We gave our dogs an unusual food this week, this is what happened…Do you know what your dog would have done?
The Wolf, the Bloodhound, the Gun Dog and their freshly caught Trout!
I have three Springer spaniels with the same parents, born and brought up the same way in the same house.
Each of them has very different traits and personalities. Some of these characteristics I saw as soon as they could walk so they are innate created by Lupin in her womb before I had had any influence on them.
When you follow the method of dog listening we allow the dogs to be their best selves, their qualities to shine through but also we can help them overcome some of their worries. By dissipating their stress levels to as low as possible they are a joy to be with and they trust me so willingly do as I ask. Living in a human world isn’t easy for us a lot of the time, and its especially hard for them as they understand so little of the way we live now.
The three Springers differences really came to light this week when we gave them some fresh trout to eat. Nick had been fly fishing on our local loch. I wanted it to be part of their mealtime given to them when I gesture eat as part of the normal routine. What they did with the chunk of fish hidden in their food was interesting. I should add they all still eat their normal food as if its their last meal but the fish highlighted their differences.
Rosie as usual started to demolish her food, in her eagerness to eat with the extra weight in the middle, she tipped the whole bowl over including the fish and just kept munching from the floor until it was all gone. The fish was treated the same as her usual food. As a very young puppy as soon as she was big enough she leapt over our puppy fence enclosure and with no hesitation at all had killed a chicken and started to eat it. She had seen food, as soon as she was physically able she hunted it and ate it, she is our ‘wolf’. If she is ever off lead and not fenced in we have to keep the chickens in the barn so we can all stay calm.
We had hidden the fish under the top layer of food, as soon as Violet found the fish she carefully picked it out and put it to one side, and then continued to finish her normal food. As soon as that was done she picked up the fish, removed herself to a spot as far away from her sisters as possible, as hidden as she could be and chewed through the fish eating it all up as the amazing delicacy it was. Violet lives with her nose to the ground, as a tiny puppy as soon as she could walk she was constantly sniffing and licking the ground wherever she went. She does not use her eyes, its all about scent, when her nose is down she is deaf and blind to anything else. I have seen beagles like this, a hare can run in front of their noses and they don’t see it, so intent are they on the scent trail. I have to keep Violet on a lead when we are close to the rabbit warrens, off lead she has to track down every scent often so distracted that we have all walked on some distance away before she notices she is on her own then runs to catch us up. When in the dog field the rabbits hopping around just on the other side of the fence are ignored as she tracks their scents inside the fenceline. She completely ignores the chickens even off lead running past them, nose to the ground.
The trout slowed Myrtle down dramatically, we have never seen her eat so slowly. She licked all the normal food carefully away, eating around the fish doing her best to avoid the freshly caught trout. She continued until all her food was eaten, carefully picked the fish out of her bowl and then sat with the fish in her mouth like a trophy not eating it. Gun dogs don’t eat their birds they hold them gently and wait for us to ask for them. This is what she did – by the way she has had absolutely ZERO gun dog training. Nick asked for the fish back and chopped it up into tiny pieces, popped it in her bowl, then she ate it, not very keenly, turns out fresh trout, not really her thing!! Myrtle spends her life watching me, if I am standing still she will come and sit next to me, she holds herself in the most proud sitting position I have ever seen. She is very focused on what I am doing, she has been this way since she was tiny, she was the quickest to lead train, willingly walking by my side. When we throw a ball or dummy she immediately retrieves it and gives it to us. All done with no actual training whatsoever. She is a bossy boots though, always wanting to be first – very competitive with her sisters. Her springs are incredible she leaps in the air when feeling excited. Rosie will leap with intent to get somewhere, I have never seen Violet leap, Myrtle springs alot and used to bark at the same time when she wanted me, but she does it needlessly wasting her energy thinking she might get my attention, she has given up now, but for a many a morning she attempted to get me up at a time that suited her!
We continue to find raising our dogs utterly fascinating. I hope that the point I have made is that as humans we often mistake ‘Breed’ as a list of characteristics that makes dogs that look the same act the same, this simply isn’t true.
0 Comments