News | přidáno 5. 1. 2023
Let’s try to look at these questions from a slightly different perspective this time.
Did you know that the process of domesticating a dog, or domestication (Latin domus – home) is a process that takes already 14,000 years? The question is, did the wild animals of that time figure out that cooperation with man would pay off, or, on the contrary, man of that time found that the wild animal can be useful to simplify certain tasks. When the wolf, the ancestor of the dog, joined humans is still not entirely clear, but in old depictions dating back to 1,500 BC, dogs are already seen being used for hunting and
for fighting. Over time, people began to use dogs as herding and sheepdogs and later as companion dogs.
And what are the consequences of the domestication of dogs today?
Above all, it is a reduction in fear of people.
Since we can remember, man has been the greatest predator in the animal kingdom.
The natural fear of man is the most prominent feature of wild animals.
Aggression has also decreased.
Tolerance to physical manipulation and better adaptability.
Consider what today’s average dog living in the company of humans has to do on a daily basis
how much change, information, stimuli….If you took a wild animal and without
minimal preparation, put in the same environment that our dogs live in, i.e., human
environment, in most cases it would die of stress if it didn’t eat us first.
Greater social skills, more empathetic,
Improved cognitive function (better memory, ability to concentrate, speed of thought,
comprehension of information….)
Higher fat storage and higher frequency of reproduction
Now, let’s think about all this and look at those 14,000 years …….and let’s
ask us a question. What actually happened when the dog was introduced in the 1950s
to the blood of the wolf? An animal that has a genetically encoded extreme fear of humans,
an animal that has been hunted and killed without mercy in the past. An animal that is very
intelligent and very good at assessing danger, and its caution is completely at
appropriate. The answer is obvious…… we’ve kind of undone a
part of domestication, don’t you think?
Yes, you are partly right if you argue that there is no wolf in this dog
blood. But what’s 64 years of breeding and raising a dog versus 14,000 years?
If we look again at the consequences of domestication, we can find many
answers that boggle our minds as CSV owners:
Why is our dog not able to walk at his feet with a constant focus on the handler without
a treat and yet with pleasure?
Because the wolf settled in the mentality of our dogs must always have its environment under
control. What if a danger were to arise. Our wolfdog is just more cautious.
Why our dog can’t concentrate for long and after a while starts to “landscape”,
sniffing and doing things other than what is required of him?
The energy he has to put into controlling his environment drains him so much that
he’s no longer able to fully concentrate on what we want him to do.
Why does our dog care so much about any new environment?
Their ever-present wolf mentality has reduced adaptability and takes them longer to
to adapt to new stimuli. Anything that is new to them is actually a threat,
a loss of security.
Why does our dog react to other dogs in such a way that he intends to kill them at the slightest opportunity?
Any aggression is just fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of competition, inferior
social skills. Our dog reacts as a wild animal would to a new
to a new stimulus, to competition, to a possible threat.
And we could go on and on….
Our Czechoslovakian Wolfdog is a beautiful breed and we are all very proud of him.
He is majestic, intelligent and we all love him unconditionally. But. It has been scientifically proven that, on average a “normal” dog shares 50 – 80% of wolf behavior either identical or just slighty modified. The difference is only in 5 genes!!! And
we’re talking about dogs that have been around for thousands of years. Yet the wolf is still
there. Now take our Wolfdog……. You can probably guess the answer.
So what do we do about it?
Of course, it is possible to train with them, you can even achieve very good results
in the field of sport cynology, you can basically live with them comfortably…. You can do everything with them that you can do with
every dog. But…. dogs are dulled by thousands of years of living with humans, they can
can switch off, they are more resilient, they don’t collapse mentally with harder drills, they can be “milked”.
The sensitivity of the “CSV” is increased by harder drill, raised voice and frequent correction,
they are not as resilient, and it often happens that they “quit” at the moment of more pressure,
they just don’t cooperate. So, if we want to live a comfortable life with our Wolfdogs,
we want to play sports with them, we want to do anything with them, and we want them to
to do it with enthusiasm and not that they have to do it, we should first of all respect
their nature, understand their behavior, know their genetic predisposition, know their
their strengths and weaknesses, know their motivations, know about their needs (not
their physiological needs), not to humiliate them. And if we know all this, then with
respecting all these aspects, to choose, above all, the appropriate way for their
training. And if you really find the right way, then you will be surprised what
all that can be done with our “wolves disguised as dogs” and all that can be achieved.