The steady beat of traffic flows past Alan’s apartment 24 hours a day. He lives in the heart of Park Slope, a yuppie neighborhood on the west side of New York’s Prospect Park. Alan’s household consists of a giant Borzoi named Perry, two retired racing Greyhounds named Tigre and Figa — both rescued by Alan from an early and unnecessary demise — and two young Azawakhs, Guellal and Therkit, one imported from France and the other from Virginia.
Alan does computer work at home, assignments that require enormous technical knowledge. He is a writer as well and has published excellent pieces about his beloved sighthounds. But Alan can’t seem to “get enough dog,” as it were. He lends his patient expertise to Park Slope dog people who leave their young charges in Alan’s Puppy Day Care program and go happily off to work, knowing that Spot and Tippy will be well care for, watered, fed and exercised in an environment of protective assurance by a man of unusual canine insight.
When I asked Alan for a pithy remark to summarize his experience, Alan smiled broadly, quietly subdued the overeager Perry, a pony of a dog ready to climb into my lap, and chuckled, saying, “Know your dogs! Just be sure you know your dogs!”
Alan’s success with his multidog household (which sometimes creeps up to nine or 10 dogs overflowing the three-room apartment and pouring out into the yard on busy Puppy Day Care mornings) can be attributed to the time and energy he has devoted to each furry newcomer to discover and develop the individual personality of the dog.
Rising at the crack of dawn, when the sun is just beginning to lift its sleepy head over the hills and meadows of Prospect Park, Alan is way ahead of morning. He makes many trips each day to the park and through the neighborhood walking his dogs. Sometimes it looks as if Alan is holding the strings of a thousand canine puppets, as their many legs bounce along beside him on the street. He takes them individually or in small groups, two by two and three by three, but he never excuses himself from providing the daily exercise they need.
This is a matter of serious dedication because not only do dog walks cut into Alan’s computer time, but they demand vigilance in a neighborhood where unattended street dogs may sometimes wish to sniff and snarl, fight and flee. Knowing his dogs, Alan is able to anticipate their behavior in different circumstances. He can readily defuse a situation that for another might prove unmanageable and even tragic.
As daily traffic flows in every direction, Alan negotiates the busy streets of Park Slope with his pack in tow. They are gentlemanly and ladylike canines, good citizens in the busy thoroughfare. He has taken the time to understand perfectly their individual personalities, the way they act alone or in concert with each other. Trained to behave properly in all situations, their presence is never a burden or embarrassment.
Alan realizes the significance of regular discipline. He knows how to exercise pack leadership without harshness or overcontrol. His dogs are happy and adventuresome, but even the youngest is well-mannered. Alan’s advice to those of us who choose to live in multidog households is “Know your dogs!” When dog addiction reaches a peak and we are habit-bound to add yet another pooch to the pie of life, Alan’s formula for success is the most important thing to remember.
To accomplish this intelligently and successfully, it is wise not to add more than one dog at a time. Thus, it is possible to introduce the newest member of the pack without causing undue alarm, jealousy or aggressiveness in the older member(s). At the same time, the newcomer can be studied, observed and taught the requirements of its new home. Patience is the key word in this period of pack life!
Dogs are naturally pack-oriented and if the leadership is competent and strong, they will acquiesce readily to the presence of newcomers. But all this must never be left to fate. It must be done harmoniously with the normal routines of life. Proper supervision and caution are very important during the adjustment cycle. Gradually, if assured that your affection is not diminished by the presence of a new pack member and your authority is not to be challenged, the older dog(s) will accept the new and soon the bond of canine friendship is extended and deepened.
It is very important, if the newcomer is a puppy, that every care be taken lest it be intimidated and overwhelmed by the older dog(s). As in a human family, among canines care must be taken to respect the feelings of everyone in the group — and let us be earnest in doing so, acknowledging that dogs do have real feelings. They give ample evidence of joy and sadness, elation and depression, exuberance and shame. They know the pang of jealousy and the horror of rejection. Good dog owners provide what is needed in respect for canine emotional security and bad dog owners simply do not deserve these wonderful furry companions at all!
Dogophiles acquire “extra” canines in many ways. From a one-dog family to a three-dog family is not such a distant leap, but five-dog families such as Alan’s are not altogether an anomaly and four-dog households seem to occur with unusual frequency in Brooklyn. Even a two-dog household, however, requires understanding the fundamentals of dogdom. “Know your dog” is sound advice. Upon it depends every aspect of successful dog management and without it, a multidog household will certainly be a disaster on paws!
Take the time to understand how dogs learn. Get a handle on canine psychology. Read, ask questions, observe. Don’t expect your dog to reason the same way you do. Don’t look for human logic in the dog’s mind. Recognize the role of proper teaching, training and the enforcement of correct canine behavior. Learn to use rewards rather than punishment. Strive for high motivation in everything you do with your dog. Think ahead and prevent problems from occurring by anticipating your dog’s response to everyday events.
The way to acquire this urgent information is to read the literature about canine behavior and to read your dog as well. Look carefully at your animals and other animals of similar disposition. Observe wolf behavior if you can, study pack attitudes. Try to put yourself in the primitive mind of the beast, the mind that is instinctively driven toward prey, defense, food and sex. Try to understand the territoriality of the dog, the sense of power in four-legged pursuit, the intensity of the bite instinct, the willfulness of the strong-minded canine.
Keep ahead of your dog because just as surely as he lives and breathes, he soon will figure out what you are all about! Many a dog has a far better reading of its owner than the owner will ever have of the dog, and herein lies the tragedy. A wealth of books and videos about dogs and their behavior exist. Topics such as selection, breeding, nutrition, training and discipline as well as many other aspects of animal husbandry should be explored by those who wish to enjoy a long and happy relationship with dogs.
If you love dogs enough to own one (and all the more, if you choose to own more than one), remember that you have taken on a responsibility that lasts the entire lifetime of your dog(s). The knowledge you acquire is well worth the effort it takes. It will not only help solve future problems, but will actually prevent them.
If you have a good dog, a dog with character — whether from well-known bloodlines of a pure breed or the helter-skelter genetic pool that makes up the mutts of the universe — your dog deserves the best life you can give, the greatest quality of care you can offer. In exchange, your dog gives you undying loyalty and unconditional love, a quality of companionship immeasurable in excellence, greater at times than anything comparable you will ever know from human friends, for the dog is singularly nature’s most incorruptible being.
Take the time, therefore, to realize what you are dealing with before you increase the size of your canine household. Indeed, if there is no limit to your love, let there be no limit to your willingness to learn. Those who live with animals, canines in particular, have the unprecedented opportunity to communicate intimately with beings of unsurpassed simplicity, total sincerity, absolute courage, deep loyalty and abiding love. God’s most precious gift is a good dog. There is a spiritual dimension in the human-canine relationship that is completely healing, ennobling, comforting, soothing, strengthening — an all-encompassing totality characterized by the most profound and long-lasting goodness. It is a thing of beauty and a joy forever!
Knowledge of canine behavior, particularly how a dog learns, is the best preparation we can bring to increasing our dog family. In exchange for that knowledge, the dogs in our pack will hold us high on the ladder of their esteem, producing a compliance born of respect greater than which there is nothing. “Know your dog” — and, let me add, love him as your dearest friend.
Meanwhile, on seven acres in upstate New York which she has single-handedly developed, building there with her own hands a lovely home and several small outbuildings for whelping and other aspects of dog care, Nancy Bekaert thrives with her canine children.
Nancy’s multidog household embraces a show-line German Shepherd named Viking, a dog whose frame and bearing give evidence of the patrimony of showmanship. Viking is “younger brother” to the nondescript master of the household, the giant-hearted being in furry disguise, a dog whose character is a canine cluster of many human greats — a veritable Inspector Clouseau, a cowboy Roy Rogers and a wise old Zen master. This is Aloysius, lovingly dubbed “Wishy” or “Wishbone” by his friends.
Most recently, Nancy acquired a handsome blockhead of a dog, a show-line Airedale whose richness of color and coat can make a lady cry. Baron of Loxley is his name; Lord Loxley, otherwise known as Robin Hood. These three canine children fill Nancy’s days without interrupting her steady flow of creativity and regular trips to the city for her work in a doctor’s office.
Nancy’s involvement with dogs goes back many years. Probably she has never been without a dog, and has always known, with that secret magic knowledge that makes the rest of us marvel. Exactly how to discipline justly with a firmness that brings a dog to perfect obedience and respectability without impinging at all on his character and natural buoyancy.
I have tracked with Nancy’s dogs, my own three German Shepherds and I roaming the fields and woodlands of Prospect Park and the far reaches of the Rockaway Peninsula down by the shore. Together we have wandered along the Coney Island beach on a moonless summer night. Nancy’s dogs from puppyhood learn to climb every precipice and balance on every fragile foothold. They are dauntless and brave, encouraged to achieve great agility and speed by her constant support and approval. She challenges them to grow and the result is dogs that can go anywhere and everywhere.
Nancy’s dogs can find anything you hide, no matter where you put it. They know her vocal signals, her hand calls and the gigantic size of her determination to win when their inclinations do not match hers. Yet, in all the days and evenings we have shared, through long delightful weekends in the countryside together, Nancy and her dogs are unrivaled for complete cohesive camaraderie. They are an obedient pack and Nancy is the undisputed alpha. They are spirited and lively, but they know who is boss and the best of it is the happiness that radiates in their eyes and their regal bearing.
How does she do it? You wonder. Let me share a secret never told. Nancy’s control is fairness and consistency. In a very short time, Nancy’s dogs understand perfectly what is expected of them. They know the rules. Her advice, therefore, to new dog owners and old is always the same: “Don’t change the rules,” Nancy says. “Be consistent.” Dogs soon learn that boundaries exist and if they cross those boundaries, human intervention is imperative.
Nancy handles her dogs with enthusiasm and exuberance, but when they fail to obey after being shown what to do and how to do it, she corrects them vigorously and with timely decisiveness. They know she means what she ways and says what she means.
She understands that what she corrects for today must not on a whim be permissible tomorrow. Confusion in the mind of the dog is the result of human error, the error of inconsistency. It is one of the chief violations that humans commit, rendering the dog completely confused and bewildered.
In a multidog household, inconsistency is simply intolerable and quickly lead to chaos. Very early in life Nancy’s dogs come to understand that the alpha is always alpha, and the alpha in their pack is none other than Nancy. Because her position as pack leader is clearly defined by rules that do not change and enforcement that is at once strong and compassionate, decisisve and clear, Nancy’s dogs enjoy incredible freedom and give absolute obedience.
By studying canine behavior over the years and experimenting with various training techniques, by observing and participating on the Schutzhund field and doing American Kennel Club obedience, agility and tracking, by raising and training guide dogs, Nancy has had a lengthy apprenticeship in the canine kingdom. She has sorted out the phony from the fine. She has separated the chaff from the wheat and has baked to perfection a consistent and competent training program which demonstrates time and again that dogs can be developed individually and in the pack to successfully carry out a host of different activities without sacrificing spirit or drive and without losing a beat of obedience.
Sloppy handling and inconsistency, changing the rules midstream, failing to enforce the program — these are flaws that militate against successful dog management, let alone the management of the pack. After witnessing so many broken-hearted trainers and embarrassed handlers, overburdened owners and skeptical friends, people whose dogs just can’t get with the program, Nancy has decided to share her knowledge by putting together a training book which will help two-legged beings understand what four-legged ones experience.
The hear of Nancy’s success in managing her multidog household is the ability to read her dogs, to know them and understand them and to predict successfully what they will do in every situation. Two-legged individuals need to see events through the eyes of their four-legged companions. To do so makes pack leadership possible. Yes, the market is glutted with training books, but I will guarantee when Nancy Bekaert’s book hits the field you will be hard pressed to find something equal or better. The key phrase will be: “Don’t change the rules.”
Whether prospective puppy owner or veteran with a pack, each must decide the proper boundaries of canine conduct that shall be acceptable for his or her furry companions. The rules must be understood by the human brain first before they can be delivered properly to the canine. Rules need to be clear and fair. They must not drift about like leaves on the wind. Rules must be firm and strong. When this is the case, members of the multidog household will achieve harmony and happiness. But the dogs don’t make the rules; we do. The responsibility to be consistent is ours. Don’t change the rules.
If you visit Prospect Park in the earliest hour of the day, you will find Amalia coming through the fields at the far end near Grand Army Plaza. Running briskly at her feet are three frisky balls of fur, aged and venerable, dogs of mixed breeds whom she has rescued and kept for many years after their former owners threw them away.
Once you take a dog, make it yours forever. Cultivate a serious conscience concerning animal ownership, a conscience that is faithful to humankind’s most loving and loyal friend. Never give up on your dog. There are not enough Amalia’s in this world, unfortunately, to gather into a family the many dog, mixed-breeds and pedigreed, set adrift in the world, cast out and abandoned by those who should have known better. If there is a sin against animals that cried to heaven for vengeance, it must surely be abuse and abandonment. Thank God for Amalia, whose heart is large enough to embrace a world of abandoned dogs.
Standing beside Amalia’s terrier mutts in stately splendor is Bigelow, a reddish-brown Doberman with the sweetest personality you’d ever hope to see. Warm brown eyes read your soul as she stand on the hillside, smiling at the sun. Amalia’s family frolics in the autumn leaves, sometimes getting lost in the crunchy red-gold piles along the walls. The dogs emerge like bouncing bubbles of fur when she calls.
With regularity and calm, Amalia takes her little flock up Union Street, across the busy corner where five avenues intersect at Grand Army Plaza. They hasten into the cold morning. When they reach the center of the meadow, Amalia loosens their leads and sets them free to romp in the gathering sunlight. Each dog is like a child to her, a chosen parcel of reality to whom she pledges undying love and care.
When Chrissie, a golden terrier-mix, joined Amalia’s pack last year, she thought herself a veritable German Shepherd. Many a day as I progressed to their cherished spot under the trees, Chrissie would race out to greet Grip, my own German Shepherd male. His 90 pounds never terrorized Chrissie’s five-pound frame, for she has the hear of a giant.
Another member of Amalia’s pack was Emily, a white and blond poodle-terrier-mix, a bundle of curly fur and a face of delicious canine sweetness. But Emily had guts, too. She could “fire and ice” when she wanted. Last year, after long months of veterinary assistance to soften and forestall the end, Emily surrendered her soul back to the Maker of All, dying of old age in the arms of Amalia. The tenderness of that passing was not unlike the last hour of any devoted mother with her lost child.
For Amalia, these dogs are her children. She knows them and loves them with a mother’s heart. Nothing is too much trouble. She ministers to their needs with exquisite wisdom and great gentleness, providing everything necessary for their comfort and security. In better days, Emily would wander far from the pack and dawdle in the bushes, unwilling to surrender a squirrel she was stealthily stalking. Amalia’s voice would rise in operatic power and fill the little woodland near the great meadow.
“Emmie,” she would call into the trees. Soon the ancient Emily would lumber along — taking her time, but nevertheless answering the alpha’s call, for she, too, understood Amalia as leader.
The great lesson of Amalia’s canine family is dedication and fidelity in animal care. I have often grieved to see how certain people in competitive dog sport can so quickly abandon a dog that was once a promising puppy but failed to make the competitive grade. Worse yet is the fate of those dogs prodded to greatness on the sport field by inhumane training practices more geared to advancing human ego than developing canine skills.
Dogs are beings with tremendous spirit. They do not know greed and violence for the sake of ego. They cannot betray what they would risk their lives to save. But humans often can be a different, sorry lot! What shattered expectations of the godlike master must crush the heart of a dog thrown away to make room for others. Blessed is the family that can stretch itself to welcome a new member without abandoning the old.
The management of a multicanine household must be anchored in patience, wisdom, kindness and fairness. It is a blend of many virtues and a touchstone of self-discipline and self-control. The multidog household is a place for quick-witted decision-making in the midst of sometimes harrowing and exasperating incidents without which — after all — life would be so boring. But the single most important ingredient is genuine love. Dogs individually are often a challenge to those who say they “own” them, but who, in reality, are probably best described as being owned by their dogs! The challenge, however, never lacks its due reward.
Love is the guiding light that authentic animal husbandry requires to produce an environment of peace and harmony with nature. There is great joy in the family of dogs and great is the good fortune of those who share their lives with canine companions, one or many. Taken in a pack, dog personalities frequently blossom into bubbling pools of enormous energy, powerful drives and undaunting swiftness of intent and action. So, if you want more than one dog in your life, be prepared to multiply the vim and vigor that one canine provides. You will surely enjoy it, but challenges will never be wanting.
There is no doubt that dog people are a remarkable breed. The individual who tries to manage a multidog family needs to grasp the essentials of canine care with even greater comprehension than the single-dog householder. Such a person must be a boundless reservoir of love and energy with a quality for endurance and perseverance and the willingness to sacrifice much in order to sustain a healthy environment of animal companionship. Many a day will dawn cold and dark or hot and sultry, when even the most loving dog owner will dread walking the pack.
How I tremble with anticipation at meeting my three hungry, well-rested canines at the end of the day when I return from work in the deep fatigue of evening. They are ready for another round in the park or at the beach, eager to romp and play in the great outdoors, anticipating their evening run while I am nearly exhausted and long only for supper and bedtime. Yet, despite the weather or weariness we may feel, our dogs are entitled to exercise and fresh air, abundant enough to serve their real needs, and often we must set aside our own feelings on the matter to provide their just due. A quick run around the block is simply not enough, mind you, and it is grossly unfair to deprive our animals of time for play and folic in the open air.
Morning and evening, duty calls. Let nothing be so clear as our obligation to respect the boundaries of nature imposed on our animals, their need for adequate opportunity to relieve themselves and more than that, to run and play freely outside. This is the first step only. When this has been given, there are other obligations that are equally essential to the quality of care our canine friends deserve.
The successful management of a multidog household costs time, energy and money. Food and toys must be adequate and consistent with high standards. I prefer feeding my dogs twice a day. Before meals, I vigorously exercise them and then provide time to rest sufficiently before feeding. I never feed before play.
Veterinary expenses are often frightening, especially in tough economic times, but dogs and children cannot take care of their own medical needs; we must provide for them. It is wise to learn how to administer certain shots and remedies ourselves. Perhaps a local breeder will assist, as my good friend Elli Matlin from Highland Hills German Shepherds has always assisted me.
Elli is a very successful manager of a multidog household with a regular family of three or four canines living at home. As an art teacher besides, and the devoted care-giver of an aged parent, Elli finds time to implement a serious breeding and training program. She also guides many questioning souls who are just embarking on the ways of dogdom and whether your dog is from Highland Hills Kennel or not, Elli is just as faithful in supplying answers to many of life’s most demanding dog queries. Her devotion to German Shepherds in general and her own dogs in particular is precisely what we are talking about — knowledge, commitment, and consistency — the willingness to sacrifice for the canine family we love.
Dogs thrive on training exercises that develop the mind and stimulate the senses. They love to search and find objects carefully hidden, using skills that require development of their natural tracking instinct. Dogs love to roughhouse. They enjoy vigorous play with gusto and a touch of craziness, eager to show just enough aggression to feel themselves truly animals at heart, primitive and free, but able to sustain enough self-control not to injure themselves or others.
Schutzhund is a great sport for dog enthusiasts. With its aspects of tracking, obedience and protection, it challenges and satisfies. AKC obedience, agility and tracking are also activities your dog family will certainly enjoy. The creativity with which we think up new enterprises for our dogs my be a sign of our genuine concern for their well-being and our appreciation for all they bring into our lives.
When the day comes that an old dog must leave the pack forever, I think it is very important to provide support and help to the surviving canines who will surely miss the ancient one. Our love must go to the very end with our dog-children. Just as we need to encourage and help our dogs adjust to the new puppy (or new baby), so, too, in the evening of life, we must see them through the difficulties of old age and companion losses.
If you look upon your dogs as just dogs and nothing more, perhaps that is all they will ever be. But if you look upon your dogs as real members of your family, genuine children and buddies, furry friends and soul mates, what you shall have is far beyond your expectation. As you communicate with them, so will they open their canine hearts to you and in that marvel of nature, you will find a language altogether beautiful and inspiring.
One dog is enough, perhaps, for some of us, but there are others among us whose cups run over with love and enthusiasm. Some of us cannot resist a second, third or even a fourth or fifth dog. Each one must be loved as generously and totally as the first. Each one is an individual committed to our care, a generous gift of God in the wonderful scheme of the universe. In all the exigencies of life, let nothing deter us from practicing a wise and competent stewardship of the animal in our care, for they, too, have their destiny — a destiny of grandeur, no matter how humble and seemingly insignificant, a destiny somehow intimately related to our own.