Ch Deja Vu In Like Flynn CD PT HOF ROMPX

Ch Deja Vu In Like Flynn CD PT HOF ROMPX
Ch Deja Vu Up Close & Personal HOF ROMX

this is one of my favorite pictures of Udo

this is one of my favorite pictures of Udo
Udo group 1 judge E Sullivan

Specialty Best In Show shown by friend Pat Murray

Specialty Best In Show shown by friend Pat Murray
Udo- winning his first specialty @ 2 years old shortly after being returned to me

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

failure

Living with multiple dogs is a challenge at times, especially when the dogs get stimulated and feed off of one another's energy. The management of them is a balancing act and an art which can at times be strung as taught as a violin string ready to break.
In this house the easy temperaments who can adapt to any combination are the classic perfect pets who could reside with anyone anywhere. Briards are not typically that easy and require much more skill and talent of sensitive observation and timing.
Over the years I have watched some of my colleagues in the breed basically give up doing what we try to do here which is have pretty much all of the dogs live together as a family. Sure, there is some jockeying-especially in times of estrus, but for the most part the demands here are high to get along, tolerate and coexist. For years it has worked well, something I have been proud of.
My fellow Briarders with multiple dogs on the scale of my numbers seem to have groups who coexist and more of a kennel setting than my own. Then there are the environments who have more than I-some with 15 and 25 dogs. Those logistically can only be a kennel situation-basically a warehousing of the canine species to keep control and sanity in check.
In a multiple dog situation when there is one friction dynamic or one "bad apple" it does seep into the entire operation. I have a dog like that and it has become more than trying to live with him. His life at this point is basically solitary. It breaks my heart and makes me sick. I feel somehow to have failed him, yet I worry about the danger I put the other dogs in by merely coming in contact with him. In 33 years of living my life as a dog trainer and behaviorist-this one-my own personal dog who I have raised from a puppy, have raised his parents from puppies and who comes from generations of my very biddable family of dogs and I have hit the wall. I can not fix him.

3 comments:

  1. terry
    i'm really glad that you have decided to do this blog. without question i believe that this will become an incredible journey for both you and students of dogs like myself. i'm wondering, since you are intimately familiar with the breeding and the temperaments of this dog's ancestry if you could venture a guess as to why this dog ended up reacting to other dogs in this manner? was it fear based? why do some dogs attack other dogs without perceptive provocation

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  2. I am firm in my beleive that the behavior developed because of fear. The pieces that do not fit are one, who this dog is holistically phenotypically, and two, who this dog is genetically.
    He is an extremely solid stable dog, gregarious and totally biddable during his entire life-until adolescence. Then the dark side towards dogs began to emerge-never with people of any age, shape, size, behavior, etc. He is social, cheerful and very confident, very calm bordering on lazy.
    My musings about him bring me to two thoughts. One, maybe letting the dominant girls in the household bully him at times mercilessly was a bad idea. It is something I have always turned a blind eye to beleiving that the uppity hormonally emerging boys, benefit from some squashings for humilty. My girls are generally not unfair-just humorous in their demonstrations of power. Two, Flynn's sire was a tough dog with issues with other dogs.Flynn was not that way but I have in-bred and line bred on Flynn alot-reinforcing his DNA and traits over and over. I do not have alot of dog aggression in my dogs-at least compared to most Briards but maybe now those traits have plenty of augmenting genetically after so many generations.
    The dog in question is quite tightly bred on that pedigree. I will get information as time passes. He was used at stud once at this point. The puppies are about 9 months old. I will be anxious to see what we wind up with . So far so good-but so was their sire at that age.

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  3. Terry, thanks for this post. I have three intact males in my home who I insist "play nice." Usually, no problems. The two hounds (Salukis) can get into little snappy things but nothing ever comes of it and it stops as soon as the alpha b***ch (me!) gets involved. I'm sure it breaks your heart to have one of your beloved boys secluded. Katherina.

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Violet at 8 months specialty weekend