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THE PACK LEADER In-House Competition Results 30/8/01 Announcement At this stage I will be returning the first week of each month. Classes will still be continued as normal at Beerwah on Wednesday mornings with Tony Collins and Monica Krueger. Sunday mornings will be maintained by Mariska Herbert and my son Jeffrey. I will also take a class at Cooroy the first Thursday morning of each month, with an afternoon class at Tewantin. The rest of the week will be taken up with private lessons. Natural Diet Vs Processed Diet In any case, the argument goes to and fro depending on one’s view. I know from my own experience working with dogs that are fed on processed diets often exhibit some or all of three particular characteristics: A) Short concentration span. B) Hyper activity. C) Aggression towards dogs and/or people. When the diet is changed to a natural diet (raw food) this behaviour modifies dramatically for the better. There are a few points I will make however, and my mind goes back to 1970 when I first joined the RAAF Police Dog Mustering. Looking back to that time, processed dog food was largely unknown and most domestic dogs were fed raw meat and bones, with left over vegies from the owner’s table. The thing that is interesting to me now and that is during the four years of my intense involvement with the German Shepherd breed in the Military, most of the common ailments afflicting dogs were basically unknown such as: hip dysplasia & OCD of the shoulder. Not to mention the early onset of diabetes in younger dogs, as with arthritis, kidney failure and cancers to name a few diseases. I was discussing diet to a member of a local Schuzhund Club recently. He was an ardent supporter of natural feeding and he mentioned a study that was completed not so long ago by German researchers on this subject. He told me they discerned that physical problems which are now regarded as genetic (such as the ones listed above) are not so, but caused by the feeding of dogs on processed diets. Monorchids (dogs born with one testicle) was a case in point. This interested me greatly because dogs born monorchid are so common that 3 out of 5 well bred young German Shepherd males in my Brisbane class are monorchids. Monorchids were seldom seen in the 70’s - not at all common. Speak to Vets who were practicing forty or fifty years ago and they will confirm that these common physical problems were largely unheard of. Are dogs what they eat? Does packaged convenience food take the place of food the wolves and subsequently canines, lived on for millions of years? Is the modern dog becoming the victim - healthwise - because of successful marketing? We know the harm caused to our children due to the constant feeding of convenience foods, and we are seeing the harm caused to the domestic dog for the same reason. NSW Vet. Ian Billinghurst sounded the alarm bells about ten years ago when he wrote the book, “Give your Dog a Bone”, available through the PetCafe pet shops. An excellent book on natural feeding and the reasons why. There is also a web site www.vetsallnatural.com.au outlining the strong points of natural feeding in an informed and authoritative manner. I have to admit that for thirteen years I was a believer in dry food diets in my kennels at Struck Oil in Central Queensland. I followed the marketing line advocating it as the complete food - best stuff to feed Fido bar none. At the end of thirteen years I learned to passionately oppose the stuff, and as time goes on I oppose its use even more. Army ration packs after all, are meant to sustain life for a short period, not live on forever. Training Tip Laying the basic foundation is on going. That is you cannot drop the retraining of basics because the foundation is fragile. When one moves onto other more interesting exercises it is easy to forget the basic obedience exercises. My experience with this stands out in my mind when I was a keen young Airman in the Royal Australian Air Police Dog Mustering. I was teamed up with German Shepherd - Police Dog “Pal” registered number 142. (What a name for a Police Dog) After a period of months Pal was achieving very good scores in the obedience section of the monthly assessments. I consciously dropped the basic obedience to focus more on the exciting stuff, such as tracking, attack work, agility etc. The next monthly assessment revealed a big drop in the point score of the obedience section, making me realize how fragile obedience exercises are in the mind of the dog. Not to mention the importance of monthly assessments in order to keep a handler’s training on track. From that point on I always commenced my Patrols with five minutes of obedience first: on lead and right back to the very, very basics. During the course of my patrols I would work on the more advanced exercises. And I maintained this practice for the entire time of my enlistment in the mustering. On the point of monthly assessments in that particular mustering: I was disappointed to learn that it is a practice that has been dropped. It is little wonder that this once esteemed section no longer enjoys the respect it held years ago. The training philosophy that established the RAAF Police Dog Training as the best in the world in the 1960’s and early 70’s, was apparently replaced by more so-called modern training methods. During the 60’s & 70’s the RAAF Dog Displays were the feature attraction in the Royal Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne shows. These displays were the star attraction every night of the shows, which were attended by thousands of people. And the handlers & dogs left the arena to standing applause. It has been a long time since this has happened, and the RAAF has apparently lost its strongest P.R. attraction. In the late 60’s the Germans, Canadians and British came to the RAAF to study the training of the Air Force Police Dogs, because they were the best trained in the world. I’ll bet they wouldn’t be interested in learning what the present training standard has to offer. The early training I might add, is the same training used by my students such as Monica Krueger and Tony Collins who achieve dream results in the obedience ring. Modern methods? Backward methods in my opinion. I was very disappointed to learn recently that basic obedience is not considered important as it may affect the drives of the dog in other work. Obedience exercises are the very foundation in the training of Police/Military working dogs. Obedience exercises maintain pack structure in that the handler is seen by the dog as the boss. A dog trained in bite work is nothing more than a savage dog unless it is controlled by solidly trained obedience exercises. A well trained dog in the agencies such as the civilian Police dog teams, where the dogs are taken home and are part of the family exhibit the importance of basic obedience training. BASIC DOG PSYCHOLOGY - DOGS ARE PACK ANIMALS AND THEY HAVE AN INHERENT DESIRE TO PLEASE THE PACK LEADER - TWO LEGGED OR FOUR LEGGED. A REAL HIP STORY
THERE ARE DOG TRAINERS WHO TRIAL AND THERE ARE DOG TRIALERS Will your dog sit stay in front of a busy shop for several minutes whilst you’re out of its sight?
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