Subliminal dominance - shy Wolfdogs

[Tonje]

Hello everyone,

I am new to this list, and ought to give a presentation of myself. Since I
tend to go on a bit (to other people's and my own desperation..), I have put
that in parenthesis' below so at the minimum that part can be skipped!

I am extremely curious about Parker Adam's "sublime dominance" concept and
would like to join in the number of people asking "what is that?" and "How can
one use it actively in the training of low neotony dogs?" (I think I mean low
neotony, not high..). Parker Adams' description of how efficient eg. the
recall is with this method, makes it even more enticing (who wouldn't want a
close to 100 % proof recall?). The "sublime"-part, does that refer to some
kind of implicit dominance/leadership? And if so, in which manner? For
instance, I regard the process of clicker training as one method for
indirectly establishing leadership, another "leadership establishing" maneuver
is taking responsibility for certain situations, eg. not allowing the dog to
check out visitors before you have greeted them and then only when you say it
is OK etc., but that is surely not what is meant here?

(I am Norwegian, don't have a CSV and will probably never have one either, as
I suspect that a CSV would simply be too much for me. At the moment I have a
5,5 year old mix of 75% GSD/25% tervueren and a 3,5 year old basenji, both are
bitches. Previously I have had flat coated and labrador retrievers and done
obedience and rescue dog training.

Due to the basenji, I am extremely interested in the CSV. When we got our
basenji, little did we know that this breed isn't really domesticated, nor
what that actually implied. Little Amy has given us shock after shock, and we
have several times been downright lucky. (You should see what they do to
horses, moose, snow scooters etc.) The basenji is a very old breed (at least
4000 years old). They have never been actively bred by humans, all breeding
has been through natural selection. Since they came to the west, in the 1940s,
they have only been bred for showing and not temperament. Therefore a number
of basic instincts have been retained.

There seems to be a number of similiarities between the CSV and the basenji -
destructivity, hunting, escape experts (basenjis are eminent diggers, jumpers
and "creative" climbers), not outgoing, extremely selfwilled and independent.
In addition to the appearance (one looks like a wolf and the other looks like
something sweet from a Disney movie), there is one gigantic difference though.
The basenji is an extremely nervous dog that tends to respond agressively when
it is frightened. This, happily, does not seem to be the case with the CSV as
far as I can see. Believe me, you do not want fear based "I'll get you before
you get me" as a major trait in your CSVs!

Training a basenji is highly challenging, as is living with it. I have never
found a basenji mailing list that adresses behavioural or training aspects to
any extent. It is a small dog with an appealing appearance, which I suppose
influences what kind of people gets them. Generally they don't seem interested
in such things.

I have spent some happy hours catching up on this mailing list, and see how
many interesting themes you discuss (leaving me with about 100 000 questions,
but they will have to wait). It is thanks to Per Olav that I have found this
list. In case you don't already know - Per Olav is an extremely nice person!
He is also very responsible. A question about CSV came up in a norwegian
discussion group, there were many oohs and aahs, what a beautiful dog, my next
dog shall be a CSV, I know a lot about dogs, how difficult can it be and so
forth. Per Olav took the trouble to answer questions, to direct to relevant
web cites and to warn against any form of romantism concerning the CSV (no GSD
this!). Since then I have stalked and pestered poor Per Olav, so in the not
too distant future I hope to see "the puppy", Cziky, in real life. I really
wonder what Per Olav will call Cziky when Cziky gets older - "the pooch", "the
little doggie"?)

Regards Tonje