Back to "Dogs of my own" Contents Back to Home                                                                                                        WHAT IF MIRACLES WOULD EXIST ? Today Gidan is exactly 2, and although I have a lot of things to do in my house for the moment, this evening I must take a little time to scrawl quickly on a paper, I promise that I will put it on my computer in a few days. When I decided to reserve a pup from this litter, I was already uneasy about the height, because I knew that the mother were rather tall. But I didn't knew at all about the father on this point. In France judges must respect the standard, particularly for the exam for breeding, and height above 50 cm is an eliminating defect. So I said that I preferred a bitch, for the standard doesn't separate males and females height. But I told the breeder that I could accept a male too. And the day before I travelled to a French station to get the pup, I learnt that he was a male, and that his name was Gidan - it was so the G-litter. Gidan was already so high when he arrived at home that I wondered how he could ever be small enough to succeed the exam for breeding ...  He was very high but very narrow too. He continued to grow up quickly, at least 1 cm each week, I measured him every week and I was beginning to lose hope ... But Gidan is of those who have more than one trick up their sleeve. Suddenly the measurements stopped at 45 cm, and this during a few weeks. During this time, his bones were becoming quite bigger, especially the chest was broader. Suddenly again, he began to grow up quickly, about 1 cm every week, till he was 48 - 48,5cm. Then he stopped definitively to grow, although he was only about 9 months old, but then he made all his bones and particularly his chest get more and more big and strong. So Gidan is "small", at least compared with his family. For recently, I found his father's height in an Internet Website - that I already knew, but I didn't notice that some heights were written. So I discovered that his father is not small at all, and I asked myself how miraculously Gidan wasn't too much tall ... Of course, genetics can easily explain that. If in general 2 high dogs will have high offspring, that is only "in general", and an exception is always possible ; nevertheless, such an exception is more on less probable : more the breed is homogeneous, less is such probability, and of course less the breed is homogeneous, more is the probability - and Croatian Sheepdog is not at all a homogeneous breed ... If such a small dog is not a miraculous thing, it's still a miracle for me that this dog was the one sent to me ! What if miracles would exist ? Gidan has another special thing compared with his brothers and sisters : his name, chosen by his breeders.  All his brothers and sisters have a four-letter name, and their names can be classified in two groups : in one, all the names are exactly identical but one letter ; in the other, the two first letters are identical ; the connection between these two groups is made by a name in each group, these two names have exactly the same letters but the order of two of them is changed. Among all of this, Gidan is a word with a completely different structure. I noticed such similar things in other litters (and not only in this breed) : all pups receive similar names but one or two who get a completely different one. Even I did the same in my last litter, when I named two of the newborn pups with similar names, and the third with a completely different one. When we are, like myself, familiar with (human) psychology and psychoanalysis, we can't help reacting. In my last litter, the pups with the similar names show also similar body and similar character, while the other is quite different. That can be easily explained. Freud and the following psychoanalysts give a simple answer : the unconscious of a person know  what there is in the unconscious of another ; so the breeder's  unconscious knows a lot of things about each pup, even when he was just born, and he can give a name that corresponds to each pup - of course this is unconscious. So Gidan has been - unconsciously - considered as different from his brothers and sisters, perhaps because of this height, but probably because of a lot of other things that I can't know - I don't know how are his brothers and sisters. But why has been Gidan the one that his breeder chose for me ? What if miracles would exist ? When Gidan arrived at home he was a real devil. He couldn't stand at all a lot of situations (in particular be left alone) and he was howling and screaming loudly every time that he disagreed with someone or something. He seemed to think that everyone and everything was his own due and that he had rights over everybody : of course that didn't last for long, first my two Kuvaszes put him quickly in his place, and Fango managed to tell him that he was his chief. As a human being, I was not as efficient as my dogs, and it took more time for me to succeed. But I discovered quickly a particular thing in Gidan : if I take him in my arms or on my knees, with cuddles, kisses and gentle words, I can really obtain all that I can want from Gidan - even to be quiet and silent although his first inclination was to be overactive and noisy ... But isn't it said that love can work miracles ? In a psychology point of view, Gidan arrived with some "programs" in his unconscious, "programs" built during his childhood - like every human being. With time and love, training too, I could change these primary "programs", by building new ones. I taught him to control his excitation, by taking him in my arms, but too with some obedience. At the beginning, obedience was not efficient at all because he wasn't able to control his excitation (in particular before going for a walk) ; but love succeed where other things fail : in my arms he could accept to lose his excitation and be quiet, more and more quiet, and when he was still an overactive one, he was able to stay a very long time without moving at all ... on my knees or in my arms ...  Gidan is very fond of cuddles, kisses and so on, for them he would forget everything of his past ! Gidan has become overall a quiet dog,  although some old "programs" can still appear again in some special situations. He proved to be very helpful to any one, to myself of course, but to my other dogs too, especially all pups and my ageing Kuvaszes ; he is too a very good watchful dog and an excellent worker in extermination of rats, mice and so on. He learnt to control himself and so not to be neither overactive nor noisy like he was before. And he even got the inclination to become a little fat while he was always thin when he was young, although he ate very much. He is simply more quiet. He became a pleasant companion. He still really loves running and running and running again through the whole (and large) garden, and he is always ready for anything that could happen. But he is no more a devil. From devil he has become an angel to me. Isn't it right that love can work miracles ? Finally, what if miracles would exist ? 09/04/06 Isabelle Coquinot Back to "Dogs of my own" Contents Back to Home