Category: Dogs

Children are truly wonderful at getting to the root of the matter. They seem to have a gift for hitting just the right note. Let me tell you a story regarding a friend of mine and her two small grandchildren. Toni and her family were very keen horse riders, and spent lots of time at the nearby stables, where the ones that could would ride, and those that couldn’t, would wander around happily patting the horses and feeding them titbits.

On this particular occasion, Toni had driven over to the stables to check on one of her own horses, and had taken her grandchildren along for the ride. The girls were twins of four years old, and are fairly precocious, being the youngest of a bunch of cousins.

On getting out of the car, an old Dobermann wandered out of the stables and came up to sniff the newcomers. This dog lived on the property and often used to accompany the out rides or sit on the sidelines watching various classes being taught. Now the twins were quite relaxed around animals the size of horses, but a Dobermann!!! No, that was just not on. They simply wouldn’t get out of the car whilst this “huge” animal was wandering around outside. So Toni got one of the grooms to temporarily shut the dog into one of the empty loose boxes. They were only going to walk over to one of the exercising rings, have a look at the horse and then go back to the car and leave, so it was no big deal to leave the dog in the stable for the half-an-hour or so that it would take.

Once the dog was safely out of the way, Toni and the twins started out to visit their horse. Now out of the car and relaxed, the twins immediately shot off like bullets in opposite directions, both screaming for the other to follow them. Quite used to all this racket, Toni proceeded on her way undeterred. Suddenly there was a commotion behind her, and Tessa turned to find the old Dobermann had somehow got out of the stable and was ambling up behind them. The twins were stricken! Knowing the dog was completely harmless, Tessa continued on her way, interested to see how the little girls would handle the situation. A little hand slipped in to hers, and looking up anxiously into her granny’s face, the smaller twin said “my takkies are feeling a bit lonely and would like to walk next to your takkies for a bit. Is that OK?”

Smothering a laugh, Toni asked the child if she was nervous of the dog. “Oh no!” she said. “It’s just that my shoes get lonely sometimes and need to walk next to bigger shoes”.

So that is the story of how a simple pair of children’s takkies can help a child save face when frightened.

Some years ago I imported a dog from Belgium, and was encouraged by the local club to enter him in breed shows. Having never been a great fan of beauty contests, I was somewhat hesitant to do this. However, I was assured that my puppy had the makings of a breed champion and that it would be a pity not to at least have him assessed under various judges. So I started showing in the breed arena.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this sport, it entails acquiring a dog which is registered with the country’s Kennel Union. One then enters a show (either open or championship) and arrives bright and early at the show grounds. After finding a suitable parking spot and setting up a chair to sit on as well as shade and water for the dog, you settle down in front of your ring for a long day. Rings are allocated according to the different sports dogs are bred for, so there is a ring for e.g. toys, working, herding, terriers, hounds, utility, etc. I have a Malinois (one of the four varieties of Belgian Shepherd Dog), and so had to wait outside the Herding ring. The dogs are shown in alphabetical order, so Belgian Shepherds are preceded by other breeds like Australian Shepherds, Australian Cattle Dogs, Beauceron, etc. Dogs are shown separately from bitches, and for some reason the males go in to the ring first. Once your class is called, you enter the ring and the dog is checked for any disqualifying faults, such as an incorrect bite, missing teeth, eyes that are too light, incorrect coat colour, etc. Disqualifying faults vary between breeds. Once that has been ascertained, the dogs are run in a circle, triangle and straight line so that the judge can check to see whether the gait of the dog is correct for its particular breed.

As instructed by the regular attendees to these shows, I entered and my dog often won his class and sometimes the coveted Challenge Certificate and Best of Breed awards. I became more courageous and started travelling a little further to attend shows, as you need to win 5 Challenge Certificates under different judges for your dog to earn the title of Champion (Breed). I had already qualified dogs in various working disciplines, and thought it might be quite nice to have a breed champion as well. So I began to show my Malinois (his name was Danjo) more seriously.

As often happens, some of us handlers gravitated together and began to try and make the tedious waiting day a little more bearable. (it is not uncommon to arrive at the grounds at 07h00 and only leave again at 17h00, having only had two spells in the ring of about 2 minutes each). On one occasion, a friend and I agreed to meet at a show in Pietermaritzburg and spend the day together. My friend was even more of a rookie at this game than I was, and asked for some pointers on how best to show her dog, which was a Standard Schnauzer. Only too willing to show off my newly acquired knowledge, I told her that the most important part of showing was your grand entry into the ring. (a judge had told me a couple of weeks prior to this that most judges are influenced by their first impression, and a good entry into the ring is a good way to get the judge to take note of your dog from the outset).

This is quite difficult to explain, so I told my friend not to worry, just to watch how I (the Undisputed Expert of Grand Entry into The Ring) did it. So she stood there with bated breath and watched my class being called up. The three dogs in front of me trotted into the ring with tails pluming and handlers preening. Then it was my turn…….

Determined to put my new-found knowledge to good use, I gathered up the lead, called to my dog and charged into the ring. Unfortunately I forgot to check where the entrance gate was, and so instead ran straight into the boundary tape, tripped up and promptly fell flat on my face. My beautiful dog (no doubt horribly confused by this new mode of locomotion), leapt on to my back and sat on me. Gasps of horror from the onlookers! The judge ran forward to help me back on to my feet. Now thoroughly confused, Danjo decided that this man was the cause of all the disruption and tried his best to fend him off. Being a breed that is used to guard and defend his property (which includes owner), Danjo did this by lunging forward and trying to bite the judge, who very wisely leapt out of the way. As I still have a firm grip of the lead, the dogs’ charge was short lived. Once I’d regained my breath, I struggled to my feet (covered in mud as it had rained heavily the night before) and staggered back in to my place. The judge very kindly allowed by to compete (he could have excused me due to the dogs aggression). Needless to say, my dog was placed last.

Eventually the class ended and I was allowed to scurry out of the ring with my poor non-champion dog. My friend was still in her spot at the side of ring – her eyes were big and bright. “My word”, she said – “I see what you mean about making the judge take note of you! But I think I’ll just stick to the conventional way of competing, if you don’t mind.”

You can help prevent having all your intact male dogs from whining and crying over the smell that bitches in season give off by giving the bitch some chlorophyll. Dosage obviously is dependent upon a number of things (e.g. size of dog, hormonal level, whether she’s been bred before, etc.), so try a low dose at first and then increase if there is no reduction in the males’ noise level. Most pharmacies stock a range of natural products and chlorophyll is not normally difficult to get.

In July 2009 I was asked to give a talk to the flight attendants at SAA on how to handle a dog on a plane. This came about due to recent changes to the Air Carriers Access Act, which impacts on all foreign carriers travelling to and from the United States. This includes SAA, which means that they could at any given time have to accommodate several dogs. These dogs include not only guide dogs but also assistance dogs (e.g. seizure dogs) required by passengers which would need to travel onboard in the cabin with their handlers.

As the cabin crew had no knowledge of how to deal with dogs in an emergency situation during a flight, I was asked to go through some of the basics of dog handling with them. The workshop took place in one of SAA’s flight simulators.

One of the first things that was stressed, was safety – both for the dog and for the humans involved. Dogs should be muzzled so that in the event of a catastrophe and the dog or handler is injured, they can be evacuated without anyone getting bitten. A lot of the attendees had never seen a dog with a muzzle on, and were quite intimidated by the sight of this “ferocious” dog moving up and down the aisles.

For this workshop, I used one of my own dogs, a neutered Malinois named Dasko who was 10 years old.

I then went on to demonstrate how to muzzle a dog with a lead. This in case the muzzle somehow got torn off the dogs face during a forced landing. One brave participant volunteered to try this procedure with Dasko. It appeared that because many of these people were not used to handling dogs, they were very timid in their approach, which in turn made the dog unsure and much more difficult to control.

Of course, Dasko got lots of treats during this whole performance, and so thoroughly enjoyed himself. I’m a firm believer that unless you’re having fun, there’s not much point in trying to teach, as people learn much faster if they can relate to the topic at hand and enjoy themselves a bit. So there was quite a lot of laughter during the training session.

We then went on to talk about emergency evacuations – how to get the dog off the plane in the event of a crash. First Dasko and I had to take our seats as we would have done on a normal flight. This presented a problem. The dog has to sit in front of its handler, and the area between my knees and the seat in front was too small for Dasko to squash in to. He is not a large dog, weighing only 34 kgs with a height of 61cms at the shoulder. A lot of Labradors, for instance, would have greater bulk, and therefore more difficulty in fitting in to the space available. And of course, because the dogs’ handler is compromised, they are not allowed to sit in front of the emergency exit, which has much more leg room.

Anyway – once we were seated, the cabin crew began a mock emergency landing. They stood in their positions and repeatedly shouted out commands to move to the back and evacuate the plane. The rest of the participants pushed and shoved and shouted at each other as they rushed to the exits. During this time, the simulator started shaking and rocking about, whilst making an unpleasantly dangerous noise. This of course upset the dog, demonstrating to the participants that a nervous dog could become unmanageable if not correctly handled.

People have to be evacuated first, which means that the dog needed to be secured in some way to the seat so that he can’t move around and impede progress off the plane. Once all the human passengers are off, the cabin crew have to go back and collect the dog/s and move them to the chute. I suggested that the quickest and most effective way of getting the dog down the chute would be to hog tie it, (i.e. tie the dogs’ front and back feet together) and if possible hold it on your lap whilst sliding down the ramp. Although very unpleasant, hog tying the dog would prevent it from thrashing about and causing injury to itself and others whilst falling down the chute. As all cabin crew have access to scarves, it was suggested that that would be the kindest and easiest equipment to use to restrict the dogs’ movements.

All in all I believe the attendees gained some insight in how best to handle a dog under very difficult circumstances. Dasko appeared to enjoy his day out, apart from the actual simulated disaster, which he found a bit nerve wracking! But as soon as the simulator stopped bumping about he settled down again. And when we got home, he enjoyed a good long afternoon nap after a hard days’ work.