Do you choose your dog or puppy or do they choose you?
A dog breeder friend once told me that he could tell which puppy a buyer would pick for themselves in seconds. He actually showed me. The buyer generally picks the first puppy that comes up to them. It was true in the case which I witnessed. The puppy walked out of the pack of his litter mates to the ankle of the buyer and licked them. No matter which puppy caught their spouses eye, the woman whom the puppy had gone too, maintained that that was the best puppy and he was the one who went home with them.
My second German Shepherd, Brett, chose me. He had lived a few doors away and slowly moved himself down the street. He would lie on my front lawn. Knock on my front door. Yes I did say knock, he could lift the door knocker with his nose and rap it on the door. German Shepherds do have an uncanny knack at being able to draw the required attention to themselves. He could also open close doors by turning a door knob and then walking backwards on his hind legs just far enough to open the door enough to get his nose in the gap then dropping down and walking through, this was a self taught action, no-one showed him what to do, he just knew he wanted to be on the other side of the closed door and did what was necessary.
Brett's original owner finally gave up trying to keep him. If he was left in their yard, Brett would jump their seven feet high fence, then trot down the street to wait outside my house. After he was given to me, he never made any attempt to leave. I only had a low fence in my yard, but he never jumped it. He would even just walk beside me with no leash on ocassion, most of the time he would be on a leash because of traffic but I knew it was never really necessary.
It therefore seems to me that it is the dog or puppy who makes the real choice as to ownership. But if this is the case, would you say they own you?
A dog breeder friend once told me that he could tell which puppy a buyer would pick for themselves in seconds. He actually showed me. The buyer generally picks the first puppy that comes up to them. It was true in the case which I witnessed. The puppy walked out of the pack of his litter mates to the ankle of the buyer and licked them. No matter which puppy caught their spouses eye, the woman whom the puppy had gone too, maintained that that was the best puppy and he was the one who went home with them.
My second German Shepherd, Brett, chose me. He had lived a few doors away and slowly moved himself down the street. He would lie on my front lawn. Knock on my front door. Yes I did say knock, he could lift the door knocker with his nose and rap it on the door. German Shepherds do have an uncanny knack at being able to draw the required attention to themselves. He could also open close doors by turning a door knob and then walking backwards on his hind legs just far enough to open the door enough to get his nose in the gap then dropping down and walking through, this was a self taught action, no-one showed him what to do, he just knew he wanted to be on the other side of the closed door and did what was necessary.
Brett's original owner finally gave up trying to keep him. If he was left in their yard, Brett would jump their seven feet high fence, then trot down the street to wait outside my house. After he was given to me, he never made any attempt to leave. I only had a low fence in my yard, but he never jumped it. He would even just walk beside me with no leash on ocassion, most of the time he would be on a leash because of traffic but I knew it was never really necessary.
It therefore seems to me that it is the dog or puppy who makes the real choice as to ownership. But if this is the case, would you say they own you?
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