On Friday, I got back from my trip to China. I was there with school, doing some kayaking, mountain biking and rock climbing in Yang Shou. It's a very touristy place but in rural area. While we were biking I got to see a lot of dogs, all looking very similar (primitive type, yellow, ears up), just walking around. Not caring about our bikes, other people, trucks. There were puppies running, older dogs just lying by the road... and they were all calm and, well, perfect. I doubt that any of them knows how to sit or lay down on cue, that it would behave itself on a leash, or come every time when called. But I just thought: if I could just have a dog like this.
And I was thinking a lot about the topic, and about very high expectations on dogs living in cities. We wont more from then, but sometimes, give them less. They have so many rules that they often can't behave like, well, dogs. All those dogs in China, they didn't know what my dogs know, but they don't have to know that. They are always somewhere around, lets say knowing where their owner is (if they have one, probably a person that feeds them) and they are somewhere around. The same 'behavior' I noticed when I go with my dogs somewhere where they can truly run free and I don't need to call them just to prevent them from going _______(fill in with whatever you want). They check in now and then, follow the general direction of my movement and, well, that's it.
Another thing is the socialization part. All those dogs, so calm and so natural in that environment, living witch chickens and geese by their side. If I brought my dogs to a place like that, they would for sure go crazy. I didn't have them as puppies so I can't talk from my own experience, but I know lots of people who had puppies. Took them from a breeder when they were two months, went to very short walks for the next month, until the puppy received all their vaccinations. And I read many articles on socialization and it does seem lots of work actually. City dogs can encounter so many different things, so many different situations. But 'village' dogs... It seems much simpler with them. They were born in one environment and will stay in the same environment for the rest of their lives. They spent all the time there, since their first day of life, exploring learning. Some die, yes, but those who survive are totally adapted to things that are going around them. And that scenario seems so right, natural.
And, again, I compare it with my dogs' life. And I even live in suburbs. Walked on leash (and what is the leash? something that really restricts dogs movement, slows down it's pace, keeps it from exploring). Lots of new sounds and noises everywhere they go. Lots and lots of dogs on their territory that they have to share, and not even nicely behaving dogs. If I was a dog, I would go crazy. And I wonder why is one of my dogs stressed and cannot snap out of it (maybe because my neighbors dog initiates fence fighting every time she's in the yard, maybe because they are building 25 houses just on the other side of fence, maybe because there is just so many scary people passing, fireworks... so many things).
I spent lots of time with people whose' dogs were working dogs. Agility, obedience, SAR... they were constantly doing something, even in walks, really into interaction with their owners, well socialized (their owners are experienced dog trainers, aren't they). And everything is just fine. But then I take a look at so many dogs in my neighborhood and I find a role that's the hardest one for dog to play: a city pet dog. Often by inexperienced owners, so much is expected from those dogs: be nice and quiet in the house, walk nicely on the leash when we are outside and listen to everything I say, don't be distracted by cats/birds/balls, be nice to ALL dogs around you (I find this one very hard to fulfill) And the worst thing is that people start applying those 'dominance rules' on situations like that, totally unnatural to our dogs I would say. It must be very confusing for them.
I don't say that dog shouldn't be pets just that it is often (not always, I remember lots of situations when I saw dogs acting perfectly, walking calmly by their owner without leash and being nice to all dogs and stuff, and I was asking myself: how could those people train that dog so well, than I figured it out: often, it's the dog, not the person) hard for them and that people don't realize it. Dog and pet became so close in meanings that people think that buying a dog means buying something (not even an animal) that will automatically know how to behave. And when it doesn't (but acts like a dog) they call it behavioral problems.
Right now, I'm experiencing a bad puppy boom on one of Croatian pet forums. There are bunch of 2 and 3 months old aggressive puppies and I just don't get it. They probably aren't aggressive just call that way, but the problems are the owners, they thought they were buying a 'product' (I hear many of them disagreeing now, of course dog isn't a toy, I'll walk him and train him... But what I'm talking is deeper than that, they are thinking that dog is hardwired with human rules – I was doing the same mistake before reading Culture Clash by Jean Donaldson I guess). I think I'll have to brain storm on that aggressive puppies situation a bit, I'll write it later, I think there is more to the topic than this.
So, to make some kind of conclusion: people should be more understanding about their expectation for their dogs just in their everyday life, cause being a pet is hard. It requires lots of skill (from a dog) and raising a pet dog requires lots of time from the owner (well, of course it does, but not time like walk your dog, but time to walk your dog and be there, with him, observe him, understand him).
