The winter issue of Off Lead & Animal Behavior is out. http://www.off-lead.com/ Go to the website to read the whole magazine. (I LOVE that feature BTW.) Now while I can't say I agree with all the articles in the mag, I LOVE the one at the very back "The rules of the pack and other tales" by Gary Wilkes. Here is a direct link: http://www.off-lead.com/winter_09/frames/winter09_frame.html#/54/I do find it odd that such a great article shares magazine space with other fodder advocating pack leadership and the like, all which go against this brilliant tidbit. Kinda confusing to the average dog owner if you ask me. Perhaps this will shed some light on the subject to some of the other contributors and readers however. One can only hope.
2 comments:
Thanks for passing on!
Heehee, I just wrote something about this sort of thing on my blog. Funny, I watched The Dog Whisperer for the first time in many years the other night. I was so strangely curious about his work. It really is very different from how I think, however, I sure like a few things he does and I think he reads dogs incredibly well. How could he not, with so many in his charge. I did cringe at a lot of it thinking that many people would end up getting bit by doing what he does. And his whole pack dynamic consideration just isn't how I think. It's a little bit how so many folks in the Natural Horsemanship world think about herd dynamics. I simply have a different take on it. I don't think horses and dogs are that different when it comes to pack/herd heirarchy and such. But, many horse people do. They say the horse is a prey animal and the dog is a predator. They are SO different because of that. Phoewy, I say. It isn't any different in my world and I am closely involved with horse "herds" and dog "packs". And have watched hundreds of horses over the years interact.
It's all really interesting and I very much enjoy reading how other people think of it, even Cesar Milan. I enjoyed seeing his take on it. It's not how I see things, but I actually did find myself curiously interested in his points. Cringing at some techniques that may work for him and might get others bitten, but curiously interested. I did feel sorry for one of the dogs on the show, but I feel sorry for lots of animals, so that's really nothing new. LOL! Everyone has something to teach us, that's for sure. Well, there are some people I simply find hard to learn anything from, but if I search hard enough the learning is there. There is a particular agility instructor I will turn away when she runs her dogs at trials. I simply can not handle the bad Mojo that results, poisoning my day, so I turn away. While many sit and watch and cheer because her dogs are fantastic and her handling works, I just can't do that. But, I am sure she has something to teach me, somehow I just do not like how she treats her dogs or the whole event, bad mojo, it makes me FEEL bad...............
Post a Comment