Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Most of us who watch dogs, know their body language on a subliminal level. My staff at Carrvilla are wonderful at reading the dogs. When clients are out for our dog park, I hear them make very insightful comments. We dog lovers recognize this language.
Now, why do I know that? What is the break down of signals or the core signal to a sequence? At Carrvilla I am always human in charge/alpha with all the reponsiblity inherent. Here in Puerto Rico,I've been the back ground noise in the dog's world.
When we are not here, the dogs come up possibly: for the breeze, to hunt, to get away from the street and maybe humans. Our neighbor, Mike, told us that sometimes the neighborhood pack gathers here. One night a couple of boys decided to break into our house. Mike said he didn't call the police because "The dogs took care of them."
When we are here, its always been Stormy or Stormy and somebody in the neighborhood. Storm spends a lot of his time with us, but goes when & where he pleases as do the other two. I don't use treats often, mostly I work on my body language. When I work/play with these guys and I'm not getting their cues, they walk away from me.
The only force I've ever used was with Blondie, when I threw her off her daughter. That was over quickly, Blondie got the message. The dogs here are well under control because people will knock them up the head.

All the street dogs I've met have ranged from friendly/submissive to fear/submissive. Then there are the lucky beach masters, who ignore you completely when you're trying to feed them. Most of the dogs are just so hungry they would wag their tails for Atilla the Hun. 
 The dogs will play games as long as they understand what I want and feel like doing it. It's an opportunity to up my game, since the whole energy dynamic is different with these dogs.
Here's a shot of Blondie protecting her home, my neighbor lady's house. She is stressed out of her mind. More later

2 comments:

  1. What do you mean by "well under control"? Was the pup seriously harmed by Blondie or was it mostly noise? Do you think the incident would have led to great bodily harm?

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  2. Blondie & Stormy have both bit this puppy until she cries in pain. She has limped all day, the day after Stormy corrected her. No blood, no wounds, just hurt like hell.
    Survival issues are more on the surface here, they got their point across.
    Well, under control was my way of glossing over how the dogs are treated by the populace.

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