Asian Red Dog

Photo source:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Asian_red_dog.jpg
Dhole:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cuon.alpinus-cut.jpg

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8 Wild Dogs

Below is a short on wild or feral canines.

NATURE’S DOG CLAN:

Hardware: outdoor coat, generalize form.

Software: full instincts.Use: to survive as a street dog or wild dog.

Bio: street dog can have arrested development (neoteny stages) – they may heat twice a year and never disperse, – but then again they can develop beyond the stage of dispersal..

Also: stages repeat in a spiral fashion in dogs like they do in people but to a lesser degree.

Puberty can offer a chance for the software (programs, instincts) which were never used in the stage when the window of opportunity was open, a second chance to re-open and become habit before that window of opportunity once again closes (the instinct again goes dormant).

If this were not the case, dogs would not be as an adaptable species. .

Puberty also has it’s own set of instincts, which vary in intensity with breeds. If a breed of dog had instincts re-awaken at puberty that caused him to kill chickens and get so hard headed that he refused to listen to his human family – he would never live long enough to raise his puppies. .

Although today that has changed, and if your dog suddenly desired to hunt chicken, you probably wouldn’t know it, and the dog, never having seen a chicken, wouldn’t have an object for his new instinct and would probably be happy fetching balls and toys.

Fetching balls and toys is not a bad job, especially if that is what you love to do, and you get lots of praise for it from your family – beats fighting elk for your every meal..

Natural Dogs:

Street dogs, pariah dogs, feral dogs. Dingoes. Basenjis. (who heat only once a year)

Coyotes. Jackels. Wolves – many kinds. Dhole. Bush dogs .Maned wolves. African Painted Dogs.

Foxes – many kinds. They aren’t really dogs, but they are canines and Timothy Treadwell’s foxes looked tame. The tame fur fox experiment showed how easy they are to breed to be tamer.

Grey foxes are said to have a strong odor. Fennec foxes are said to be very small..If the (censored) purebred loving show breeders and commercial home business puppy sellers completely ruin dogs, then I think I might want a fox instead.

But I don’t know any foxes, it’s just the last hope. And why not? They are small, cute, and still have wild populations. But for most people even a sickly dog might be better, not every family is right for every kind of animal..

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Hairless Dog

Photo source:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PHDStandardStanding_-_Perro_Sin_Pelo_del_Per%C3%BA.jpg

Hairless dogs:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dancim1_MexicanHairless.jpg

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10 Non Trad DAW

Non-traditional stages of arrestment of canines..

The traditional stages (detailed in other posts) are mostly European dog types, mostly used for hunting.

Maybe all canines would go through these stages of arrestment if domesticated?

Maybe some day the red-silver foxes will be domesticated, and we will see if they also follow this path.

But for now, we don’t know if the only way to domesticate canines is through selection of neotenic stages, or if other routes work well too, maybe even better?

I read the Russians are using jackal X northern dog hybrids for sniffer work. Who would have thought that jackals have a better nose in cold weather?.

The pre-Columbian (before Columbus landed) new world (American continent) dogs are very domesticated, but they are not dogs stuck in a neotenic looking breed..

Many pre-Columbian dogs are hairless. (no fleas and ticks in your bed).

Some are sprinthund types like Pharaoh hounds or Ibizian Hounds, like dogs drawn in Egyptian pyramids.

The pottery dogs are short legged and squat bodied.

Some are like hairless Mexican Chihuahuas – both today and in reports of conquistadors.

Many are the typical hairless street dog type.

Yet there remains a look that most of the new world hairless dogs share; they aren’t as diversified in their looks..

Although the new world dogs often look like hairless coyotes, or short-legged hairless coyotes, they are usually very tame.

With a normal upbringing, they are friendly and love attention, and as tame as the average Golden Retriever.

Were they domesticated by some other method than neoteny? How can a dog that looks like a grown bat eared coyote be so tame?

Other non-traditional domestic dogs are some of the lap dogs:

Some of the lap dogs are simply miniatures of the bigger types – dogs that still think they are full sized terriers, sled dogs, or whatever. .

But some of the lap dogs are truly bred to be lap dogs: they have the annoying hunting, herding, working instincts bred out of them.

Many of them have a non-shedding coat which is a big plus if you don’t like dog hair on your clothes and furniture.

What somewhat newer families of dogs do we already have?:.

*Miniature Dog Family: tiny or small dogs who are either: bred to look like a full sized breed of dog,or who still retain the instincts of hunting or working dogs..*

House Dog Family: dogs bred to be pets or companions who live in the house as part of the family. They should have hunting, herding, pulling, guarding, and fighting instincts bred out of them. .

*Protection Dog Family:

Yard Dogs: dogs that protect a territory. They need to be territorial, not make friends with people easily, and NOT be able to jump a 6 foot high fence. Must not dig. Must not be active or easily bored. Needs to territorial, non-social, independent, tough, insensitive, and have a coat for the climate he lives in..

Police Patrol & War Dogs: They need to be able to easily jump over 6′ fences. Must not be gun shy or startled by bombs. Must bond with their handler and troop. Must be intelligent and active..

Watchdogs: any dog with discernment enough to not bark at passers by, only at those who loiter around the fence. The most common fault in watchdogs is that they are too yappy for city or suburban life – like a too sensitive car alarm that goes off every time there is a little noise in the neighborhood. .

Although in rural areas, some of the big heavy guard dogs have such sluggish responses that they fail to watchdog enough – one man told me people could drive up to his house and the big dogs wouldn’t even wake up, so he bought yappy little terriers to bark and wake up the big dogs.

It worked – the big dogs seemed to know the difference between when the little dogs were yapping at nothing and when it was something the big dogs wanted to jump up and respond to.

Of course, the big dogs might feel that yaps of “Deer in the yard!” are more response worthy than “Strange car with guys & guns in it!”..

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12 NonTrad Guard

Another sort of non-traditional group are guard dogs.

Some are breeds, like the German Shepherd, Doberman Pincher, Rottweiler, and others who were developed just to be a guard dog.

Others like some of the bigger terriers like Airedales, Kerry Blue, and Schnauzers have had other traditional duties. .

The traditional guard dogs were the bully breeds that bite and hang on, like working bulldogs, but today most of the bully breeds that still bite and hang on, also maul by shaking their heads while biting – these dogs are too dangerous for most people who want a protective dog who scares off intruders, not a dog that actually attacks intruders, guests or their kid’s friends.

Yes you can get good ones, but how do you tell which puppy will grow up okay, and which ones will never be safe with other dogs or new visitors?

The hardware looks the same, but the software is way different, and it is possible for two puppies in the same litter to take after different ancestors- they don’t always “bred true”..

There had to be a reason why people gave up the plentiful bully dogs and worked to create guard breeds.

When fighting dogs was legal, their were plenty of them, and it is not hard to teach them to go after people. I rather guess the bully breeds were too good at the work – or more correctly “too much” for the work of guard dogs.

Whatever the reason, the French, German, Russian, and British police used other breeds.

Today various varieties of Belgian Sheepdogs are commonly used over the world – they look something like a Lassie type collie, but without the white markings, sometimes have short hair, and sometimes are totally black. .

The bullmastiff is an old guard dog breed, the mastiff is even older. The boerboel is a South African guard breed which is newer.

Yet most of Europe has turned away from bully type dogs – now they are banned in some countries, and restricted in others.

Why has this happened? I don’t know.

Louis Dobermann worked to create the Doberman Pinscher – why didn’t he use bullmastiffs or pitbulls?.

Maybe bully type dogs are seen more as a war breed? One of them is advertised that way.

Or is it the fighting stigma? Is it that they tend to go after other dogs?

That they inflict too much damage? Have some of them used their training on their handlers?

Once trained for guard work do they look for ways to use that training, ways not acceptable?.

The closest to a bully breed said to be made over for European police work was the Boxer. They have misaligned jaws, and are usually very friendly – but I have met some which are not at all friendly..

One of the big questions is the German Shepherd Dog. Long the darling of police forces, the GSD is not naturally a bite and hang dog, so the dogs are taught to hang on when they bite.

Why would their developer, bypass breeds that naturally hold on when they bite, to make one that has to taught to hang on?

And the Doberman, there were plenty of shorthaired bite and hang bully breeds in that era, why didn’t Louis Dobermann make a bite and hang breed?.

Something made the European police forces turn away from bully breeds. What was it?

Was it guns? Did bully breeds growl at their policeman handler when he fired his gun? Did the bully breeds get too bossy and growl when the handler went for his gun – a sort of “I said put that thing away, the noise hurts my ears when it goes off!”

I don’t have the answer, but something turned police forces away from bully breeds. .Maybe it wasn’t the dogs fault? Maybe the policemen were at fault? Maybe pride lead police officers to enter bully dogs in fights – to shore up the policeman’s sense of super-toughness.

Maybe police could not be trusted to handle bully breeds in a responsible manner?.Why have most police forces shunned bully breeds and used shepherds and Dobermans?
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As you can notice, the guard dogs are NOT a clan, they are NOT related to each other. They are a Profession. The Guard Dog Profession..

They are police dogs, military dogs, and many of the sniffing and tracking dogs..

The police don’t use pit bulls as patrol dogs, but they are used by regular people as yard dogs; they don’t go on patrol, but they do guard a yard.

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babyfied wolves.

These are stages of arrested development in dogs, resulting in basic forms of dogs like:

1. MOLOSSERS: flockbonders, bulldogs, pit bulls.

Cusp breed: draw terriers, rocky terriers.

2. TERRIERS: bolt terriers.

Cusp breed: dash terriers, rat terriers, feist.

3. SPRINTHUNDS: all whippets, greyhounds, etc.

Cusp breed: staghund, wolfhunds, boarhunds.

4. TRACKING HOUNDS: tree hounds, pack hounds, water hounds

5. BIRD DOGS: water dogs, spaniels, retrievers, pointing dogs.

Cusp breed: duck tollers

6. TOLLERS: all tollers

7. HERDING DOGS: heelers, herders.

8. SNOWDOGS: northern hunting dogs, northern sled dogs.

9. NATURAL DOGS: dingos, pariah dogs, etc

10. NATURE’S DOGS: wolves, coyotes, jackals, etc.

****
These are biological differences, not like separating, setters by color or country of origin, or separating them from other pointing breeds.

Many “breeds” are really varieties of dogs for one task, separating them hurts the gene pool.

Today were need to group dogs by their professions, like: child’s pet, sniffer dog, police dog, guide dog, etc, not by historical use, and have open registries.

Most dogs bought today in America are bought as pets, it makes no sense to breed dogs for task we don’t use them for.

Turnspitz dogs went extinct when people did not need them anymore. It is like hanging onto every piece of clothing you ever wore, every car you have ever had, and keeping every unuseable piece of equipment you ever had. Soon you have 1 lawn mower that works and 3 that don’t, 2 TVs that work and 4 that don’t, and so on.

The breeds NEED to evolve, not be preserved!
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This post is in public domain.

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