Back to Home Back to "Dogs of my own" Contents
			R E A R I N G   P U P S
		Generally, the adult males like pups, it's not always the same with bitches, it can happen that some bitches refuse pups and even try to bite them (I want to say when they aren't their mother, of course). Nonetheless, some dogs are really inclined to rear pups and become deeply involved in pups nurture. In this point of view, I would especially mention all my Kuvaszes and a couple of Croatian Sheepdogs of mine. When Kirandàly, my Kuvasz male, came home, Lénidiège, my first Kuvasz bitch, seemed to be rather bothered than glad, and she was very harsh with him, she seemed to only refuse him but she was taking care of him " out of the corner of her eye" ; she quickly began to produce fights with him, vying permanently with him, more and more, till he was strong enough to win fights ... And she really didn't like to lose ... I thought envy was the driving force behind this behaviour, but with the passage of time I wondered whether another thing could have intervene. (1) Kirandàly first played the nanny with the Mudi pups, the male Kristàlyos then the bitch Csenengye, who were always near him ; when they got older, of course Kirandàly became more severe with the Mudis, who learned quickly to respect the highest chief. Then I got a litter from my Mudis (2). First Lénidiège was moved by hearing and even seeing through the window the young pups, but the Kuvaszes were living outside and they didn't get contact with the pups till I put them in the garden. When the pups were just a few days old, I put Kristàlyos inside their pen, but he didn't stay, young pups didn't interest him. When the pups were about 1 1/2 months, I put them in the yard with their father, so they were alone with Kristàlyos (and me), and this time the Mudi male proved to be very interested, he made them run after him. Of course their mother was taking care of them too. Once I saw her playing with a pup, both were taking a little rope, pulling backward : Csenengye let the pup drag her as if he was stronger than her (of course it wasn't so), then she gave up the rope to make him win ! The pups were 2 - 2 1/2 months old when I put them in the garden with the Kuvaszes (and me, but without their parents) ; they were first very afraid of Kirandàly, but it didn't last long, they quickly began to play with him ; as for Lénidiège, she growled each time they searched to come to her, and they let her be. But Lénidiège was watching them too, once I was scolding a pup, she came immediately to make him obey ! Of course Kirandàly growled too to teach the pups limits and respect, but he also played with them. But Kirandàly had to teach them another thing : several times, he rushed in the amount of quiet pups, while growling harshly, with open and threatening mouth, just to make them be afraid : at the beginning, the pups ran away while crying, he followed them till they stop to cry ; he did this several times, till the pups weren't afraid anymore, I was sure that the aim was to make them strong, able to face danger without getting into a panic, and also to stay silent - because in nature, if a cub makes sounds, a predator can locate him and catch him ; according to my Kuvaszes, pups must learn to face danger, and silently, without fearing, without crying, without running away : that's normal when you know that the Kuvasz breed has been used to guard and protect cattle but also estates for so many centuries ! A grown-up Kuvasz is able to brave wolves and even bears and it seems that the adult dogs require the (normally Kuvasz) pups to be so ... Specialists in dog behaviour say that the owners must provoke young dogs to break away from them (a kind of emotional weaning) ; I didn't know it when I got my Mudi litter, but I understood it when my Kuvaszes taught it to me. When the pups were about 3 1/2 months, the two Kuvaszes jointly prevented them to approach me, this during several days, till the pups gave up to sleep on my knees and stay close to me. Later of course they let them come to me again, but only after the pups had succeeded the "emotional weaning". After this and only after this Lénidiège accepted to let the pups go to her, play with her, and she began to teach them more and more. It seemed that as a bitch, so as a potential mother, she didn't want the pups to get attached to her - as another mother - till they were old enough to be emotionally weaned. In the same time, Kristàlyos and even Csenengye began to reject more or less the pups in some situations. Lénidiège and Kirandàly taught a lot of things to the Mudi pups ; once I saw them arrange a real hunting lesson ; one of the pups was very inclined to fight with a sibling, as soon as he began Lénidiège inevitably was there quickly to make the fight stop, the first times she had to use her teeth against the instigator, then her coming was enough to disperse the pups immediately. Lénidiège died, though she was only 6 ; a few months later, my second Kuvasz bitch, Csele, came to us. Kirandàly first was very harsh with her, while he never was so with Mudi and then Croatian Sheepdogs pups ; but it must be said that the very young Csele had already a strong character, and she really needed to be put in her place ; she didn't dare neither nibble Kirandàly nor pull his hair, as she did with my other dogs, but she was jumping to his face while biting "the air" ... Later she tried to put her front leg on Kirandàly's back ... But of course they became quickly good friends. Then my second Newfoundland bitch came home, Soléane was then already 4 months old. Kirandàly never liked her, and he was rather frightening her than welcoming her ! Then he let her be, standing her near him but they never became friends. Csele began to show an aggressive behaviour with Soléane, but in fact it was all an act. Soléane was shy, fearing a lot of things (during a walk in town, suddenly I heard a cry from her and she was lying on her back, terrified because a dog was barking behind a fence ...), and Csele began to taught her to be stronger and stronger. Soléane was really terrified when she was near a Kuvasz, once I saw the both Kuvaszes driving her back against a wall while threatening her, she was really fearing them, but she wanted also to win her place in the dog group ; so with a lot of time, she succeeded to overcome her fear - and maybe she understood that all that was only an act, that the Kuvaszes didn't really want to do her harm, but that they just wanted - required - her to be stronger and no more afraid ... And one day, while Soléane was more and more confident, and when she had succeeded to win her place in the group, Csele decided that the test had lasted enough, and she invited Soléane to play ; the young Newfoundland first hesitated, then she tried to play and realized that the test was really over, then the two bitches became two friends (while Kirandàly just let Soléane be). Unfortunately, Soléane didn't live long and we lost her a few months later. A few weeks before Soléane left us, my first Croatian Sheepdog male, Fango, came home. Kirandàly welcomed him friendly, while Csele was always threatening him, except when Kirandàly prevented her. The Kuvaszes were living outside, Fango was staying in the house, I opened the veranda door so he could come in and out but the Kuvasezs couldn't do the same. Fango waited several days, watching, communicating with the Kuvaszes through the windows and the open door ; then, while I was working in the yard far from the veranda door, I heard some noise : Fango was just out and Csele was threatening him loudly, while Kirandàly, like me, was pretending not to see anything ; Fango had waited several days till he knew he was ready to face Csele, he had watched and probably understood that it was just a test, so he didn't move back but faced Csele without any fear, he even defended himself when she tried to intimidate him more and more with her teeth, and quickly Csele stopped the test and invited him to play : neither Csele nor Kirandàly had never tried to threaten Fango any more, Fango had succeeded the test to be accepted in the dog group ! It must be said that Fango has always shown an especially composed temper - composed but terribly efficient temper - and if he took time to watch and understand, he acted when he knew he was ready, and  - as usually - his action was the right one at the right time, and at the first attempt and in a very short time the aim was achieved. I wasn't at all the same with Snasha, my imported Croatian Sheepdog bitch, who came home a few weeks later. Her character was quite different. Snasha was a go-ahead type, but without watching around, scatterbrained, she took no notice of previous experience, each time she didn't mind of Csele's presence but she moved back as soon as Csele began to threaten her, and she seemed not to understand anything, there was no improvement - till the accident happened. Snasha was here for about 2 weeks when an accident with - from - Csele happened, Snasha's skin had been torn ; when she came back from the vet, she was screaming out with dread each time she could see a white body through the window. At the beginning, she didn't even want to go out to do her business, and it took a long time before she could stay in the garden with Csele without reacting with fear any more ; nonetheless, something remained in Snasha's mind, and when, later, the Kuvaszes stayed inside the house after a heatwave, Snasha wasn't quiet because of Csele and began to stay outside permanently - I think that the fact to be inside a close and little space would have prevent her to run away. Gidan, my second imported Croatian Sheepdog male, was really a case ! He even obliged Csele to change her method ! When Gidan came home, he was a real devil. He seemed to have never learned that it could have limits to his will, and he was howling loudly as soon as his will was thwarted ! He was too a go-ahead type, but unlike Snasha, he didn't fear at all the threatening Kuvaszes (nor anything else !), he was just screaming out as if he was expecting that the Kuvaszes would simply make his own will ! Csele's fuss didn't make an impression on the little Gidan, so Kirandàly decided to intervene ; Kirandàly used all the ferocity a Kuvasz is able to get to "play the bear", growling fiercely and threatening with wide open mouth, and at last the small Gidan understood that his will could meet limits ... It can't be said that Gidan really feared neither Csele nor Kirandàly, but he admitted quickly that THEY were the chiefs and that THEY decided ... My 2 Kuvaszes really worked miracles with Gidan and turned the little devil into a sweet angel. They taught him to respect limits and hierarchy, but too they made him become more and more quiet ; when he was just arrived at home, I had noticed that he was sleeping very few, little by little he began to sleep more and more, then normally ; Gidan was go-ahead, acting on impulse without really thinking before, he didn't fear anything, persuaded that all bodies and things would adapt to him. The Kuvaszes first put him in his place, an inferior place. They taught him self-control, they taught him to think before acting - first to think to know how he had to act to adapt himself to the Kuvaszes and their laws, without expecting that the others would adapt to him. I regard Gidan as an especially clever dog, but what would have happened to his mind if the Kuvaszes wouldn't have helped me to put him in the right track ? Gidan is really especially clever, but he had first to learn to think before acting, to control his impulses, to accept limits to his will and to his impulses, etc, and my Kuvaszes really worked wonders to reveal all the qualities of the "queer fish" he was first ! Gidan, so, learned self-control, and when I got my first Croatian Sheepdog litter, I trusted him to take care of the pups. In fact, Gidan loves pups. He helps me very much too : he informs me when the delivering is going to happen, and too between the births, when a pup is just coming out ; he loves pups and even newborn ones, he licks them as the mother does, and makes them do their business - as the mother does too : I'm convinced that if the mother would die, Gidan could really take her place except for the milk, but he's really as a mother with the pups, even the newborn ones. Gidan shows a lot of kindness with the young pups, with perfect self-control, and of course when they are growing up, he teaches them a lot of things, according to their age and their abilities. But my other Croatian Sheepdogs males and my bitch Drezbor do the same too, the mother (Snasha for the first litters, Bocquefeuille for the following ones) also takes care and teaches the pups, of course. Snasha didn't accept any dog with her pups, Bocquefeuille did and does, because she had been herself raised by this males. When I got my first Croatian Sheepdog litter, Csele began to see less and less normally, it took time to her to adapt herself to this new situation, and she didn't really take care of the pups any more ; Kirandàly was ageing very much and didn't move easily ; if I put pups on his body,  he was "smiling", but then no one but me was allowed to approach ... Gidan too was a "protector" : Snasha refused any dog near her pups, so she was outside while Gidan was very close to the pups, he really attracted the pups ; Snasha wanted to come in, I opened the door and she entered, but Gidan came between her and the 3 A-pups (who were then about 1 month old), growling, threatening her, she tried to retort, but Gidan increased the threatening and she gave up, she ran away to her pen, none of the pups followed her, they all stay with the male, the stronger one, the chief ... (of course I took them to give them back to their poor mother inside the pen !) Later, Gidan accepted the grown-up A-brothers to take care of the pups (of the following litters) at the same time that he did, but he had himself raised this males ; and maybe the fact that Snasha refused him near the pups could explain his behaviour ; Bocquefeuille accepts him close to the pups, and he let the pups near her too. All the grown-up dogs like taking care and then teaching all the pups, Arslan and Gidan are especially attracted by pups. I can entrust the pups to their care, and Bocquefeuille does the same : once she asked to come back inside the house while all her pups were in the garden with the males and the bitch Drezbor, she seemed to want to rest a little while her pups were secure in safekeeping of the grown-up dogs. (1)  See "Bear or Teddy bear" (2)  See "My Mudi litter"
				25&26/04/11 Isabelle Coquinot
			Back to Home Back to "Dogs of my own" Contents