My old boy, the Beauceron, Jules, barks when people arrive at the gate (deep enough backed by his black and tan colouring to be a deterrent) but when they leave he howls pitifully. Not everyone understands but we nicknamed him Jacques Brel because of his sad, pleading, song ‘Ne Me Quitte Pas’ after we realised that his howling was because he absolutely hates it when anyone leaves him (except me because I always assure him that j’arrive) and he now understands that I will return.
There was an incident in the road outside the bar one evening. I had Jules with me on a lead while chatting to 2 friends and 2 women were walking towards us with a Golden Retriever also on a lead. As they approached one of them said to me ‘il est OK?’ and I replied assuring her that he was. So the 2 dogs met, kissed noses and then politely circled to sniff each other and, after a few minutes, they continued their walk.
When they were 5 metres away Jules began to howl, really pitifully and the 2 women turned in surprise, but the Retriever tightened its lead to come back to Jules. Eventually we all had to part but it was a lovely, if ear splitting, encounter.
Jane, this is so interesting - and fundamental to having a “well-trained dog”. Put bluntly: it’s no good yelling your dog’s name at it, to stop it barking/jumping up/running off/acting aggressive, or whatever, if you don’t understand it’s body language.
Are you familiar with the work of Jan Fennel on dog training ? Rather ineptly she became called ‘The Dog Whisperer’, because her awakening came when a friend invited her to see a demonstration at the Windsor Horse Show by the American, Monty Roberts. He would saddle an unbroken colt in less than 20 minutes purely by body language, no force (either vocal or physical).
Jan Fennel was immediately fascinated by the potential to treat dogs in the same way - she went to Eastern Europe to study wolf pack behaviour in the wild; saw the dominance of the alpha pair, and the interaction of the whole pack with them and each other. No words were used - only the language of different barks, snaps, growls, and every dog knowing it’s place.
We’ve had our current dog about 18 months now (he was a rescue) and now he knows basic commands I’m now trying to teach him without verbal commands, but with hand gestures and body movements. It means he has to pay more attention to me.
Which works just fine unless her sees a rabbit, or another dog. Early days.
That sounds interesting, despite feeling pretty good on the subject myself, I am always open to others’ experience.
@JaneJones during the course of my 26 years in France I have had 2 deaf and one blind dogs. All were perfectly safe off lead in the field, compare that with my current Jules who has a very independent mind but is generally obedient.
The deaf ones, knew they were deaf and never went close to out of sight before turning to see me. If my arm was straight up in the air they took notice, and if I then brought it downwards in a great arc to my knee, they would run back immediately.
Harper Grace was a beautiful black Shepherd cross. She had been totally blind, almost since birth due to having her eyes removed because of infection. In the field, she would run like the wind but if I saw her heading for disaster I would call her name or whistle. She would turn instantly on the proverbial sixpence and race directly back to me, stopping before a collision knocked me over. In the weeks that she was with me she never had an accident and, in the garden, when I wasn’t always with her she must have mapped it out in her brain.
On the other hand Hades (pronounced Addess) the dog who was stolen from me, was young, fit and totally obedient. Within a week he was off lead in the field. Wherever he was he kept looking up in case I needed him. Sometimes I would look and see him stationary, looking at me, I hadn’t called him so just made a gesture of raising my arms to the horizontal, palms open which means universally ‘Qoui?’ (‘What?’), and he would race straight to me unbidden.
If Jules passes the winning post before me I will be looking for an 8 year old plus very large dog. Think Borzoi, Irish Wolfhound or Lurcher of some kind.
We have been taking our border collie to dog training school for 10 years now. Not because he needs the training but because he loves the different exercises.. The best part of the session is when all the dogs renew acquaintance with each other after a week apart.
There’s a book called The Trainable Cat which I read when we got ours. It’s clear that, the more time you invest, the more the animal - in our case, the cat - responds; in the case of a cat, routine and regularity are even more important than with a dog.
If he forgets he mustn’t scratch the sofas, a gentle word stops him. A jerk of the head indicates supper.
And, most striking of all, and a bit baffling: when Rio (next door’s cat, his sworn enemy) got into the bedroom, our cat came downstairs to find me. I followed him, and found he’d cornered Rio under a chair. I told him to leave Rio alone and he did.
Yes, I really must have a word with Jules about cats, the one he corralled in the veranda the other day responded to my gentle caressing of him/her but allowed me to pick her up.
What I really need is a volunteer cat which has 100% faith in me as a protector. Fat chance.
You asked about Leboncoin, and mentioned the SPA, David.
I did find a dog in the SPA lockup, previously. He’d been there for over 6 months, poor fellow, a lovely labrador. I filled in their pages of stuff online, and said I was interested in this particular dog, please could I have a rdv to come to see him. They refused. We had another old dog in the house at the time. ‘They’ said that the lab couldn’t accept another dog ! ! ! . . . .
With leboncoin their animal section covers everything to do with dogs (and other animals) - for sale; new litters; stud dogs; re-homings fora small payment; and ‘dons’.
The site has photos and a standardised set of information. You message the owner direct, and off you go.
Jenny - thanks for asking! Apart from his photos, the first “this is meant to be” feeling came with his name, Paddy - because that used to be my nickname at school!
As for his temperament, at the moment he’s only got room for an outpouring of love and need . . . he has become a faithful shadow the moment I move. The breed has a reputation for high energy and high mental application. I can’t fault that, so far - although at 7 years old he’s happy to just lie under my desk while I’m working, and snooze . . . . . and he happily joins me for my after-lunch siesta !
Our Bob was from the SPA and we were impressed how thoroughly they assessed his needs as well as our desires. On top of the multi-page form we had an initial visit to his foster home (he was not in their kennels because of previous trauma) we had a full afternoon walk to see if he got on with us
I’m sure there is a lot of variation between SPAs, but I like to think that if they had assesses that the dog was not ok with other dogs there was good reason for it. Some dogs just don’t.
Sadly LeBonCoin is well known for advertising animals who have been bred in puppy mills, or imported from places with endemic diseases. And is known to be where dogs can be sourced for nefarious purposes.
We tried two adverts and both turned out to be scams. The siren number attached to advert was for something totally different, and lots of excuses as to why we could not see the mother of the pups.
France has tried to control illegal breeding of dogs, but it is left to associations to call out the fakers.
I understand that this is a problem, Jane & beanybag, but you weren’t caught by it, nor was I, nor were my French neighbours - but we have all successfully re-homed dogs through leboncoin. That, to me, is the important thing.
I’m pleased you and your neighbours have managed to home dogs with no problem from Lbc, I really am.
Paddy is simply gorgeous and is lucky to have found you.
To clarify, you think it’s more important to be able to just rock up at someone’s house and take their cat/dog/whatever off their hands without any safeguards or checks, than to spend a few minutes completing some forms to protect the animals from unscrupulous breeders, dog baiters, scammers etc?
Does one have to be ‘caught by it’ in order to care?
Oh and btw, I have, in a previous life, seen firsthand the state of dogs after they’ve been used as bait. Many of these dogs were obtained via sites like Gumtree and Facebook. Lbc is no different.
What is the matter with people on this website ?
There is too often, it seems, the need to divert any thread onto the unpleasant, fringe , abnormal and tenuous link to the activities of a minority in society, and the negative outcome of their behaviour - no matter what the subject.
I posted this particular one firstly as a matter of genuine Anglo/French vocabulary interest - and also as a celebration and sharing of my personal delight in the outcome of the successful adoption of an unwanted dog.
I no longer feel like a ‘Good Boy’.
So - Good Night !
