8:22 PM
| Sunrise at | 7:54 AM | in direction | 94° | East |  |
| Sunset at | 7:27 PM | in direction | 266° | West |  |
In Alaska certain rules apply to property and animals. Any dog that shows signs of aggression on another person's property is liable to be killed. My youngest and mildest doberman, I found out today, was in mortal danger earlier this week. She is the dog that the agility evaluators put with the smallest dogs because, as a big dog, she showed the least interest in either them or their human companions. She is the dog I can walk casually without worrying about her investigating on-comers, pulling on me suddenly. She is the dog that comes each and every time I call.
How did she get into this situation?
We have new neighbors and the man of the family has not been at home for a few weeks. He has been taking his children hunting. There are no fences between our properties and when we are out, we watch the dogs, rarely letting them get anywhere out of our sight. We have lived in our house since April of 2007 and the times anyone of our dogs have left our yard without us is probably less than 10. When they have, we have brought them back to the yard within minutes. There have been no incidents, no angry calls, no worries about their safety.
Nevertheless, they are dobermans and I take great pains to be sure they are good neighbors and don't do anything that reflects badly on the breed. Gary, my husband, is not quite as careful. Cutter, the Sled Dog is more prone to visit and he has been especially drawn to the new neighbors' house. Each time I have been out with him and let him have his lead for a bit, he has invariably headed toward that property. Treat inducements and lots of praise has always brought him back.
So, Gary and I got home one time. JayJay and Cutter were in their pens in the garage and Gary let them both out. I hollered at him to watch the dogs. "Yeah, yeah!" He alway thinks I over react about their safety. So then I checked myself because 1) I knew they were excited to be out and likely to be silly and 2) Cutter would most likely head to the neighbors' house. Sure enough, they were no where in sight. I saw activity toward the neighbors and starting calling like crazy. They came.
I thought no more of it.
Today I went to meet the family that lives there and Albert came out. The well was on my mind and why it comes on so often. We concurred that it was coming on when we weren't using it and it was a mystery as to why that was increasing. We tossed out a few ideas and agreed that the man who'd helped us with the well's diagnosis was honest because he hadn't tried to get us to replace the pump prematurely. As I was leaving, he said casually -
"Is that doberman yours?"
I thought, "Which one?", but said, "Yes."
"She almost got herself killed a few days ago."
I waited for the other shoe to drop.
"She and the other dog came over and I've got four kids here. I told her to get and she growled at me and came closer."
I said, "She's never shown any aggression to anyone." Of course, I am not thinking that she has never growled or barked at anyone. I am thinking she has not attacked or gone after anyone. She is a doberman afterall; if she didn't react when people came to the door it would be just weird. But I had not heard of her defining her territory for defense outside our own yard - but then, where is our own yard here anyway. There is no fence between us. "I always keep them in the back yard or watch them, but they were out with my husband. As soon as I saw they were gone I called them home."
"She did growl at me and those ears came up. I was going to go get my gun because I nearly lost a finger to a dog. But my buddy was here helping me cut up trees. He had his chain saw and started walking toward her with that," he said. "'Come on over, dog' was my buddy's comment. I thought why get the gun when he has the chain saw."
I again told him that she was more show than aggression. We talked briefly about dobermans. He had read or heard that silly notion that doberman brains outgrew their cranial capacity and it hurt their head. I did not tell him that was an urban myth, because the truth about doberman breeding in the U.S. would have more impact. Instead I told him that breeders had been carefully breeding overly "sharp" behavior out of the breed to make them better companions and social animals.
When I got home, I nearly had a nervous breakdown. My sweet, sweet girl had made a complete ass of herself in another person's yard in Alaska. My complacent husband had not listened to me and would he ever hear about that! Maybe now was the time to get that invisible fence in place. Then I worried an invisible fence wouldn't be enough. What if the children came to visit while we were out in our yards with the dogs. We would not let them be out on their own, even with the invisible containment system, but what if - what if?
Then too, I am still not sure why JayJay took the challenge. Recently another doberman owner and breeder told me that dobermans rarely start a fight, but they are more than happy to finish it. So, she definitely thought our neighbor was starting something; then I thought about the additional element of Cutter. When the girls want to spar for entertainment, they run Cutter off. He just isn't up to their standards and they don't want him in the way. They will run back and forth with him, if that is the game, but when it is serious training, he is definitely moved out of the back yard and onto the deck.
It suddenly occurred to me that they may see him as one needing protection. Sweet, happy, and definitely-not-a-fighter Cutter would not be able to defend himself to our girls' way of seeing duty and work. When my neighbor came toward her in a threatening manner would she assume it was directed at her alone or would she think it was a threat to her and to her pack mate, Cutter? She would assume the latter. I think she was in going into full protection mode and it almost got her killed.
My alertness and insistence that the whereabouts of the dogs be known at all times saved her, but that invisible fence is going in this week - or I will find a way to pay for a structural one. I don't want any more incidents with these very close neighbors to my east. In the meantime, the girls do not play frisbee; they do not train for agility; they do not have free run in the front when we get home. They remain within our deck and home and I am trying wire around both gates to be sure they can not open.
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