The things we just do not know about our dogs. To understand your dog think about our ancestors who had to fight their ancestors for food. We were at one time rivals for life, it must have been a strange meeting for man and dog to come together. One can only guess how that happened, whatever happened the union between man and dog was made.
Can you just imagine having been the first human to have had a wild dog take meat from your hand, it must have been incredible.
To think that the dog that lays at the back door, the sofa or the master's bed, once hunted our kind. It must have been by accident, possibly by raising young pups. The strength of the human pack must have been similar to that of the dog. The wolf is known to be the forbearer of the domestic dog, in the northern part of the world. If we were to examine the wolf family we would see the levels of dominance therein, the dominant male is just that - dominant. The things your dog does to you are the natural way of the dog, and he or she will try to dominate you.
Let's take a look at the things your dog will do that its kind have been doing since the meeting between man and dog first took place. There are lots of good books on the market today about dogs in general, and at least one book on just about every breed. Let's break it down - dogs, is dogs, is dogs, from the littlest to the biggest. We are not going to talk about a breed of dog, we are going to talk dogs.
Your dog can maybe do tricks other dogs cannot do, or is more protective, shy, happy or goofy, pick a word that best discribes your dog. Dogs look different than their ancestors did, just like us. The dog must have been raised as a pup, for the only way to dominate a pup is to use its ways of the pack. The young dog is the easiest to dominate, and let's not kid ourselves into believing that this doesn't happen. When a dog is dependent on you for its place in the pack it'll do one of two things, it will submit to you if it is shown it must, or it will dominate you.
The one thing that kept man and dog together was that a young dog depends on the pack to feed it, and to the young dog who has not yet learned to hunt, this means survival. In its pack it soon starts to learn who the boss is. The boss is the pup who can physically overpower any other pup. Once that is in order the pups soon start to understand the order within the pack as a whole.
The dog has some basic instincts, and this applies to all domestic
dogs. Its genetics have been altered by man to meet different needs. The
instinct remains the same. The pack's instinct, which goes back how many
years no one really knows, is part of your dog's day to day life. You know
your dog is happy to see you at the end of the day. You also know how your
dog wants your attention. Before you get the keys out of your pocket, he
is bumping into your legs, he doesn't care if your arms are full of groceries,
he's just glad your home. Everything is normal. As long as you're there,
he'll just keep bugging you for attention. One of two things can happen
at this point. You can put up with it and let the dog turn it into a game,
after all he's been alone all day, or put him in his place. The second
you demand your dog stop, and mean what you say, he will stop. Now your
saying, " I've tried that and it didn't work." Well, have you
tried taking your dog by the scruff of the neck, pin him to the ground
and say "NO"? Because if you haven't, you should. Your dog will
understand that. "Now isn't that cruel" you might say. I don't
think so, after all that's what would happen in the pack. When a dominant
member of the pack returns, that animal receives the same type of greeting
you do, that's the way it is. To communicate with your dog, it's a lot
easier to train if you are in control. My advice to anyone training a dog
is think like a dog does, understand the way the pack works, after that
it's easy.
::Donation Information Url:Save our Huskies
UK: DNA TESTS ARE UNABLE TO DETECT WOLF-DOGS. [BIPUK,WMN]
(3116)
A SCIENTIFIC expert warned yesterday that dangerous wolf hybrids could
not be detected through DNA testing. Dr Jeff Sampson, a senior lecturer
in biochemistry at Leicester University, said that currently there was
no way of determining through DNA-which is the basic building block of
every living thing-the proportion of wolf in any dog. "At the DNA
level dogs are wolves. Obviously the dog was domesticated 50,000 years
ago. "In the meantime dogs have been interbred so there will be differences
in the gene pool between domestic dogs and the gene pool of wild wolves,
but nobody has found out what those differences are," he said. "Using
present technology there is no way I could say whether an animal is wolf
or dog. I don't know of any way you could tell that." Dr Sampson said
all dogs, whatever their breed, would show wolf DNA characteristics because
the domestic dog was bred from wolves over many thousands of years. "Essentially
dogs were wolves. By looking at mutations that have occurred over thousands
of years we can guess when attempts were made to domesticate these animals.
"There have been three or four different attempts to domesticate the
wolf," he said. "They have been selected for their characteristics,
which make them domesticated and endear them to man, and man to them."
Dr Sampson was called on as a source of expert evidence for the Rotherham
case in which a judge decided that where a hybrid contained one per cent
wolf it would be classified under the Dangerous Wild Animals Act of 1976.
"Both the prosecution and defence sought my advice about whether DNA
could be used to determine the wolf characteristics of a hybrid, but I
said it just wasn't possible," he said. "If someone put millions
and millions of pounds into research it could be done, but the point is
it's not worth it." Dr Sampson said that in his view hybrids were
unlikely to be dangerous if they were brought up in the right circumstances.
"I would have thought that even a first generation hybrid which is
50% wolf and 50% dog, if it was brought up in a domestic environment it
would be a domesticated animal," he said. "We have no way of
knowing at the genetic level what genes are responsible for what behavioural
characteristics." Warnings that hybrid wolves could pose a safety
threat as they develop has prompted the North Devon-based former owner
of a husky to question the need for new legislation on the matter. Dennis
Stow, who was involved in the world of husky racing, said that sufficient
legislation existed already to safeguard against the problem posed by wolf
hybrids. "The public should not panic about every dog that they see
which appears to be a wolf hybrid," he said. UNITED KINGDOM WESTERN
MORNING NEWS 8/7/97 P3
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