body language extensively but they vocalize as well. thier bark is not monotonous but it can vary greatly in volume, frequency and quantity depending on the signal bieng sent.
I also visited a friend of mine who raised and sold Dobermans. they were highly valued dogs selling for as much as $4000. before you could buy one you had to sign an agreement that stipulated five things. they are as follows along with explanations.
1) NEVER HIT YOUR DOG! never ever strike your dog. besides obvious reasons that you will never be able to bond with it they will grow to either fear ( and cower from) or hate ( and attack) humans.
2) the dogs sleep with you.... not in the bed but in the same room. this is the DEN to them. they will feel secure and guard you too, our dogs take turns watching the door to our bedroom at night, as well as feel like they are part of the pack. DOGS are PACK animals. theres nothing you can do to a dog that will cause it to suffer more than exclude it from the pack. all they want is to be included and to know thier POSITION in the PACK and to be a GOOD DOG by bieng obedient to the master/alpha of the pack.
If your dog isn't obedient it's because they do NOT understand your commands. If you must leave your dog do not leave it alone. get another dog to keep it company. but better yet take your dog(s) with you wherever you go.
THATS what it is all about when you see "PEOPLE AND THIER DOGS" together. we would never think of going anywhere without ours. I don't mean take them into the store/restaurant with you. But there are even businesses who allow it. For instance LOWES does. this stems from the fact so many tradesman's dogs accompany them everywhere. ever notice that ? they are a joy to have on the jobsite.
many people say " but our dog goes nuts when we bring them inside. BE PATIENT! they will only run around for a while until they have examined everything so they know whats what. they will settle down soon and go to sleep. then theres the people who say " our dog pees and poos in the house" that's only so they can mark it. they generally only do it one time. otherwise dogs will almost bust a gut holding it in before they mess thier living space. they definitely do not do it by choice. on the contrary they hate doing it anywhere within smelling distance. I am convinced that dogs urine is encoded with a tremendous amount of information.
3) when you eat your dog eats with you. not just that you feed them outside but they share the meal with you. it's part of the pack mentality of sharing the kill. it doesn't have to be much. JUST A CRUMB will suffice. dogs know neither quantity, size or time. they only know IS or IS NOT. if you don't want your dog by your side at the table then toss a crumb once in a while to wherever you do want them to wait. they will soon be patiently waiting there for thier share of the kill. but NEVER FAIL in your duty to share with them. after a while they will be so secure in thier knowledge that they are part of the pack and that you won't fail them that they will often go to sleep while waiting and never beg for it. our dogs wait patiently when we feed them thier dogfood. first to eat is bigdog and so on down the line. they do not shove or try to eat together etc. each eats in turn. the key to this is that we always make shure theres MORE THAN ENOUGH dogfood in the tray. theres always some left. they all know they will get thier fill so theres never any competition for the food. we can eat dinner on our coffe table and leave it there and our dogs won't touch it because they know the rules.
4) never feed your dog HAND TO MOUTH. this is dangerous as they can often accidently bite the hand that feeds them. this also sets bad precident especially if theres children about. the dog will think it's okay to snatch food from anyones hand anytime. always either put food in a tray or toss it to them. you could place it on the floor but that leads them to believe that any foods game. our dogs won't eat food accidently dropped on the floor unless they ask permission first and get our OKAY ( yes they do ask permission) so don't feed them on the floor.
5) never allow anyone to feed them except pack members. if you allow anyone to feed them they will expect food from anyone as well as trust anyone. you want your dogs loyal to your pack only. not the world in general. that way they will be guardians of the pack as well as less susceptable to poisoning and theft as well as runaway.
these rules have served us well. over the years we have had over a dozen dogs dropped off on us. i have made some other interesting observations as well.
1) dogs train themselves. we have never had to formally train a single dog. thier entire bieng tries to OBEY. simple NO or finger shaking or my favorite ANNNNGH! showing displeasure when they are not doing what i want has always been enough.
2) dogs train each other... we always try to keep at least two dogs. this is so we don't lose the training. whenever a strange dog shows up on our doorstep it takes less than one hour for it to know ALL THE BASIC RULES. as incredible as that sounds it has worked for every dog every time. within hours of finding a strange dog it is incorporated into the pack well enough to come inside and join us in the den. the behaviour that most people mistake for playing when dogs meet is not playing but talking. they are telling each other all about thier rules and thier life etc. we can take in a strange dog and it only takes one day for them to learn the routine. strange as it may seem.
3) dogs puke regularly. it's part of a healthy digestion. they will do this anywhere because it's not the same as urinating or deficating. it's not unsanitary but they still prefer doing it outside. especially after we show our displeasure when they do it the first time inside. but sometimes they can't help it. ditto for the other body functions. sometime they have diahrea and can't help it. our dogs eat grass daily the throw up a few minutes later. it's part of thier routine. i can't imagine how city dogs stay healthy without eating grass.
4) the NUMBER ONE THING in a dogs life isn't food or sex etc. it's SCRATCH! i have seen dogs stop in the middle of eating, in the middle of sex, in the middle of urinating or deficating, in the middle of everything to SCRATCH. i have even seen dogs in full chase of a deer stop in MID AIR to scratch. it's thier NUMBER ONE INSTINCT. this can be used to your advantage. we find that even a strange dog will bond quickly once it learns that we SCRATCH it. anytime we see our dogs scratch we stop what we're doing to see WHY. they don't scratch for pleasure. if they scratch theres a reason. we have learned to use a pair of needle nose pliers to pick vermin off our dogs. grab them by the HEAD not the body. if you grab them by the body it squeezes the vermins intestines into the dog. we do not use poison. despite the fact our dogs run free in deerwoods, notorious for ticks and fleas, our dogs have none. we have often challenged our neighbors with a $10 bounty for every one they find on our dogs. we've not lost a cent yet. when we pick vermin off it can smart sometimes. we show it to the dog, letting them sniff it. they soon learn what we are doing. even strange dogs learn this after only a couple times. theres no better way to bond with a dog than this method. ours will stop us from what we are doing to beg for this service. they will gat our attention any number of ways then position themselves so the vermin is under our hand. in tick season ( hot weather) we have a nightly de-tick session. all i have to do is sit on the floor and they will line up for thier turn to flop over with thier head in my lap for de-ticking. depending on the breed and how lithe they are dogs can tend to this themselves mostly. but there are places they just can't reach. i have pulled ticks from inside thier eyelids and even thier rectum. fleas gather at the base of thier tails and the middle of their backs between thier shoulderblades. if you dog is chasing thier tails it's because they have vermin. ditto if they shake thier ears. and a dog will knaw it's foot trying to get vermin from between it's toes. NOTHING you do will mean more to them.
5) dogs understand your language. even complicated sentences. talk to them like you would a child. after a while they will understand every word you say. you can command them to do anything in any number of ways that you would a 3-4 year old child. but just like with a child this takes time and effort on your part .
6) dogs chew. other than the obvious reasons of teething in a young dog and the reason of TASTING/EATING things chewing is one of the ways they experience the world. it's how they get to know the texture of things. it's also a main way they communicate with each other and people. you'll often see dogs chew each others muzzle. it's literally like shaking hands is to humans. it says see i trust you to let you do this and see you can trust me to not harm you. I learned to let my dogs chew on my hand as much as they want when they are a puppy. when they exert too much pressure or pain i YELP OUCH! this makes them release immediately. it's what puppies do growing up together. they play fight and when it gets too much they'll yelp. that's a sign to limit the pressure. by doing this they grow up KNOWING HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH. i can literally play tug of war with my fist. i'll make a fist and my 100lb.++ dogs will fasten upon it and we'll play tug of war with it. NEVER causing me pain but they'll be fastened on tightly none the less. This training is particularly advantageous if a dog is going to be around children. the dog will be able to communicate by mouthing without harming them.
this brings up another aspect of tug-of-war. if you play it with your dog ALWAYS WIN! to a dog it is a challenge. NEVER LET THE DOG WIN.
7) dogs can READ YOUR MIND! make no mistake about it. depending on the breed and how smart they are and how much time you've spent with them in all of the above and if you raised them from pups. but some of them can read your mind perfectly. all of them can to some extent. I have run double blind studies that confirm this to myself ABSOLUTELY! even to the extent that i now command my dogs MENTALLY more than verbally. they can be out running in the deepwoods far from any chance of other stimulous. when i want them to come home i simply call them MENTALLY! within minutes they are at the door wanting to come in ( they come and go at will) works EVERY TIME! or another instance. i can be sitting watching TV and they asleep. i can think to myself " i think i'll go to bed" they will immediately get up and head for the bedroom. or i can be working at my puter and think " enough of this i'm going to sit on the sofa and watch TV as soon as i'm done writing this" and immediately they will go wait for me on the sofa. i could go on and on with this. but the bottom line is THERES MORE TO DOGS THAN MEETS THE EYE!
But if you need an alternative way to call them I use the following method.
whenever you feed your dog OR give it a treat make whatever calling SOUND each time you do. even if they are standing right next to you. for instance i use a HOG CALLING shout sort of like WOOOOOO DAWG! when i feed them ANYTHING. the sound carries a very long distance. i chose this method before i realised they could read my mind. they can be asleep on the sofa or a half mile away in the forest and when i call them they come running. it has proved invaluable in emergency situations when i need thier immediate obedience.
if you never had a dog you are missing out on life. they are all about love. no matter what you do they will give you more love than you can imagine. since it's said that GOD is LOVE I am not surprised that DOG is GOD spelled backwards. they are truly ANGELS!
