A couple posters have quite the liberal mindset of it is all RD's fault. The fact that her dog was actually working and a stray dog broke into a fenced area and posed a threat seems to not even be a factor. It reminds me of the latest news of a child who climbed up over an enclosed area and reached into the animals (I forget what kind of animal or at what zoo) and she got bit. Instead of her parents having the child get rabie shots, 5 of the animals were euthanized. Completely backwards and outrages me. Sorry to get off tract.
That is so on track. Yup, and there's the one where the burgler is breaking into a house and breaks his arm falling off the roof and sues the home owners and WINS! Just like that here. You add to my list of check marks for "agree." Let's see there's Renee, Moonchild....I forget who else.
If I had a ranch and had animals on it and a dog who had a job with those animals.....I don't care if it's for herding, guarding, chasing or anything else, I wouldn't be shocked if my dog defended himself, the animals or me if an intruder made a threatening attack. Dogs are dogs and they have instincts, some stronger than others, some dogs are better trained to human ways than others. All that's pretty moot. The point is that saying it was so "wrong" and abnormal for him to chase the dog so far is, IMO projecting human values and morals onto Dakota. Do you think that dogs wouldn't protect their pack in the wild? Do you think they have a certain distance limit as to how far and how serious they should be? No, that's our opinion. Not theirs. Some dogs don't feel it's serious enough to bother running 300 yards to put a stop to what they perceive as dangerous. Some dogs may think 500 yards is needed. Some, maybe 20 yrds. How can we know what's normal or not? Just because you never saw it? How much study and research has been devoted to this particular behavior to determine what's normal from a dog's standpoint toward another dog in a situation like this?
Those geese are affiliated with the dog. There's some kind of connection. How dare we presume what exactly that connection in the dog's mind is. To say that a dog
should and
shouldn't do this is based on human values and morals, not a dog's. If the dog doesn't come when called, then his instincts outweighed his training. And that happens sometimes. A herding dog or a dog with a job like this can hardly do his work attached to a leash. He was minding his own business when that other dog got in his face.
I absolutely don't think RD or her dog are irresponsible and I think some of you are way over the top with your accusatory and righteous posts. Dakaota was doing his job in an enclosed place, minding his business, his charges on
HIS territory. And this other dog breaks into the place (who knows where
HIS owners are) and gets in front of Dakato, face to face (rude in dog language) and barks and growls at him,
initiating an attack on Dakota. Dakota was acting like a dog who is threatened, who's job is being interferred with. If he thought he had to run the dog way, way off, then that's what he thought. Dogs are animals. We train them the best we can to obey us. But they're still DOGS. Sure, it would be nice if he would have come when called off. But BCs are known for their intense focus, as it was said.
If I were in RD's shoes and I knew who the owner was, I'd tell them, "It's a shame what happened to your dog. It's too bad you allowed him to run loose and he came through the fence of an enclosed, (is it private property?) area and began an attack on my dog. My dog ran your dog down to teach him never to do that again, never to come back here again.
I can think of a few other breeds who most likely would have done worse if another dog came into their territory and when their mind is set on a task, that's all they see, hear, smell and think about.....nothing else...not water being sprayed on them, not their owner hollering, not anything. Look at the risks wild dogs or wolves go through to kill large game. They risk getting impaled by antlers, getting their guts kicked out, getting stomped on. They run risks and they decide to go through those risks so they can accomplish a task. They ignore
everything else so they can focus on the job because if they don't focus, they can be hurt, killed or they'll go hungry. It's how they're designed and some dogs still have much stronger drives and instincts than others.
If Dakota has been obedient in most situations up to now, an unperturbed by other dogs, well socialized, quite far along in his training, as I understand it.... how is RD suppose to know that he won't be in this particular situation? Dogs are living organisms, not robots. If this is a fenced in area (not postitive I got that straight..don't want to go back through all the posts) who would think that some dog would get in? If this is the case, that dogs or anyone can get in, then if it were my dog, knowing what I know NOW (hindsight is always 20/20) then of course, I'd have to perhaps forgo this job and try practicing him in some simulated situations which could condition him to something like this where you could get his attention and get him to come by using smaller distractions than this one and working up to using real dogs, everyone on leashes and get him use to that slowly.
I'm sure the dog will live. I know it seems unfair to US (humans and our code of ethics) that when he turned to retreat, Dakota continued chasing him. but that's not necessarily the way dogs' rules and regulations work. Fighting to the kill is pretty rare in conspecifics. Of course, it happens sometimes. My old neighbor saw an Irish Wolfhound kill a small stray dog who came into
their pasture. He may have looked at it like it was prey.
But why are so many people freaking out about this stray? If the stray HAD attacked RD would you all still have been jumping down her throat??
She could wrapped from head to toe in bandages with an I.V. drip and 50 stiches in her body, drooling, writing to us from her hospital bed on her lap top and some (those without
bedside manner) would still be jumping down her throat, quite sure.
