If you were sitting on the carpet that was ok but if you reached down from a chair and patted the carpet as you may have done to call her you were met with a rather extreme response. No matter where in the room you were she would fly from what may have seemed to be a sleeping position and a second later your hand would be held firmly in her mouth. To be specific she would hold your wrist behind her back teeth with her teeth closed on the other side. Thereby not biting you ,simply holding your wrist very firmly. At this stage you wrist out of action she would look up at you with her beautiful brown eyes and Alsation mask and growl softly in explanation to try to explain to you that you should leave HER carpets alone. A simple ‘let go from myself or any family member resulted in her freeing the prisoner but she would then keep an eye on them to insure that they did not abuse her leniency.
As a typical young child this dogs party trick was very useful and I have to admit that I abused more than one guest in our house. My father worked in shipping and often Captains who were in port would be entertained by my parents, usually they would arrive by Taxi and then would go out to dinner with my parents. On one particular day I was in the lounge when a certain Captain arrived. I was all of 4 years old. My father ushered him in and went to fetch him a drink. I of course simply asked him if he would pat the carpet. To humour a 4 year old he complied and soon had a full grown Alsation attached to his wrist. I was not popular when my father came flying into the room to rescue his dinner guest. While he was able to laugh later at the time he most certainly missed the funny side….
Author:- Mark Ritchie 2011
Biograpy:- A dog lover through and through.
A Dog Training a Dog….
The ongoing tales of Vixen , the most intelligent Alsation I have ever known.
Picture the seen a beautiful summer evening in Cape Town South Africa. Barbeque wheather anywhere else in the world, but in South Africa we call it ‘Braai vleis’ or simply a ‘Braai’. So there we were watching the sunset over Table Mountain and having a Braai. The meat was sizzling and giving off a wonderfull aroma. Our friends were gathered around talking, drinking, laughing and generally enjoying themselves.
On this particular evening we had a new alsation puppy in the house her name was Shadow. She was about 8 weeks old. She still had paws too big for her body and ears that would not stand up. She was really quite cute with sharp puppy teeth and a high pitched bark. As puppies do she was making a nuisance of herself. At first it was just demanding attention but as the meat sizzled on the braai she became more of a nuisance and started yapping as only a young pup can. We tried to quieten her down but her high pitched yap continued. She was definatetly taking over the conversation. While we are true animal lovers this was becoming more than a little tedious. So what to do…..
In exasperation my father with meat tongs in one hand and while turning the meat over, looked across at our older Alsation Vixen and said ‘Vixen why don’t you tell that little brat to shut up? ‘ Vixen raised her head, the slowly she stood up analyzing the situation as she did so and then she uttered a half bark half growl in the direction of Shadow. The pups ears dropped, her head drooped and she shot under the table as fast as her paws would carry her and was quiet for the rest of the evening…
Our guests were very impressed , secretly so was my father. They asked him how he had trained her to do this and he sort of scoffed as if to say doesn’t everyone train their dogs in this way. He kept looking across every now and then almost wanting to pinch himself to be sure that what he had witnessed was for real. Fortunately the pup did not re-emerge and bark again so Dads ‘training’ was not put to the test
This is a true story
Author:- Mark Ritchie 03/09/2011
Biograpy:- A dog lover through and through.