Off and on and intercepted

Tags

canine body language, dog play, pit bulls

Bowpi can be a pretty flexible pile of puppydawg when in rest…

… and in action.

The pit bull’s owner was very conscientious about how rough her dog was playing with Bowpi, due to her size. “Is this okay? Can your dog play like this?” she kept asking. I forget sometimes that many people see Basenjis as “small” dogs, because they don’t display the kind of frailty one associates with toys and minis.

Bowpi does get overwhelmed by larger dogs pretty quickly, particularly during chase. She’s good at outrunning them in short bursts, but can’t quite match their stamina when they keep pursuing and eventually catch up and knock her over. This pit bull was just charging in on her terms though, persisting in roughhouse instead of actual chase. Yet, it seemed she was holding back and playing rather loosely, as far as I could tell from watching bullies play before. And to my surprise, Bowpi was actually reciprocating.

Like I told the pit bull’s owner, Bowpi can handle her own until she doesn’t want to anymore, and then she’ll make it clear when she’s had enough.

On that day, I realized that when Bowpi gets overwhelmed, one of her strategies (as a reader once suggested) really is to deliberately lead the overly exuberant pursuer into Bowdu. I used to think his refereeing was obtrusive, that he was being the killjoy to her chase games.

Well, I think Bowpi has figured out Bowdu’s habits, just as he’s learned to relax a bit when she wants to play chase. And they have learned to cover for each other, developing something that might be called effective teamwork.

When Bowpi started to have enough, I could see her breaking away, but this prompted the pit bull to start chasing instead. When she caught up, she’d try to roughhouse again, throwing all her weight into a galloping headbutt. Bowpi wasn’t having that anymore, so she led her straight towards Bowdu, who jumped right in to intercept the pit bull. After a few moments of all sorts of communicative microsignals that I couldn’t fully observe from my angle, Bowpi was able to slink away without being tailed again.

It was some good playing, and a good finale.

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Roll of 28, Day 6: Unleashed attachment

Tags

pit bulls, roll of 28

Dog-friendly neighbors and adoptable Ashley

Tags

animal rescue, pit bulls

When you have cool, dog-friendly neighbors, you should never take them for granted. We haven’t always been so lucky.

The neighbors on one side predate us by a couple decades. The single mother is all right, but one of her teenaged kids has just recently taken to teasing Bowdu during his late afternoon backyard basketball sessions. A sharp word from mom, directed to her son, seems to have halted any escalation of problems. Hopefully this is all I’ll need mention about the neighbors on that side of the fence.

The neighbors on the other side are really good dog people. Like, foster parents good. They’ve housed several pit bulls over the years, the irresistible ones they’ve inevitably fallen for as volunteer walkers at the local animal shelter. Over the July Fourth weekend, we met their latest foster, Ashley.

She has perfectly folded rose ears and strangely evocative eyes.

She watches her surroundings very intently…

… but very calmly, and with great restraint, considering the amount of food that’s being passed around!

Maybe she knew it was a vegetarian feast.

Kind of a bummer when you’re a dog at a barbeque. Well, she’s supposed to be on a diet, anyway…

Good thing the occasionally squirrel runs along the back fence to remind her of the promise of meat!

Okay, so she does have a bit of a prey drive — not uncommon, but always something to be aware of. She also seemed a bit leery of RJ, whose height and lankiness elicited some uncertain barking. However, when he sat down, she approached with no trace of aggression. She also refocused towards her foster parents quite easily.

Definitely a people-oriented pittie, with just the kind of settled, mellow temperament that I appreciate in mature adult dogs.

Ashley is currently adoptable through Home at Last Rescue.

California Bay Area residents should check out her adoption listing here, including a very thoughtful video.

Sightings: Headin’ for the Holes

Tags

basenji, collies, heelers, huskies, pit bulls, pointers

It’s a popular preoccupation at the dog park.

Sightings: Awkward puppyblobs…

Tags

bernese mountain dog, dog play, great pyrenees, kawaii, pit bulls, puppies, terrier mixes

Non-dog life is crushing me lately, and will continue its abuse through next month. I’ve not had much time to finish any significant blog drafts (a bunch of unfinished entries are accumulating in the queue). However, the Bows still need their daily outings, and I nearly always have a camera on hand, so I have plenty of images to get us through the upcoming weeks…

Besides, don’t you know that baby animal pictures heighten attention and narrow focus, and therefore boost productivity??

It’s true because Japanese scientists from Hiroshima University said so!

The young’ns definitely pique Bowdu’s interest. He’s surprisingly good with awkward, wriggly, and stumbly puppies, especially when they’re five months or younger. He’ll gruff in their face if they try to lick his muzzle or wrestle, but he lets them get away with it, and sometimes he’ll even return to engage them.

Giant breed puppies confuse him, though. By nature, Bowdu recognizes this Pyrenees is still learning the ways of the world, but his dignity must contend with the fact that a four-month-old puppy is already so much larger than him.

Bowpi would just rather they get coordinated enough to play chase instead of chew.

The Dog parks we don’t go to anymore

Tags

aggression, bay area, belgian tervuren, canine body language, dog bites, dog parks, dog play, food aggression, pit bulls, san francisco bay area, shiba inu, socialization, stupid pet owners

I’m addicted to dog parks.

Does one admit “addiction” to anything other than ill habits? I’ve often felt defensive about this dangerous love if only because discussions about dog parks tend to focus on their negatives — you could get yourselves killed at these places, for God’s sake! The way I see it, every dog park is beholden to specific contexts, moments, and patrons, because they are, by definition, spaces carved out of some kind of community. Rejection of dog parks is not so much a pronouncement of their inherent evilness, but more a rejection of the types of sociality that accompany them — which is fine, as neither human nor dog can be expected to socialize in the same ways. But unlike some more extreme critics of dog parks, I’m less likely to blame the park itself than the people who designed it and established patterns of antisocial use in the first place.

Now, what I call a “dog park” includes many different arrangements. For me, it’s any public space that permits the presence of dogs, ideally off leash. Some are fenced, some are designed with dogs specifically in mind and thus equipped, some are multi-functional areas that just happen to allow dogs, perhaps in designated or segregated spaces. At any rate, we have many to choose from here in the San Francisco Bay Area:

Dog parks in the East Bay (from DogGoes.com)

How do you choose, when not all options are created equal? Experiences will vary according to you, your dog, the time of day, the way the air smells at the moment… point is, I don’t know that I can generalize. I just have stories and experiences and a handful of lessons learned through repetition and observation.

Stories behind a jump for length and pictures of bruises and punctures and pain.

Companion tags

Tags

attica, attica riot dog, graffiti, pit bulls, street culture

Graffiti art from two Bay Area taggers:

Stylings on the left by GATS, on the right by Attica.

According to Bay Area graffiti culture blog Endless Canvas, Attica’s various dog-centric tags pay tribute to the spirit of the Greek riot dog. Attica’s feature tag seems to be a pit bull, and favors bully breeds in general.

Sightings: Seems to be puppy season…

Tags

akita, american akita, great danes, pit bulls, shiba inu

Bowdu met a 15-week-old American Akita. The pit bull puppy was a little less confident, but cute too.

While Bowdu was okay with that even-tempered Akita, he surely would have snarled at this super wriggly guy. Luckily, this pup chose to sidle up to his own red and white kind.

And then there was this little beetle, who could barely stay still for a second…

… let alone remain upright. Silly thing. It was like she was deliberately throwing herself around to compensate for how gentle the Dane was being. Bowpi seemed as amused as I was.

Film: Dog Heaven (Our Gang / Little Rascals)

Tags

american pit bull terrier, american staffordshire terrier, dog movies, harry lucenay, little rascals, our gang, pete the pup, pit bulls, training

Film: Dog Heaven (a Little Rascals short)
Director: Anthony Mack
Performers: Pete the Pup, Hal Roach’s Rascals
Breed(s) featured: American Staffordshire Terrier, Great Dane, various mixes
Production information: Hal Roach Studios, 1927 (USA)
Availability: Viewable and downloadable at Archive.org

Ah, woe unto the poor misunderstood pit bull — back then, as in now. However, the nature of Pete the Pup’s “family troubles” is decidedly different from the breed-specific legislation of today. Poor Pete is accused of being lazy drunkard (!) and a bully who terrorizes the neighborhood and goes so far as to push a child off a bridge. When even his own “fat kid” owner refuses to come to his defense, Pete makes the desperate choice to end his own miserable life…

Don’t worry — despite the dark humor of the opening images, everything turns out okay.

Pete the pit bull is one of the most famous of the Little Rascals, whose legacy has endured thanks to a combination of his peculiar markings (the product of Hollywood makeup artistry), charismatic canine acting, and contemporary breed politics. He was a fixture of the Rascals gang. Frankly, this is a great relief for someone like me, who normally cannot stand child actors. Pete’s presence greatly redeems the quality of these funnies that otherwise try too hard for my taste.

In my new favorite!blog! of the moment, Modern Mechanix, which features amazing archival scans of vintage magazines, I learned how early special effects contributed to the magic of Pete’s acting skills. As relayed by Pete’s trainer, Harry Lucenay:

… Pete frequently is called upon to register astonishment by putting his paw behind his ear while sitting up on his hind legs. Due to a dog’s physical make-up, this is virtually an impossibility. How is it accomplished? Simply by having the trainer place the dog’s paw behind the ear before starting the cameras and then shooting the scene in reverse action. A shot then is made of him sitting up in a natural position. In the cutting room the two shots are matched so the action appears to be simultaneous.

“Secrets of Famous Dog Trainers,” Popular Mechanics June 1936, p. 882

He goes on to impart other pearls of dog training wisdom: “The early stages of training should be masked as play, says [Lucenay]. Thus, knowledge is instilled without making it a hardship” (ibid., 884). It’s an interesting article that suggests what we now think of as “positive” training, without getting bogged down in jargon or debates. But it would take a lot more close reading to unpack just what’s going on here, since even the ideas of play and obedience, so critical to Lucenay’s training philosophy, are categories in flux — as evidenced by the comedic and satirical edge that early films like Our Gang shorts often display.

Anyway, if you want to watch a cute pit bull doing cute tricks with a cast of ingratiating and slightly creepy children, check out this or any number of the Little Rascals films. It sure must have been fun while it lasted.

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The House of Two Bows keeps a running index of movies blurbed on the site, annotated by breed. If you’re interested in writing a guest blog for a dog film, contact for details.

SIGHTING: Muscledogs at play (pit bulls and mastiffs)

Tags

big dogs, canine body language, canine play, mastiff mixes, pit bull mixes, pit bulls

In a conversation with another Basenji owner at the dog park, she asked, “How’s the pit bull population here?” As in, the park. It was her first visit.

Without hesitating, I answered, “High.”

6 October 2011

And I added, “But the vast majority of pit bull owners that come here know what they’re doing. They’re here to socialize their dogs, and we haven’t really had any problems with them. We run into several every time we’re here.”

24 November 2011

These big dogs that we met on Thanksgiving are a case in point. I started watching them because all three were extremely vocal, mouthy dogs. They were growling and pummeling each other as soon as they met. But even though they sounded vicious, it was clear that they were just playing. It helped that all three were pretty well matched, and as a bonus, their people were right there watching them the whole time.

Raider, the black and white pit on the left, was in the middle of it all and having loads of tongue-flapping fun. Every now and then, Max the Mastiff would be pulled aside when his people sensed he was getting overstimulated. He lives with the brindle Chester, and while the two play very well with each other, they supposedly have a tendency to gang up on other dogs, especially when the play gets rough.

Bowdu wanted to cut in and referee at points, but the big dogs paid him no mind. In the below shot, Max is in time out, but Raider and Chester just knocked into him, causing him to twist against his collar and make Bowdu jump backwards. It looks awkward, but everything was under control.

See? Back to playplayplay.

I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to handle dogs this large and energetic, but it’s definitely nice to admire them from afar.

And up close, too!