[lit-ideas] Re: [lit-ideas]Indian dogs
- From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 3 Jun 2006 10:26:28 -0700
You are drifting, Andreas. Think "Dominant." I used that word. I said
that if you have a DOMINANT dog you must show it that you are the boss, or
else he, being DOMINANT, will take over. I never said that all dogs need
this sort of treatment. None of the last four dogs I've had have needed
that sort of treatment. None of them challenged either of us. In fact a
German Shorthaired Pointer, Heidi, was overly timid and needed a lot of
reassurance and reinforcement.
My 3-year old Ginger was similar to Heidi. Heidi ended up about 60 pounds
whereas Ginger (a Rhodesian Ridgeback) is 80 pounds, but as a puppy she was
always groveling before other dogs she wanted to play with her. She has
never barked at the front door nor shown the slightest inclination to be
either a watch or a guard dog. Heidi would bark when someone came to the
front door, but not Ginger. I've used similar reinforcing techniques with
Ginger. She doesn't need to be dominated. She needs to be reassured and
supported.
My youngest is a 1-year-old Rhodesian Ridgeback named Sage. She is
different from Ginger in that she doesn't grovel before other dogs and she
will bark when she hears a strange sound, but she didn't need to be
dominated either. How do I know? When I come over to give her attention
she rolls over on her back; so I rub her belly. She has no intention of
challenging me. When we are out on the river and she hears or smells
something challenging; she runs over and gets behind me. Ginger seems a
little more confident nowadays. I suspect that Sage will become more
confident as time goes on, but the three of us function as a team down at
the river - more or less. They are off leash and free to chase rabbits, but
it is there responsibility to catch up with me. I carry the water and
occasionally call a halt so we can all drink. I also decide when it is time
to go back to the Jeep. Everything works very well.
Lawrence
-----Original Message-----
From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Andreas Ramos
Sent: Saturday, June 03, 2006 9:39 AM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: [lit-ideas]Indian dogs
> A FAQ from the Stray Dog Welfare Society:
> http://www.wsdindia.org/FAQs/faqs.htm
Of all the links, this one matches what I saw.
Before I went to India, I got vaccinations for a number of things. The
doctor, who is a
professor at Stanford and a world expert on tropical medicine, told me
about rabies. I told
him that I was going camping in India (a group of us spent three days in a
national park)
and he said that rabies was widespread, so avoid contact with animals, incl.
dogs.
Thus when I arrived, I noticed all of the dogs (how can you miss them?) but
I stayed away
from them for several days. But eventually, I noticed the dogs simply minded
their own
business. I asked friends about the dogs, and they just shrugged their
shoulders. Nobody
bothered the dogs and the dogs bothered nobody.
One night, I was walking back to the hotel. Crossing the hotel's park, I saw
a dog curled up
asleep in the middle of the tennis court. I walked over to the dog. He
looked up. I held out
my hand to let him sniff it. He did, and then licked my hand once. Then he
sat down again.
He didn't particularly care one way or the other that I was there. I walked
off. He didn't
follow me. Just went back to sleep on the tennis court.
I couldn't imagine a dog in the USA would act this way. It'd run, it would
approach, it
would bark or growl, it would follow... but it wouldn't act like the dogs in
India.
Certainly there are some people who demand the removal of dogs. And there
are some people
who demand the removal of all sorts of things.
But the fact remains that there are tens of thousands of street dogs in
India, and they
don't behave at all like Lawrence and others think dogs should behave.
Thus I can grant Lawrence his argument and postulate that every single US
dog expert agrees
that dogs must be mastered. But the simple fact of the sleeping dogs in
India proves them
wrong.
yrs,
andreas
www.andreas.com
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