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Choosing The Right DogJackie Drakeford |
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Most of us are
drawn to a particular type of dog by instinct rather than experience, at
least in the beginning. Perhaps these were the dogs our parents kept
and we grew up with, maybe we saw this breed working and instantly wedded
to it or maybe it was something in our ancestral consciousness that made
this the kind of dog that we wanted, and no other. More pragmatically,
there are types of dog that do a job this way or that, and we get the dog
to suit the job and the country it works. Alternatively, we might get
the dog we like and then do the job that suits it best. Or perhaps
we simply like the way it looks.
Awkwardness arrives when the dog's temperment and those instincts that lie uppermost have not been taken into account. I have seen a pointer punished for pointing - by a shooting man at that - and a setter rehomed because it chased ducks. I met an owner who could not cope with her lurcher catching rabbits, and many more who thought their terriers were going down rabbit holes.
Recently, I saw a woman at odds with her springer spaniel because it kept getting into water. Unfortunately, they were walking along a path with the river on one side and a series of ditches on the other, so they were both having a really bad time with each other. Further along, I met another woman with a different springer, and these two were in harmony. The spaniel was wet to the gunwales and trailing lengths of greenery, grinning that wide spaniel smile as it flopped in and out of the ditches. We exchanged greetings and cheerful comments about muddy dogs, and I wished that the other spaniel could have been there as well.
Awkwardness arrives when the dog's temperment and those instincts that lie uppermost have not been taken into account. I have seen a pointer punished for pointing - by a shooting man at that - and a setter rehomed because it chased ducks. I met an owner who could not cope with her lurcher catching rabbits, and many more who thought their terriers were going down rabbit holes.
Recently, I saw a woman at odds with her springer spaniel because it kept getting into water. Unfortunately, they were walking along a path with the river on one side and a series of ditches on the other, so they were both having a really bad time with each other. Further along, I met another woman with a different springer, and these two were in harmony. The spaniel was wet to the gunwales and trailing lengths of greenery, grinning that wide spaniel smile as it flopped in and out of the ditches. We exchanged greetings and cheerful comments about muddy dogs, and I wished that the other spaniel could have been there as well.
reprinted with kind permission from Alastair Balmain
Deputy Editor:Shooting Times & Country Magazine
Blue Fin Building, 110 Southwark Street SE1 0SU
Tel: 020 3148 4750
Deputy Editor:Shooting Times & Country Magazine
Blue Fin Building, 110 Southwark Street SE1 0SU
Tel: 020 3148 4750