At Monique's

September 21, 2003 - Today we went to see Monique de Roeck with all four dogs to evaluate Attila and Spikey's fighting problem. At first Spikey, Belukha and Chilaili went out onto the field to explore it a bit. In the meantime Monique attached a long line to the fence for Attila, giving him a lot of moving space, but keeping control over him at the same time. The other three dogs also got long lines attached to their collars, so that we could grab them in case of conflict.

Then Attila also went onto the field and was attached to the long line. It was very funny to see how he still regocnized Monique and jumped up at her with great enthusiasm. Monique seemingly let the four dogs just be and observed them (Paul, her husband, video-taped the whole session). Spikey came near Attila, but clearly accepted Attila's authority by lowering his tail and turning away his head. He also kept at least two meters between himself and Attila.

Attila at his turn watched Spikey closely at the beginning, but other than that was not extremely interested and certainly not agressive. Later on, Monique manipulated different situations, such as caressing Spikey while Attila was nearby. That did impress Attila much either; he had spotted the horses on the field next to his one and was barking forcefully to a non-reacting staring horse.

Conlusion: of course this training situation was not totally representative, as the dogs are not on their own territory, but Monique thinks that Spikey accepts Attila as the leader of the pack. The fights of a few weeks back must have been heavily influenced by Belukha's upcoming period. Now it is important to emphasize the hierarchy even more than we already did. One option Monique strongly recommende to us is to have Spikey castrated, by that lowering his position even more, so that Attila won't see him as a male (and thus as a threat for 'owning' the females) anymore. If we take those advices Monique thinks the chances are pretty good they can live together or at least work in a team together...

But, this would mean we cannot have a litter out of Spikey and Belukha, which was an idea we would like to realise in the future. On the other hand: a quiet, balanced pack is worth a lot! But castration isn't just something. It changes the hormone levels dramatically and must therefore do something with the dogs brain. We heard from other mushers that castrated dogs not only became more quiet, but were also less motivated to run. But then again; a little less action for our hyperactive Spikey probably will do no harm. ;-)

So, we will think about this castration and start working on implementing the other tips. What remains is the problem that our dogs simply don't have that much space for themselves, so walking away from a conflict is less easy.... How we should solve that one?!