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Have you ever had a dog run to you a little too fast? Apply the brakes only to skid past; gripping toe nails toss turf into the air as they slide beyond the mark. We’ve all been there; right?
Picture my front yard, thirty to forty feet of grass plateau with sudden sixty foot drop off. We call it the infinity yard.
Our newcomer, Bluto sounds pretty bad ass about protecting his home. Bluto hates loud rap music; he gets spitting through his teeth, I will rip the tar out of you worked up. Barking may last a full minute after the sound is well down the road.
Boom, boom, boom; everybody alerts to it. Boom, boom down the hill road causes a collective aw, shit. Bluto growls; for a moment he’s in a freeze frame ears forward, ready to spring. Boom, boom; the sound heralds the way for the broken down piece of thundering towards us.
With as close to a doggy, oh, hell no, as I’ve ever seen, Bluto jumps up, springs forward like he’s going to lead the charge of the light brigade down our driveway.
Remember he’s a home boy; he doesn’t usually go beyond halfway down the drive. Boom, boom, boom; it’s getting closer.
Bluto charges back up the drive, runs around the veranda to the side facing the road.
BOOM, BOOM getting really loud, dog doesn’t stop growling and running; he runs past where we are sitting like a shot. He races back to see the culprit coming. This is one hot hound dog!
The other dogs stand poised for action, watching Bluto.
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM; he flies off the porch and more than halfway or twenty feet across the infinity yard. So about this point hauling ass pissed off boy changes the forward body posture to brakes; where ARE my brakes!
You could smell the pads burning, as paws hit the earth in three big grasping attempts to call the whole thing to a halt. The skid marks end at the edge, where the angry dog barked his message for but a moment or two.
He managed a ceremonious strut to the nearest bush to relieve himself.
The adrenaline rush over Bluto settled next us for a long nap.
Did he dream of sailing through the air or landing on the car’s windshield? Perhaps, he wondered if we noticed.
Happy wiggle butts, Tricia
The tale of three tails tells so much about who they are.
Blondie carries her tail in typical bitch fashion for a Puerto Rican street dog. The curl in the tail is most common to the females. She shows off her female parts confidently.
Owl (white dog dark head) has the most variable tail. It goes from typical poker straight male tail to look at this broken tail, can you see how it just hangs! He’s young and smart; confidence is coming. In the aroused state he carries it high. He knows when to lower it. For a taller dog to get Stormy to accept his presence, it’s an uphill battle. Owl manages to get along with both males few incidents.
Bluto grew up in his yard. He doesn’t have confidence. His tail curve got bitchier when his people moved. He is naïve, doesn’t know how to play with the other dogs. He rough houses with Blondie a bit. If she’s playing with Owl, he stands next to them barking; he’s doing that in the picture above.
He has small testicles held tight to the body. Maybe, one of you vets can tell me about testicular tissue mass contributing to gender characteristics; i.e. the bitch like tail carriage.
Stormy still bullies him. Blondie beat the snot out of him yesterday. She turned away from her dish; he got in it. She turned her head, saw him and it was on! He bit her hard; oh, was that wrong. All he did was cry after that mistake.
Once Bluto realizes his strength, if he overcomes his fears, things will change. It seems to me that as Bluto gains experience in the street, his confidence increases. When Blondie and Stormy are off, he gets cocky protecting the veranda. Just this morning during a protection event; he straightened the tail by a full fifty per cent, most impressive macho. He had a sheltered life, waah, he is a poor baby. At least that’s what I think so far. The more I watch, the more seems to come together.
Stormy has the most interesting tail of all, the broken rat tail. Not to be graphic, but it hangs like a limp dick. It tells the other males that he has no power at all.
Groups of males hang out; cocky boys have their tails raised like banners of social status.
The young Stormy’s tail was carried straight out, an extension of his spine; not straight up. The tail was lowered in two events in this dog’s life. Both were dog fights.
The first fight he came home with wounds on head, ears, neck and bad back leg. He hardly picked up his head as I cleaned him up. When he healed up, his tail carriage was low.
Stormy loves for me to work on his back. I’ve worked on hundreds of dog tails back in Illinois, so I am surprised when he doesn’t want me to do the work that will change his tail back. Conscious choice to keep his tail low??
The second incident was an event some dogs ganged up on him. It was breeding season; he lost his head. He lay under a car for days without moving according to a neighbor. We saw him about a month later; he looked like he tangled with a lawn mower. That was two years ago. His tail has dangled ever since.
Oddly, if Stormy is very happy; he can wag his tail.
The genius of Stormy’s low tail is that the cocky boys don’t alert to him to see him as a challenge. They put up with crap from him that they wouldn’t from a male with an erect tail.
When Stormy stays in the dog’s peripheral vision without the tail mark, he can bark his butt off. The other dog gets annoyed, but doesn’t react. Stormy is able to take advantage of this sweet spot for him because his tail doesn’t give him away.
So with this tail raising and lowering going on that keeps the peace; what does that tell us about dog socialization, dog language and dog park??
Don’t be shy; tell me what you think. Mean while wag yer tail. Tricia
It’s Good Friday and I’m rip roaring upset; not about Good Friday, it’s always good to remember that we are loved.
My ham is in the oven because of the discarded dogs showing up in this community. These dogs will not survive in nature.
The little lap dogs, any of the toy group would be doomed without a soft heart. If you think bigger is better you’d be wrong. A seventy-five pound dog is a lot of animal when dining on leftovers, basura/garbage or predation.
That lovely lab bitch will lose her body fat; she’s too large to survive. Even if she learns to hunt, she won’t make it without a human resource. Being an unsprayed female; that’s not terribly likely. Her picture is damned bleak. She needs to be rescued.
Personally I am a fan of the Puerto Rican island dogs, the satos. A sato is a street dog that can live of the land/street. The dog must be smart enough to not get hit in the street; that’s a biggie.
A sato knows how to get along with the other dogs. It’s a competition for resources. There are times when it’s beneficial to pack up. A rat hunt is one of those times. This is survival school for new satos. Owl loves the hunt. It makes his tail go straight.
A sato is a small medium to large medium dog on average. Toby the Airedale an old timer on the street barely keeps that big frame goiing.
A controlled number of street dogs actually benefit an area. They control the rodent population. Young men sometimes walk the roads at night. All dogs bark at them, but you can hear the satos escort them to the end of their home turf.
I’ve lived in the country long enough to know the value of predators. Coyotes and fox are fine, but Puerto Rico has satos and gatos. This is good for the island, discarded or throw away dogs are not. They aren’t going to make it.
The sad thing is that the shallow ass self centered thing throwing them out the window doesn’t care. Ok, I’d better quit here; God bless.
And Happy Easter, Tricia
Don’t you think she’s lovely to be roaming the roads on Caribbean island? I saw the sweet look in her eyes; grabbed my camera, got this shot and she was gone.
Guessing that she was slinking away, afraid of us or something else with the low head and tail carriage, could be. Does this make sense or do you see something different?
It would seem that at least one leg is hurting; right?
Question: Is it the right rear or the left front? Or heaven forbid; could it be both?
By what looks like a layer of subcutaneous fat, she can’t have been on the road too long.
There are breeders of Labradors on the island. Pictures I’ve seen show me a nice quality of stock. Perhaps there is a lab rescue here. Let me find out; I’ll get back to you.
In the mean time let’s play which is the hurt leg!
By the way Chi-ping is doing well. She’ll get back with you later.
Tricia
Hey, dog show people, students of movement; tell me what is wrong with this picture.
This lovely pure bred bitch was outside the Boy Scout Camp on the other side of Lake Guajataca. After this shot she was gone.
Interested in what you have to tell me about her based on this picture. It’s the only one I have of her.
Thanks, Tricia `
