Found a coyote, I think

[Raspy]

Randy,

I'm thinking it would be a good idea to get our next dog at a very young age. Just a few days old, like Sandy. Then make sure we introduce her to various influential events at the right time. Shooting, might be a good example, as Bei Bei cannot go plinking with me because she is so afraid of loud noises. Other examples might be, riding in the Jeep, being introduced to people, cats and other dogs etc. Plus just developing a bond very early.

In my reading and experience, it seems like dogs that are closer to the wild ones, like Akitas for instance, are less interested in pleasing humans and live more by their own code. They are great dogs, but live more as equals or more independently, or require a stronger leader. This was a trait we saw in Sandy. We all got along perfectly well, but she wasn't interested in doing tricks, and conversely, we learned from her and helped her. Again, as I've tried to convey, we were a family with diverse members.

It might be hard to find someone with pups that would let one go at a few days old though. I'll just have to get them to read about Sandy first. Heee heee heee. With the normal timing of 8-12 weeks to get a puppy, it seems like a lot of valuable time has been lost.

How old were your dogs when you got them?

You've mentioned Weasel before and how he moves away from the things he gets fed up with. Nice trait. I think you mentioned how much he hates to be brushed and has to go be alone a bit, then comes back to tell you he forgives you. Funny.

I really enjoy hearing about them and realizing they have become such good and trusted family members with so much personality.

 

[RandyBell]

John I believe Shadow was 8 weeks old and Weasel was turning 6 weeks old. Like I said the people we got them from had a lot of little kids running around and the pups where used to people very early in life.
I also think that it is important to let the animal pick you, it makes the bonding easier. With both of ours we spent time there with all of the pups and chose the one that was interested with us, when we went to get our second my wife had her heart set on a second female, but that wasn't in the cards they hs 3 females and Weasel, non of the females would have nothing to do with us we could catch them and try to make up with them but they would keep scambling off. Weasel was not the same he kept coming to us and crawling all over us, so we brought him home.
We always name our animals by their personality, which Shadow was allways following my wife around, Weasel he was always sticking his nose into everything, trying to weasel his way in, weather it was just in between us sitting on the couch. They all have their own personality, Sahdow thinks she is royalty she lays out on top of the hill and watchs over the neighborhood. Weasel thinks that anyone coming out is here to see him! They both are good with my wife's cats and even guard the chickens, so I think they consider all of them their pack, but shore was funny to watch weasel guard the baby chicks he would lay down beside their pen and they would peck at his foot, he would pull it away only to slid it right back.

Have a good week John

Randy

 

[Mace Canute]

That's kind of funny, i just thought you were posting a random picture of animals...........

Yeah, well...if I had been a little quicker on the uptake, I would have said that and made like it was what I intended to do!

 

[Raspy]

intended[/I] to do!

You mean it wasn't? :laughing:

 

[dave1949]

A couple of articles on fear stages in dogs:

The Second Fear Stage of Dogs: What you need to know! | Used Cars, Pets, Jobs, & Real Estate | Blog on Recycler.com

Puppy Development Stages | Wonder Puppy

One of our dogs was playing, running across the yard. She ran into the Weber grill which made a lot noise as it fell over (big dog). She was in the second fear stage time period and ever after would shy away from anything that sounded like clanging metal. She even associated metal objects with her fear and would shy away from anything that looked like a piece of metal.

 

[Raspy]

Here's another interesting article about wolf/dog evolution and their relationship with humans.

Dogs may be wolves that never grew up. Dogs are able to digest starch.


While there look at the fun pictures!

Learning to love cereal was key to the evolution of dogs - The Washington Post

 

[cqaigy2]

Here's another interesting article about wolf/dog evolution and their relationship with humans.

Dogs may be wolves that never grew up. Dogs are able to digest starch.


While there look at the fun pictures!

Learning to love cereal was key to the evolution of dogs - The Washington Post

I read something about the 'never grown up' theory some years ago. Thanks for the link.

 

[safe2assume]

I raised a pair of orphan coyotes a few years ago. They were weaned when I got them and I could never get near them but they loved my dogs. After release, "Bridget" visited every day for about a year. The last time I saw her she had two other coyotes with her. I hope she's doing well

 

[safe2assume]

View attachment 299709

I raised a pair of orphan coyotes a few years ago. They were weaned when I got them and I could never get near them but they loved my dogs. After release, "Bridget" visited every day for about a year. The last time I saw her she had two other coyotes with her. I hope she's doing well

 

[dave1949]

If wolves becoming dogs fed off human refuse (poop even), they would have ingested the gut bacteria present in humans. If that bacteria found a happy home or adapted in the canines, that could have helped digest grains. ??? I read that humans have a unique gut bacteria makeup, like fingerprints. There would be many "flavors" of gut bacteria available to the wolf/dogs.

Combined with epigenetics: Epigenetics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia there could be many pathways of adaptation.
In biology, and specifically genetics, epigenetics is the study of heritable changes in gene expression or cellular phenotype, caused by mechanisms other than changes in the underlying DNA sequence – hence the name epi- (Greek: επί- over, above, outer) -genetics.

It refers to functionally relevant modifications to the genome that do not involve a change in the nucleotide sequence. Examples of such modifications are DNA methylation and histone modification, both of which serve to regulate gene expression without altering the underlying DNA sequence. These changes may remain through cell divisions for the remainder of the cell's life and may also last for multiple generations. However, there is no change in the underlying DNA sequence of the organism;[1] instead, non-genetic factors cause the organism's genes to behave (or "express themselves") differently.[2] There are objections to the use of the term epigenetic to describe chemical modification of histone, since it remains unknown whether or not these modifications are heritable.[3]