Maisy is just a bundle of energy... pure energy. She's alive, alert and she rarely stops to nap!
Keeping in mind that it has only been three weeks since she was sprung from the shelter, we realized that we may need some direction in helping to get a better handle on focus training, so we called a trainer that was referred to us.
I want to want to work with this trainer, but words like "
dominance" and "
pack leader" always piss me right off. She believes Maisy is
dominant. And that we need to step up and become the
leaders. I think I've been over exposed to Cesar's army and now those words just leave a bad taste in my mouth. And she said these words quite a bit.
And fed pupperoni without asking first. I'm a
canine nutrition nutbag - pupperoni is not in our repertoire. But I digress.
She also suggested that we break up our dog's playing because she thinks they play too
aggressively. I've based most of my trust on their compatibility from their ability to control their play and self regulate what they can handle without human interruption. Its been a total experiment in integrating Maisy but already I can leave them alone in the house with no worries of
fighting. I think a lot of people are afraid of the teeth baring, growly, high pitched noise type play that *most* dogs exhibit. And those people will break the play up and create a more frustrated group of dogs. This is just my premature, untested, unscientific theory but it works here in this house, with this 'pack'.
Of course there are times when the play becomes an argument. And I let it pan out and a majority of the time the dogs sort it out on their own and go about the next bout of play or nap time. I can count on one hand the times that they stay boxed and focused and I called them off.
This, too, is based on the fact that I am lucky to have three, adult, stable dogs. Throw in an unstable dog, or one that isn't used to being in a group of dogs (sharing, play-style fluctuation, etc) and then we might have issues that merit interruption. And the last bit of information from the trainer that struck me wrong.
Fear. She believes Maisy is fearful based on the fact that we took a walk around the block, considering these factors:
a. trainer had Maisy on a very short, tight leash and a martingale collar (I walk her in an easy walk for control in the neighborhood and a standard harness on hikes)
b. trainer was jerking the leash lightly to get Maisy to not pull
c. when trainer couldn't get Maisy to look, sit or focus, she pushed her back end to the ground which I never, ever do and asked
her not to.
d. Maisy is 300% focused on trees (squirrels, leaves), the ground (bunnies, squirrels) and the road (leaves, squirrels) all of the time, at the same time.
I live with a fearful dog, and his name is Kitsune. I realize there are numerous kinds of fears and numerous combinations of ways dogs exhibit their fears. Maisy is hyper aware and full of energy, and fairly fresh out of the shelter with little to no training, especially on leash.
She approaches strange dogs in a very forward manner, and basically ignores people except for a tail wag when she sees them. When they greet her she's great, except she jumps.
Her tail is never not wagging and she's a hunting machine.
She is not fearful in the sense the trainer conveyed. I believe working dogs need a true sense of fear just to get the job done, but its not the day to day sort of fear that housepets have. Maisy is a hunter.
And yet, when I countered this on-the-spot-diagnosis, I got an earful about how we are in denial of our dogs because they are like family and we don't always want to admit these things.
I would admit to you on the spot if I thought she was
fearful of the outside, but I disagree. She is hyper focused on that which she wants to hunt, not on me, which is why we called for training.
My dear, sainted husband made a really good point that I'm still thinking about - that I automatically disagree with people when they use words like "dominance" "alpha" "aggression" "pack leader"... that we are actually just using different means to explain the same result. When you say
dominant, I say
pushy. When you say
aggressive, I say
reactive. When you say
pack leadership, I say
management.
Could that be it? Could I be a word snob? Do I need to look past it and go with the obedience training flow?
My bigger hang up is this : obedience training suppresses the dog. Dogs know they can sit, but we insist they do it when we ask. And then we make them stay. And heel. And wait. All of their energies are turning into frustrations if your only outlet of time spent with puppy is in obedience training.
I want my dogs to play, aggressively as it may seem.
I want my dogs to be aware of rodents and rabbits. They are hunting dogs!
I want my dogs to be what they are without breaking them for model canine citizenship.
But. We live in the real world, the human world, smack in the middle of suburbia. So I need to bend and compromise. So will we call her again? I'm not sure yet.
In the meantime, we are teaching Maisy to "LOOK"
And we are asking her to "SIT"
Perhaps in time we can accomplish this outside the house to help manage her while on the trail or in the neighborhood to comply with our comfort zone. Times like these I wish I lived on an island and let my dogs go wild... I could watch & learn from them forever.
