Solitary confinement makes all animals, and even man himself, more or less idiotic, and if any dog is to be rendered as sagacious as possible, he must be constantly associated with his master. Hence it is that the poacher's dog is much more clever than the fair sportsman's, for, being the constant companion and friend of his master, he understands every word he says, and is ready also to communicate his own ideas in return. - J.H. Walsh, 1859
Do kennels make dogs stupid?
One thing is certain: a dog that is kenneled and rarely let out has a lot less experience in the world. As a consequence, these dogs are far more likely to be overwhelmed by sensory overload when they do get out in the world, and are far less likely to pick up on their owner's cues. Conversely, their owners are far less likely to pick up on their dog's cues in the field.
It is completely unfair to a dog to kennel it 50 weeks a year, throw it out in a field a couple of times a year, and expect it to perform as a hunting dog.
And yet, how many people do this and then declare the dog less than satisfactory because it will not perform to the same level as the dog that is in the living room and in the field week after week?
Bottom line: Far more owners fail dogs than dogs fail owners.
An average dog can often be made better than satisfactory, if not extraordinary, by simply placing it in the right hands and giving it a lot of field experience. Sadly, there are for more dogs that need such owners and such circumstance, than there are people willing and able to provide it.
.
3 comments:
If you want to read an interesting book that discusses this very topic, check out Merle's Door by Ted Kerasote. http://www.amazon.com/Merles-Door-Lessons-Freethinking-Dog/dp/0151012709
Merle was a feral retriever, and after being trained to leave cattle alone was given free reign over a tiny village in Wyoming. This dog becomes very wise and intelligent, and the author believes it can all be traced to his early days as a feral dog and his time roaming the wilds that surround this little village in Wyoming.
I think a lot of behavior problems come not from dominance issues but because dogs are not given an outlet for their instincts, drives, and need for mental stimulation. Couple this with the fact that virtually all dogs have higher energy levels than cannot be exhausted through leash walking, and you've got the perfect recipe for tons of bizarre behavioral problem.
That's also one reason why you can't trust studies on captive wolf behavior. Wolves have needs for all of these things that most dogs do. However, they have them in much higher quantities. Plus, they are already much more nervous and reactive than dogs are and far less inhibited.
That so many dogs are able to live with us in urban and suburban environments without problems is more a testimony to the ability of the dog to adapt to this alien environment.
My dogs have always had access to wild places, and because I live so far from my neighbors and the main road, they can roam bit off leash. And that makes them keen.
But it's not just dogs that become naive and loopy when confined their whole lives. On our property, there are several horses that are pastured there. Most of these are brood mares that were born in barns but grew up in pastures with water troughs, deer, birds (including wild turkeys), and other things that one would expect to see in the real world.
However, one mare has been raised in a stable her whole life. She is very nervous when out to pasture. She doesn't know what to do with her freedom. At first she was scared of everything that came into the pasture, and she didn't know what a water trough was used for.
And although she's gotten over some of her fears, she won't use a water trough unless she's pastured with another horse that knows out to use it. If she is there alone, she won't use it at all. She will just stand around and dehydrate.
I also knew a Dalmatian that grew up confined to a large yard for the first 18 months of his life. The results of that early life made him just a touch barmy. He had bad lick granuloma, which he used as a displacement behavior. And he was about as intelligent as the average sheep. He was very docile and had none of the Dalmatian protectiveness. He also loved other dogs because he was confined to the fence using an invisible fence and the neighborhood dogs (which were all goldens and Labs) came and went through the yard.
When he came to live in the country, it became obvious what his problems were. He has sort of tainted the way I view Dalmatians, fairly or unfairly.
But he knew very little about anything. Horses scared him (so much for the Dalmatian's inherited love of horses!) Deer scared him. And he though that a snake lying int he grass was the perfect toy. One day he brought home a live copperhead, which is more of a testimony of how unlikely a copperhead is to bite someone than anything else.
If you want to do best by your dog, you need to socialize the animal (as in every day) and give it off leash exercise. Let it experience things. Let it make some mistakes.
Absolutely, kennelling makes dogs stupid. I had a dog myself who, while not a hunting or working dog, was bought at a year old from a "breeder" who kennelled him. The result was an animal that was well nigh untrainable, didn't respond to correction or encouragement, and I never even managed to toilet-train him - not for lack of trying, either! You could see the stupidity even by looking at him; he had a vacant expression. Contrast this with my JRT mix who was picked up as a stray at just about 10 months old. She had learnt over 50 words and phrases within just a few months of having her. She's over 10 years old now and is still probably too smart for her own good! (typical Jacker ;-)
I can see both sides to this. A lot of working dog kennels have a nominal number of dogs, but they ALL get out, they get to run around and stretch their brains as they try and figure out how to earn a ball, a treat, or a sleeve. And in the end, they go to be working dogs with some lucky K9 handler.
As for long-term kenneling, I can definitely see how they'd be FU(BAR?). One of the dogs at the school kennel is, I swear, a psychosis case...spins and spins and spins. He's never gone potty outside the whole time he's been there and he gets washed down almost daily. Of course, everyone there justifies this and says that "He just likes to play in his poop," but I don't quite agree when he's put back in a clean kennel and--NEWS FLASH--starts spinning before I close the door.
We're not even allowed to have the dogs off-leash and they're only supposed to be out for 30 minutes at a time (because anything longer is a "marathon") on a "Gentle" Leader and 6' leash (because GLs are "humane" and nothing else is). While I'm happy they have a comfortable, temp-controlled environment with food, fresh water, better health care than the turkey you ate on Thanksgiving, and attention from DVMs, kennel techs and vet techs-in-training, I'd have to say that I wouldn't want to be a dog and live here. It beyond fulfills IACUC and AWA regulations, but the quality just isn't there. Food aggression runs a little more rampant than anyone likes to see, and the dogs aren't even allowed to sniff butts, much less do a play bow or chase each other. And dogs who are being "worked on" for behavioral "issues" show, IMHO, so little progress in the long run because no one is consistent at all.
All grievances aside, it's not the worst place out there for a dog, and these are LTRs from the county shelter, so with all due fairness, they're getting care and a marginal amount of training (or "management" in some cases) to make them more adoptable.
Post a Comment