Dogs are Individuals
15 years ago today we had a litter of Heading Dog puppies born on the farm. The sole female from that litter was Flight, my heart dog & the first dog I ever raised all the way through. Her tri coloured brother was Patch, my mums dog who became my boy too.
One of the most vivid memories I have from these pups early days is watching their litter at around 6 weeks old. They’d escaped the makeshift puppy pen, and were racing across the paddock as fast as any pup that age with those tiny legs can, hell bent on rounding up the stock in the paddock. They weren’t even old enough to go to new homes yet, they hadn’t been taught shit, but those tiny pups knew exactly what they had been put on this earth to do.
Our two keepers in this litter were of identical breeding, identical environment and rearing. By the “it’s all in how they’re raised” crowds ideals, they should have been very similar. But as similar as they were in pure working instincts, they were different as could be in temperament.
Flight was the angel dog who got on with everyone and could be trusted anywhere. She could work anything from calves to 800+kg Angus bulls, learned the agility obstacles faster than any dog I’ve known, as well as helping gently guide the dozens of personal and foster dogs who came through my kennels. And though plenty high drive where it mattered, she was so incredibly balanced and happy to hang out that life with her was just easy.
Patch on the other hand was quite a different beast. Though he was cuddly as anything with people, he actually enjoyed conflict and wouldn’t back down if given the choice - sending more than one dog to the vets to be fixed up after a scrap. In work mode, the harder the bulls the happier he was to get stuck in - generally too rough for young stock, but a very handy little land shark if there was a cranky older bull scaring all my other dogs off. He played just as hard with his ability to hunt out and retrieve a ball in the dodgiest places while hanging upside down by his back legs, and when it came to agility training the bigger the jumps the happier he was. Normal was overrated apparently.
If those polar opposite dogs taught me anything in their 13 years on this earth it was that dogs are not just their genetics or how they’re raised or our training. Breed and even line generalisations help get us heading in the right direction, but they’re all individuals needing their own unique spin on things to get the most out of them. Train the dog you have, not the dog you think you should have.
PS, this is a do as I say not as I do moment - please don’t get littermates.
