These first few days at home with Sasha have been a challenge.

First, we have to make a big paradigm adjustment to “dog think”. Wife and I have been neglecting many other things in our lives (including each other), instead spending our time devouring all that we can about dog think, training, behavior, etc.. Who said training is for the dog? It’s for the owner. 🙂

There is no question Sasha loves and submits to us. We go away and come back, she explodes with joy and excitement at the sight of us. We can cuddle her, brush every part of her, manipulate her head and teeth, you name it, and all the kids can do it too. No doubt, girl has said “This is my family. I love them, I will protect them.”

It’s that last part that’s been hard to deal with.

We don’t know if Sasha has baggage. I spoke with the breeder about this a couple of days ago, and their feeling is Sasha is adjusting. New family, which is strongly claims, then everything else around her is new as well. So, family is good, everything else is unfamiliar thus a potential threat. Thus, much barking, almost impossible to have other people in the house. It’s been a challenge. Wife was rather dejected on Sunday evening. Even the discussions with a friend of mine were a bit on the negative side and had me a little concerned and beat down, like did I get myself into a bad situation?

But I’ll say this.

Sasha is improving.

I’ve been working on the basics: sit, stay, down, come; she knows them, but isn’t 100% with them (especially if there’s a distraction like a perceived threat, which could just be someone outside walking down the sidewalk). She’s good at “drop it” and “leave it”. She knows her name.

I’ve been working on her with “quiet”. I’ve been working on her about going to her “room” (crate). I’ve also been working on loose leash walking. I see progress, but also a lot of work ahead.

This morning, I took her out for a walk. The past few days I haven’t done a neighborhood walk, instead we’ve been in the yard working on loose leash walking technique. But later today Sasha will have her first visit to “doggie school“, so I didn’t want to do any training work, just morning poop and a walk to get a little exercise. I expected the walk to be like prior walks: her talking me out for a controlled drag (I will not let the dog control the situation, but certainly past “walks” have been a massive tug-o-war). But to my (welcome) surprise, the walk was not like that! Oh sure, it wasn’t a picture perfect “at my side” walk, but I could tell she was getting it with regards to proper walk. I’d say the leash was loose 70% of the walk. Oh sure she’d get a little behind me to sniff something, but I’d keep walking and merely the pop of the leash tightening when I got far enough away was enough to tell her to get back to me. Or she’d get in front of me, perhaps slight tension on the leash, but never a strong pull that I had to fight. A few cars drove by, she got alert but no problem. We had to stop on the sidewalk as a car was backing out of a driveway, I had her sit, no problems. Someone was in the shadows of their driveway, coming out to get their newspaper, and that did excite her more than anything else on the walk so I did have to give a few explicit pops, but there was no barking or overt “must fend off the threat!” behavior.

Much praise was lavished on Sasha throughout the walk. 🙂

The Kuvasz has their nature, and that’s part of why we chose this breed. I do not want to turn her into something she’s not, I do not want to suppress her nature, only help us live in better harmony. She needs to allow our friends to come over to our house and allow herself to get to know them — they are extended flock. So, we just have to keep working on things.

She’s not a lost cause. She just needs work, but then, don’t we all?

Now that Sasha’s been at the house a few days, there’s been a lot of learning.

I mean, a LOT.

And mostly, it’s us learning, not her. 🙂

It IS exactly like having a child. Well not exactly. Dogs can come with instruction manuals, kids don’t.

I’m wondering what sort of baggage Sasha has. Been talking things over with a friend of mine and I’m coming to the conclusion that something from her previous owner wasn’t right. I don’t know. Did they neglect her? Did they not give her the attention, socialization, and training that a Kuvasz needs (especially as a puppy)? I mean, I know for a fact when she went back to the breeder that her coat was not where it should be, and we need to continue the rebuilding of it. So that’s an indicator of something not right, that the original owner didn’t do (some) things right. But to what extent? just what specifically? No way to know.

Bottom line: girl has baggage.

*sigh*

But she’s not a lost cause. I mean, that our family has been accepted? That’s a good sign. There’s no question from how she behaves that she loves us and adores us and knows we’re her flock to protect. I know that we have “alpha” over her since I can fully manipulate her, we can brush her, I stuck my fingers in her mouth today to remove a rock she picked up (wasn’t going to struggle with “drop” commands, just had to remove it) and I didn’t get bit. I exert alpha when she needs it, and she submits. So I suspect we’ll be able to make this work, but it’s going to take time.

She knows commands like sit, stay, down, come, drop it, leave it, and a few other things. But she isn’t perfect in obeying. Why? I’m not sure. Sometimes I suspect she’s intentionally disobeying because she’s decided working is more important (e.g. she’s guarding the kids and my telling her to “come” would require her to leave her tactically superior position, and she’s decided she can’t do that for whatever reason). Sometimes I think she’s trying to find our boundaries. And sometimes I think she’s just not conditioned to say “how high?” when I say “jump”, each time, every time, all the time. So, I’m starting to work with her on all the basic commands…  let’s go back to remedial work and establish the ground rules. I’m seeing progress, because she’s responding to “come” and “sit” much better this evening than she did before. We’re up to 10 seconds on stay and I betcha I could do more, but baby steps at this point. When I took her outside today, I’d have her got potty then start to work on “loose leash” walking. That’s going to take more work.

Just have to work on it every day. Just have to schedule in time for work and practice every day, at least twice a day.

But apart from all this work and baggage? She’s a sweet girl. Very loving, and has shown a silly, clown side too. I do adore her. I have no regrets (yet?) about this. It’s a lot of work, and it’s likely going to be more work than normal because we’re going to have things to undo and/or reestablish. But you know… the things you do for love. 🙂

Permit me to introduce you to Sasha:

Sasha is an 8 month old Kuvasz puppy. From AKC’s entry:

 

Bold, courageous and fearless, the Kuvasz is an unparalleled livestock guard, able to act at just the right moment without instruction and cover rough terrain for long periods of time. One of the larger working breeds, he is well-muscled and agile. His double coat features a coarse guard hair that protects a soft, fine undercoat. The hair ranges from straight to quite wavy, but must always be white.

[…]

 

Temperament

A spirited dog of keen intelligence, determination, courage and curiosity. Very sensitive to praise and blame. Primarily a one-family dog. Devoted, gentle and patient without being overly demonstrative. Always ready to protect loved ones even to the point of self-sacrifice. Extremely strong instinct to protect children. Polite to accepted strangers, but rather suspicious and very discriminating in making new friends. Unexcelled guard, possessing ability to act on his own initiative at just the right moment without instruction. Bold, courageous and fearless. Untiring ability to work and cover rough terrain for long periods of time. Has good scent and has been used to hunt game.

 

 

And… she’s the latest member of our household. 🙂

She’s 65 lbs and growing. She’s a big dog. She’s just what we wanted.

Background

Wife might be a cat person, but she grew up surrounded by dogs. Me, I had some dogs as a kid but I wouldn’t say I was ever a dog person — without a doubt, I’m a cat person. I have not wanted a dog. Wife has wanted us to get a dog since the day we got married, but I’ve always said no. A few years ago I finally gave in and approved getting a dog, but it had to be a useful dog.

You see, I don’t care for most dogs, or to be honest, most dog owners. I don’t like dogs that aren’t well-behaved, and that’s typically the fault of the dog owner. If I’m going to have a dog, it’s going to be well-behaved. I also don’t like drool, “dog smell” (be it the dog or the house smelling like dog), or a dog that views every random stranger as a friend. Thus, just going to the pound was not an option: any old random dog wasn’t going to work. Plus we had to get a puppy because we have cats and don’t need them to become a snack. Furthermore, the dog has to be substantial, because if you can drop kick it, it’s not a dog. 😉   So I gave Wife my criteria and she set about researching breeds.

Oh, one key criterion? Protection and guarding. People say any dog can provide this, but I’ve experienced far too many dogs that are rather useless in this situation. I want a dog that truly groks the notion of protection and guarding.

Wife spent about the past 3 years researching. It’d be a combination of her researching, finding something, floating the idea by me, I’d critique, then we’d get sidetracked by something in life and couldn’t act on it. But I think that all worked out well because if we acted on some of the breeds we considered in the past, I think we’d be unhappy.

Choosing the Kuvasz

A few weeks ago I was looking at the Crazy K Farm’s website (due to muscovy duck information) and found their link to a website about livestock guardian dogs. That sounded good to me, the sort of dog we’d like. I told Wife about the website and she read up on them (some for the second time). The Kuvasz breed seemed to fit exactly what we wanted, so Wife presented the breed to me and I agreed it sounded just right. So we started contacting breeders — it’s not a common breed, so there are only so many breeders. The first breeders we contacted were going to have litters but it wouldn’t be for 18 months. That didn’t thrill us, but we kept looking around and eventually found a breeder with a unique situation!

A puppy had been adopted by a family, but that puppy wasn’t working out with that family. The family already had an elderly dog and the Kuvasz pup was strong-willed and dominating the elderly one… that wasn’t a workable solution for them, so the Kuvasz puppy was returned to the breeder at about 6 months of age. So the breeder was looking for a good home for the girl. We spoke with the breeder at length about this particular puppy and she seemed to be exactly what we wanted. The breed itself has the temperament and characteristics we want, and this particular girl seemed to have all that we wanted. Plus that she was 8 months old gave a few advantages, like she’s already housetrained, crate trained, and hey… she’s big! She’s already a formidable force. But she’s still very much a puppy.

This, of course, is Sasha.

By the way, we didn’t name her. Sasha is the name given to her by her first owners, but we’re keeping it. She responds to the name, and gosh if it doesn’t just fit her well.

Bringing Sasha Home

So, opportunity presented itself. We did NOT plan on this. I had just come back from California and now had to turn around and drive to Georgia to get a dog.

Yes.

We drove.

2000 mile round trip. 18 hours straight there, 19 hours back (pit stops lasted a little longer on the way home). We drove out, met with her and the breeder for a few hours in the evening. Stayed at a hotel that night, then went back the next morning for another meeting, paperwork, and driving home. So, a lot of driving in a little time.

But it’s been so worth it.

At first, she was in guard mode. She didn’t know us, so she properly kicked in as we expected her too. But after a little time she warmed up to us, but was still wary. While the drive home was long, I think that helped her accept us. She was well-behaved the entire drive back. We would talk to her, pet her through the bars of the crate, and just lavish as much love on her as we could. I am working to establish myself as Alpha, and so far that seems to be setting in. Good thing too, as she’s wicked strong.

We let her trot around the house, on a leash, to explore and get to know her new home. After about an hour we introduced the cats. They aren’t sure what to make of her, other than it’s a big thing with teeth. But they do seem curious of her, just well… understandably on edge. 🙂  Sasha tho, she just wants to play with them. One of the cats got cornered and got very defensive, and Sasha took that as an offer to play. Cat wanted nothing to do with it, but seeing Sasha act as she did I take as a good sign.

As of now? I think she’s accepted us as family. We’ve received kisses. She watches everything we do: when I walked into the kitchen, she kept her eye on me. Movement outside? She was right at the window. I’m sitting on the couch with my MacBook Pro in my lap to type this, and Sasha is resting on the floor at my feet.

I think she likes us. 🙂

She’s receptive to our commands. She has a huge tail wag when she sees “Momma” (Wife). We’re able to hug her, pet her tummy. I also think she’s got a special protection mode going for the kids: when they move about she watches them, and when they come back to her she expects a little hand sniff to say “OK, we’re all fine”. It’s all very good. Even the cats are starting to mellow out in the same room (tho at a safe distance).

I know some people will look at us as crazy for going about things as we did. Picking a particular breed and settling for nothing less than our criteria. Using a breeder (tho this wasn’t like typical breeder purchase… it’s more like a rescue). Driving 2000 miles in 54 hours. But you know what?

You do crazy things when you’re in love. 🙂

Yes… I admit. I’m in love. Maybe I wasn’t a dog person, but Sasha… she’s changed me.

Now, we need to go to PetSmart. Got a few supplies to pick up.