If I were to write an article on this it may be titled; honoring all of the bloodlines of a mutt/rescue.
When we adopted Gypsy in March of 2020, we were told that she was cattle dog/husky mix, but we later started to learn of her Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog and Kelpie roots. Since joining a group on FB for Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dogs, I've learned a lot about some of her natural tendancies coming from the ASTCD part of her mix, and have done a pretty good job of honoring those traits while maintaining good behaviorial training.
On our trip to Alaska, we visited the Iditerod Trail Sled Dog Racing Museum and Education Center, where we took a lap on the trail with some sleddogs and watched some videos on the history of the breed and natural instincts of sled dogs, huskies and the like. The minute we got to the area where we took the ride I saw some natural traits that Gypsy exhibits that are similar to these dogs and a light bulb went on in my head. -- This is why Gypsy goes crazy when we get her harness out for a walk!!
I realized that the time we've been working on calming her down before we put her harness on and the training we've been diligent about to try (unsuccessfully) to get her heel when she needs to be on leash are going against one of her bloodlines.
This dog will likely never be calm when she sees a harness and she will likely never "heel" on leash because she sees a harness and gets on a leash and her instinct tells her its time to MUSH! She believes she's pleasing us because she wants to MUSH!
The reality is that she is a wonderful dog and its not important for her to heel. It his, however, important for us to gain a better understanding of what she and her various bloodlines need to do and try to implement good behavior while honoring her bloodlines.
She's a darn good dog and I'm excited to get back home from Alaska and let her "mush"!
When we adopted Gypsy in March of 2020, we were told that she was cattle dog/husky mix, but we later started to learn of her Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog and Kelpie roots. Since joining a group on FB for Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dogs, I've learned a lot about some of her natural tendancies coming from the ASTCD part of her mix, and have done a pretty good job of honoring those traits while maintaining good behaviorial training.
On our trip to Alaska, we visited the Iditerod Trail Sled Dog Racing Museum and Education Center, where we took a lap on the trail with some sleddogs and watched some videos on the history of the breed and natural instincts of sled dogs, huskies and the like. The minute we got to the area where we took the ride I saw some natural traits that Gypsy exhibits that are similar to these dogs and a light bulb went on in my head. -- This is why Gypsy goes crazy when we get her harness out for a walk!!
I realized that the time we've been working on calming her down before we put her harness on and the training we've been diligent about to try (unsuccessfully) to get her heel when she needs to be on leash are going against one of her bloodlines.
This dog will likely never be calm when she sees a harness and she will likely never "heel" on leash because she sees a harness and gets on a leash and her instinct tells her its time to MUSH! She believes she's pleasing us because she wants to MUSH!
The reality is that she is a wonderful dog and its not important for her to heel. It his, however, important for us to gain a better understanding of what she and her various bloodlines need to do and try to implement good behavior while honoring her bloodlines.
She's a darn good dog and I'm excited to get back home from Alaska and let her "mush"!