(Bet you can guess who said that.)
Why, if I, say, stub a toe, do all the dogs come running to offer
sympathy when they don't do that if another member of the fact yipes?
Is it, do you think, that injury to the pack leader would have more
impact on their lives?
Pretty cold. Pretty selfish.




















Just because humans are slow and can't smell or hear
very well doesn't mean they don't possess a primitive
type of intelligence.

In article ,
Chris Williams wrote:
Why, if I, say, stub a toe, do all the dogs come running to offer
sympathy when they don't do that if another member of the fact yipes?
Is it, do you think, that injury to the pack leader would have more
impact on their lives?

Dogs are opportunistic. They're checking to see if you're
sufficiently injured that they can knock you off and take
your job.
--
Melinda Shore - Software longa, hardware brevis -

If you don't understand how things are connected, the cause of
problems is solutions -- Amory Lovins

Dogs are opportunistic. They're checking
to see if you're sufficiently injured that
they can knock you off and take your job.
=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0Melinda Shore - Software longa,
You are cynical and bad.
Melinda, after going to war with my local PBS station for showing
'Uncle Matty's' videos, I've started watching them on another channel.
When he's not demonstrating dog-training, they're interesting.
Just saw one with a guy in NDak who keeps 75 sled dogs. He said, with
that many, 6 or 7 will be constantly jockeying for position, and he has
to keep them separated.
So, here's a quiz for you. When he makes up a team, what does he do
with those dogs? Where does he put 'em?
(A friend called those dogs 'middle management .... often a source of
problems.




















Just because humans are slow and can't smell or hear
very well doesn't mean they don't possess a primitive
type of intelligence.

Oh, Melinda. Another quiz (which is also a hint) for you: how many
mules in a 20-mule team?




















Just because humans are slow and can't smell or hear
very well doesn't mean they don't possess a primitive
type of intelligence.

Chris Williams wrote:

Oh, Melinda. Another quiz (which is also
a hint) for you: how many mules in a
20-mule team?

I think... 18 with 2 horses..I think they (the horses) are in the front
as "directional" systems. The mules will follow the horses..but I might
have that backward g

~misty

On Fri, 1 Aug 2003 12:39:54 -0700 (PDT) Chris Williams whittled these words:
Dogs are opportunistic. They're checking
to see if you're sufficiently injured that
they can knock you off and take your job.
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Melinda Shore - Software longa,
You are cynical and bad.
Melinda, after going to war with my local PBS station for showing
'Uncle Matty's' videos, I've started watching them on another channel.
When he's not demonstrating dog-training, they're interesting.
Just saw one with a guy in NDak who keeps 75 sled dogs. He said, with
that many, 6 or 7 will be constantly jockeying for position, and he has
to keep them separated.
So, here's a quiz for you. When he makes up a team, what does he do
with those dogs? Where does he put 'em?
(A friend called those dogs 'middle management .... often a source of
problems.

My first impulse is to say side by side. The work and discipline will
(hoepfully) deter actual fighting during a pull, and side by side will
bring out the "me first" competition. Its just a wild guess, though, as I
know nothing of sledding.

I saw Melinda's answer, which is more logical, but boring. :-) Anyway I
assume from the question that he does have an initial strategy and that's
my guess as to what it is.

Diane Blackman



















Just because humans are slow and can't smell or hear
very well doesn't mean they don't possess a primitive
type of intelligence.

In article ,
wrote:
My first impulse is to say side by side. The work and discipline will
(hoepfully) deter actual fighting during a pull, and side by side will
bring out the "me first" competition. Its just a wild guess, though, as I
know nothing of sledding.

I once hitched Saber and Duncan next to each other during
their first winter here and ended up with spilled blood
(theirs and mine) to show for it. I went about it all wrong
to start with (dogs who hate each other and have never been
in harness before so are confused about what's going on),
but people who have scrappers often hook them side-by-side
and then get heavy-handed in keeping the fighting to a
minimum. Pretty much everybody's got stories about
dogfights while the dogs are hooked up. It turns into a big
tangle and nobody can get away from it so it tends to
escalate really quickly.
--
Melinda Shore - Software longa, hardware brevis -

If you don't understand how things are connected, the cause of
problems is solutions -- Amory Lovins

I saw Melinda's answer, which is more
logical, but boring. :-)
Boring is a small sin, but to be avoided just the same.
Anyway I assume from the question that
he does have an initial strategy and
that's my guess as to what it is.
Diane Blackman
This musher said these dogs _insist on keeping their eyes on all the
other dogs. If they're in front, they look backward and fall down or
get run over by the other dogs. So, he uses them in back as 'wheel'
dogs. (He uses the same term as wagon-teams.
In wagon teams, that's where turns actually begin, and why the two
nearest the wagon are horses, mules being independent-minded. Misty's
right: 18 mules and 2 horses. I was once gratified to examine a toy kit
for making a model of a '20-mule team'. They got it right: 2 of the
tiny plastic figures were clearly horses.




















Just because humans are slow and can't smell or hear
very well doesn't mean they don't possess a primitive
type of intelligence.

My first impulse is to say side by side.
The work and discipline will (hoepfully)
deter actual fighting during a pull,
BTW, Diane, there's an interesting parallel with people. When you're
preparing a group discussion, some texts advise separating people who
you think are likely to conflict. This is wrong. You put 'em side by
side. We humans don't seem to want to yell at people when we're 6
inches from their nose unless we're ready for physical combat.
Do you remember that wonderful Lorenz story of two dogs running back
and forth fence-fighting? They came to a hole in the fence, stood
staring at each other slack-jawed, then rushed back to the fence and
resumed running back and forth threatening death.






















Just because humans are slow and can't smell or hear
very well doesn't mean they don't possess a primitive
type of intelligence.

On Fri, 1 Aug 2003 14:33:41 -0700 (PDT) Chris Williams whittled these words:

Do you remember that wonderful Lorenz story of two dogs running back
and forth fence-fighting? They came to a hole in the fence, stood
staring at each other slack-jawed, then rushed back to the fence and
resumed running back and forth threatening death.

Unfortunately in real life that is the least common reaction, although it
does happen. It happens when its a bluff. It doesn't happen when some
real barrier frustration has built up. A lot of dog bites to humans
occur similarly. Dog bark bark bark barks at passersby ... then one day a
gate is left open and someone gets hurt.

The hole in the fence story is
more like the kind of aggression you used to talk about with Pip - lots
of it as long as there was no real danger. Its a real common for a
lot of dogs to threaten and posture if they think they are safe from
actual conflict. That's why John Rogerson talks about one technique
for dog to dog aggression is leaving the dog. Drop the end of the
leash over a post and walk off. I used this very effectively with Tsuki
when he started becoming a testy teen. I just walked off and wouldn't
let him near me as long as he was being a pain toward the other dog.
Took twice, I think, for him to reconsider that good manners might be a
better idea.

Cats do something similar. Tease dogs by being just out of reach. Fast
attitude adjustment comes if something happens to their place of safety.
And yes, people do it as well. Some people will really take advantage of
a controlled situation to get away with behavior they wouldn't try
otherwise.




















Just because humans are slow and can't smell or hear
very well doesn't mean they don't possess a primitive
type of intelligence.