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cwalt
MH
Posts:180
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| 12/13/2007 4:14 PM |
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I am trying to bridge two worlds, those of animal behavior and of the dog
owner. In a technical sense prey directed aggression cannot be called a
drive, if I did that other ethologists would wonder what was wrong with me.
I prefer sharpness, the European term loosely used for prey directed
aggression, since that also distinguishes these behaviors from aggression
which invariably has a social component. Prey directed aggression has no
social component, it is reserved for prey animals and sharpness encompasses
all of these related behaviors such as searching, tracking, pointing,
retrieving and other prey related actions. If prey directed behavior is
considered as an unique assortment of behavioral tendencies it is clear that
a "soft'" (submissive) dog can be very sharp towards birds and other game.
Submissiveness is a social aspect of a dog's behavior that deals with how
the dog responds to humans and other dogs. For the purposes of this
discussion I would like to ignore submissive behaviors and concentrate on
sharpness itself.
Most dogs display some level of sharpness, those without it are useless as
hunting dogs. Quite interestingly dogs can be very aggressive towards
people and other dogs and yet be without sharpness... they will have no
interest in game. Sharpness, like aggression, has a hereditary component
and tends to run in breed lines. This is also true of cooperation and the
lack thereof. The ideal gun dog is sharp and cooperative, it seeks game
actively and vigorously and yet it will respond readily to the handler's
movements and behavior. You can have sharpness without cooperation, these
dogs are self hunting and will seek prey actively while ignoring their
handler's movements and signals. Cooperation, like sharpness, is inherent.
These are what you could charitably call independent hunting dogs. The
really aggressive and independent hunter doesn't know where the owner is and
really doesn't give a damn. Cooperation is a different, and fairly complex
topic so I'll try to stick with sharpness.
Ideally sharpness, in the matured dog, doesn't mean possessiveness. The
ideal dog doesn't consider the prey as a personal possession but as a pack
kill, it will gladly retrieve the game to the pack leader. Some young dogs
are not mature enough to develop a sense of pack and will chew, try to eat
or hide game. In most cases this isn't major fault for the youth, when
these behaviors appear in a mature dog there is a severe social problem
between handler and dog. Young possessive dogs will frequently outgrow the
behavior with understanding and continued appropriate social interactions
with the owner/handler. I find that possessiveness of game is not a
function of sharpness, it is a symptom of a social compatibility problem.
The Germans believe that sharpness is that drive that will stimulate the dog
to make 500 meter cold water retrieves and continue to hunt despite fatigue
or injury. In general the term sharpness can be reduced to simply a dog's
interest in and desire for game. Some young dogs display little or no
sharpness and there is evidence that this is a set of behaviors that can
appear after it has been triggered by some experience with game. With young
bird dogs that evince no interest in game I recommend allowing the dog to
kill and eat a bird to stimulate sharpness, don't feed the dog for a day and
allow it to kill its own prey. There are those that condemn this as
"creating game eaters", a claim that is nonsensical, but if you hold that
view consider the fact that without sharpness you don't have any hunting dog
at all.
Now remember that the drive to hunt birds or other game is inherent but
subject to the environment, dogs don't come with fully developed hunting
skills and hunting is a learned behavior that takes time to mature.
Sharpness is a major component of the dog's ability to learn to hunt so in
appearance sharpness is a continuously developing talent for much of a dog's
early life. Once sharpness develops there are few things that can diminish
it. The hunting dog is an array of distinct behavioral patterns that
develop into a blended whole that we can term a finished gun dog.
questions? { )
Cj
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jmurr
MH
Posts:158
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| 12/13/2007 9:08 PM |
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| > I am trying to bridge two worlds, those of animal behavior and of the dog
> owner. In a technical sense prey directed aggression cannot be called a
> drive, if I did that other ethologists would wonder what was wrong with me.
> I prefer sharpness, the European term loosely used for prey directed
> aggression, since that also distinguishes these behaviors from aggression
> which invariably has a social component. Prey directed aggression has no
> social component, it is reserved for prey animals and sharpness encompasses
> all of these related behaviors such as searching, tracking, pointing,
> retrieving and other prey related actions. If prey directed behavior is
> considered as an unique assortment of behavioral tendencies it is clear that
> a "soft'" (submissive) dog can be very sharp towards birds and other game.
> Submissiveness is a social aspect of a dog's behavior that deals with how
> the dog responds to humans and other dogs. For the purposes of this
> discussion I would like to ignore submissive behaviors and concentrate on
> sharpness itself.
>
> Most dogs display some level of sharpness, those without it are useless as
> hunting dogs. Quite interestingly dogs can be very aggressive towards
> people and other dogs and yet be without sharpness... they will have no
> interest in game. Sharpness, like aggression, has a hereditary component
> and tends to run in breed lines. This is also true of cooperation and the
> lack thereof. The ideal gun dog is sharp and cooperative, it seeks game
> actively and vigorously and yet it will respond readily to the handler's
> movements and behavior. You can have sharpness without cooperation, these
> dogs are self hunting and will seek prey actively while ignoring their
> handler's movements and signals. Cooperation, like sharpness, is inherent.
> These are what you could charitably call independent hunting dogs. The
> really aggressive and independent hunter doesn't know where the owner is and
> really doesn't give a damn. Cooperation is a different, and fairly complex
> topic so I'll try to stick with sharpness.
>
> Ideally sharpness, in the matured dog, doesn't mean possessiveness. The
> ideal dog doesn't consider the prey as a personal possession but as a pack
> kill, it will gladly retrieve the game to the pack leader. Some young dogs
> are not mature enough to develop a sense of pack and will chew, try to eat
> or hide game. In most cases this isn't major fault for the youth, when
> these behaviors appear in a mature dog there is a severe social problem
> between handler and dog. Young possessive dogs will frequently outgrow the
> behavior with understanding and continued appropriate social interactions
> with the owner/handler. I find that possessiveness of game is not a
> function of sharpness, it is a symptom of a social compatibility problem.
>
> The Germans believe that sharpness is that drive that will stimulate the dog
> to make 500 meter cold water retrieves and continue to hunt despite fatigue
> or injury. In general the term sharpness can be reduced to simply a dog's
> interest in and desire for game. Some young dogs display little or no
> sharpness and there is evidence that this is a set of behaviors that can
> appear after it has been triggered by some experience with game. With young
> bird dogs that evince no interest in game I recommend allowing the dog to
> kill and eat a bird to stimulate sharpness, don't feed the dog for a day and
> allow it to kill its own prey. There are those that condemn this as
> "creating game eaters", a claim that is nonsensical, but if you hold that
> view consider the fact that without sharpness you don't have any hunting dog
> at all.
>
> Now remember that the drive to hunt birds or other game is inherent but
> subject to the environment, dogs don't come with fully developed hunting
> skills and hunting is a learned behavior that takes time to mature.
> Sharpness is a major component of the dog's ability to learn to hunt so in
> appearance sharpness is a continuously developing talent for much of a dog's
> early life. Once sharpness develops there are few things that can diminish
> it. The hunting dog is an array of distinct behavioral patterns that
> develop into a blended whole that we can term a finished gun dog.
>
> questions? {)
> Cj
Did you mean to use "drive" here?
> The Germans believe that sharpness is that drive that ...
Would a different word convey the same idea to the pediestrians without affronting
the "ethologists?"
Do I smell an article or chapter in a book?
Sorry, too busy with "honey dos" to really engasge this piece. Sounded good on
quick read, though.
jere
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cwalt
MH
Posts:180
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| 12/13/2007 10:08 PM |
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| >
> Did you mean to use "drive" here?
>> The Germans believe that sharpness is that drive that ...
>
> Would a different word convey the same idea to the pediestrians without
> affronting
> the "ethologists?"
What the hell, can't get away from the vernacular no matter how I twist and
dance.
Yes, there's probably a much better word but I couldn't think of one.
> Do I smell an article or chapter in a book?
>
No, perhaps a paragraph or so... might use as a thought for an article in
the VHDF newsletter for January.
Have a good season? Lotsa birds?
Cj
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rospigan
MH
Posts:372
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| 12/14/2007 4:32 AM |
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Some years ago I asked Erik Wilson, who wrote most
of his doctors thesis about dog behaviour in Boston since at that time his wife
was working there, about this English word "sharpness" and it´s use in the USA.
He said that it is about equivalent to the Swedish use of "prey
drive".
" Sharpness" again, in Sweden, can mean
different things. If spoken by an ordinary hunter, with little interest in a
scientific view about dogs, it can mean the same thing as explained by
Cj. If on the other hand it is spoken by a hunter that has specialized in
hunting predators like fox, badgers, bears or even wild boar, it means that the
dog is "sharp" towards predators but could be a lot more timid, or should
we rather say "soft", towards other game, meaning that only predators can
fully "ignite" the dog.
Then we have me and other folks who are interested
in dog mentality in a bit more serious way. For us "sharpness" means the dogs
inclination to use agressivity. Agressivity again for us means "a behaviour with
the aim to maintain or increase the distance to an individual or group of
individuals". The reason for the dog to use agressivity is either fear or
defence or a mixture of both.
I say this is a mess!
I just saw in the Swedish public service telly a
live broadcast from a psychiatry congress.
One issue discussed was the Swedes inability to use AAT and AAA (animal assisted
therapy and activity). Sweden was actually a pioneer to use AAT and AAA but it
never developed into a more widespread sphere of therapists. The discussion
suggested that compared to USA and Germany Sweden is an underdeveloped country
in this sense, despite of the fact that Sweden was one of the first to try
it, and despite of the fact that it is scientifically proven that AAT and AAA
are in many different cases superior methods for treatment of disabilities,
mental as well as physical.
This could be the explanation to the mess we have
in the different expressions about dogs behaviours. Even
though Sweden is crowded with all kinds of dogs, horses and cats the view
of them is generally far from scientific and so is the language used about them.
Only when money matters, like with different kind of duty and service dogs, a
more uniform language is used. And of course among mentality freaks like me and
Maud and the rest of the "died in the wool" company.
Torsti
Borta Med Vindens Kennel "Ask not what your dog can do for you. Ask
what you can do for your dog." www.rospigan.net |
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