Better Grooming

Good Grooming

Good Grooming

Any dog-owner wants to have a dog that will be a companion for many years. 

Having taken a sideways look at the dog, look at it now, walking towards your head on. Watch the knees with special care : they must not be visibly outward-turned. Check that the two front legs are properly parallel ( or that the stance is correct for that particular breed) and that the feet are aligned with the legs and neither inside nor outside the line. 

Make sure also that the feet are properly closed. After looking at the dog head on, take a good look at it from behind. The hind legs must also be parallel not turned inward or outward. These two defects, being ‘cow-hocked’ or ‘ bowlegged’, mean that the weight of the body is not properly borne by the bones used for movement and this seriously affects a dog’s endurance. So far the dog has only walked; this makes it possible to see if there are any physical deformities. These are of practical rather than aesthetic concern, because they can seriously affect the essentially practical purpose for which the dog may be intended. 

The next thing is to get the dog to trot and gallop. A good trot depends, first and fore most, on a well-built back. It must be free and easy with a long, supple stride nor short, brisk, skipping steps. Short-legged people-children, or short men and women - take two steps to the normal persons. They tire more quickly than taller people over a similar distance. The same goes for a dog with a short stride. The ideal is a dog that is a good walker, nor one that skips along daintily and becomes exhausted after a few kilometers. 

A good stride is made possible by a strong, well-shaped back. A good gallop depends not only on a well-built back, but on good hind quarters, too. The swift, light gallop of a well-built dog or the half-gallop that can go on hour after hour without causing fatigue only occur when the fore and hind-quarters are well balanced. The rump or croup is also of considerable importance, because, at the gallop the movement of the hind-quarter reaches the fore-quarters viathe rump and the back. A well-built rump must be roundish and about 2-5 cm ( 1 in) lower than the withers. Last of all, it is good idea for the dog to have a thorough veterinary check up. The hints listed above do not apply to all breeds. 

A hump-back is a quality in the Bulldog, as a curved stance in the Pakingese. A Neapolitan Mastiff will never have fore-quarters like a setter’s, or the hind-quarters of a German Shepherd dog; a sheep-like nasal bridge is a quality in the German Pointer, but a defect in the English Pointer; the harmonious proportions of a Fox-hound do not exist in Dachshnds, and the build of a small Greyhound is the very opposite of that of a pug. What has been said here is broadly applicable to most ordinary breeds of dog but get some advice from an expert on a specific breed before you choose your young or adult dog. When it comes to looking at the character of the young dog, take good note of what is described for the basic tests for all breeds and all types of dog. Once you have made your choice, take the dog home with you. 

From the beginning, treat it with affection and understanding. For a short time it will feel lost and bewildered. Help it to understand where it is, and to understand you. If you show it love, it will quickly return it. Remember, above all with regard to adult dogs that the nobler a dog’s character ( in temperament, courage and so on), the longer it will take to become comfortable in its new home. If you can go yourself to collect the young ( or adult) dog from the kennels or owner who has sold it to you. If the dog comes to your home straight from an aeroplane, train or truck. Put the cage in an enclosed place before opening it, so that the dog will not be able to run away. 
Open the cage yourself and have a little food ( meat and/or cheese) and a bowl of fresh water ready. Let the dog have a bite to eat and a drink. If it feels like it at first it may not. Put it on a lead and let it smell you all over, starting with your hands; move gently, and speak softly: and stroke the dog all the time. Its lead should be at least. 2m ( 2 yard) long. Do not fasten the collar too tightly or too loosely. Take the dog out of doors to an open space where there are trees and earth, so that it can relieve itself. While it is still on the lead, walk it for about half an hour, talking to it quietly every so often not in a silly, babyish way but in a friendly tone of voice. It is a good sign if it keeps looking you straight in the eye: this means it is a docile dog. If it has plenty of character, it will behave quite boldly as soon as it is in your home. 

If it is frightened, comfort it : it wants your protection, and if it does not have a strong character, it will be an easy dog to control. After its walk, take the new dog back home where its basket, kennel or run should already have been prepared. Now training can start: one of the most enjoyable pastimes bringing man and animal together. The hints given below apply to all breeds of dog. No matter what their function is to be. They apply to young and adult dogs that have never been previously trained and to part-trained or badly trained animals. 

The following exercises can also be sued for older puppies – over 120 days old-that have already gone through the first and second programmes ( see pp. 228-42). They will be at advantage and should progress quickly. A word should be about rewards and restraints. A restraint is an action designed to persuade a dog to do something against its initial intention. There is no form of training-human or canine that does not include restraints. They are like the rule of law. There can be no shared working arrangement nor even simple co-existence, without a law that clearly defines what is good and what is bad. 

Training might be defined as the communication to the dog of this law or rule, enabling it to know what it can and cannot do. It is crucial that restraints are instant and ‘alternated’ and neither too soft nor too sever ‘instant’ means that the restraint is applied at the precise moment when the dog is doing something it should not be doing, ceases as soon as the dog desists and is changed straight away in to a reward, i.e., praise, sterling and a titibit. There is nothing more futile than ‘sulking’ with a dog : and it is absurd to think that t dog can achieve moral assessment of bad and good in a human sense. Make the rule of conduct quite plain to the dog. Show it that the restraint, which is not to its advantage changes swiftly into a reward which is to its advantage as soon as it stops doing what it should not be doing. 

Before long, what is undesirable in your view will become undesirable to the dog as well. Restraints must fit the nature of the undesirable act and so must not be used after it, although in some cases they may precede it. It is, in effect, easier to stop the dog getting used to doing something wrong than to get rid of an entrenched habit. If example, you have good reason to think that your dog has a tendency to jump up on the couch or chase chickens. It is possible to nip this in the bud with an appropriate restraint. Once you have brought the dog ( on its lead) close to the couch or the chickens in question. Set the restraint in motion ( pull on the collar, admonish it verbally, threaten it with a crop depending on the circumstances and the dog) so that the desired association is implanted : going near the couch or the chicken-coup is not a good thing to do. 
This amounts to prevention rather than cure. This example shows that what a mistake it is to regard a restraint as a punishment in the human sense. It would not be considered fair to punish a person for something before he or she had done it i.e., before a sense of guilt could be felt. A dog does not know what guilt or blame is. As far as the aims of training are concerned, there are only associations of favourable ideas made or unmade in the dog’s mind. 

A restraint is effective more quickly if it is applied using the ‘alternated’ method. This consists in establishing a quick alternation of restraint/reward. If the dog in question shows an undesirable aggressive or fighting tendency towards other dogs try this way of getting rid of it. Take your dog, on its lead close to several other dogs and apply the restraint to the relevant degree which will depend on the degree of the dog’s aggression. As soon as the tendency appears to have gone away, go somewhere else and have a good romp with the dog. Return to the place where the other dogs are get close to them and apply the required restraint. When the aggression appears to have faded again, move way and play with your dog once more. The use of this ‘alternated’ method will make it easier to implant in the dog the next association : getting close to other dogs in order to fight with them is not a pleasant thing to do.