To date, without any training from me, Maisy has:
-Treed countless numbers of squirrels
-Treed & subsequently bayed a raccoon and bayed a cat (note: she did not go for the cat in a 'catch', just kept it at bay by barking)
-Flushed a roughed grouse (our state game bird, at the state park, I have witnesses!) though I have no doubt that she would have tried to catch if she were off leash and if the bird didn't then fly into a tree.
-Caught a mouse, a very small squirrel, and a bird. That I know of, anyway. And she only tried to devour the squirrel.
- Sniffed out and ate an egg of some sort of ground nesting bird in the thicket near the lake.
- She hasn't yet retrieved any game, though she does with toys... I wonder if she would?
Is it the combination that makes dogs a "lurcher"? A "cur"? What makes her naturally respond to this 'game' the way she does?
It's amazing when you think about it - here's this young supposed mixed breed dog of unknown origin, found in the shelter, chosen by chance, following her natural instincts. She is a hunting dog. I think this is also what makes her 'difficult' to 'mold' in suburban life. It's not natural to her.
Proud Maisy :)
2 comments:
All dogs are hunting dogs. That's what dogs do. Some are just too misshapen by breeding to do it well.
One of the issues that you have brought about in your blog that has always intrigued me is the new trend of breeding out what fundamentally makes a Shiba what it is. It's Territoriality, its prey drive, its aggression toward other dogs; in order to make it a breed more desirable to the general public, it is lacking what actually makes it a Shiba.
One of the challenges all of us who own well-breed Shibas learn is that we can not stop the aggression or the prey drive but rather, we learn to focus it in a positive manner so that we co-exist together. Like urban people who own Border Collies, they find jobs and work for them to do so that the breed does not lose its intelligence, its stamina, its energy, its need to do something.
Maisy sounds like the dogs in the youth novel "where the Red Fern Grows." She was born to do a job, but is misplaced, and needs to find ways to meet her needs while learning to adapt to suburban life. Like the Shibas, she needs her outlet similar to how your others have learned to meld into your family.
Have you considered signing her up for some search and rescue training, or tracking of wounded animals training?
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