And Toto Makes 4

This was my chance to test the truth of this breed’s usefulness.  

 

 

      It’s been two years since I last made an entry into this blog. A lot have happened since. Of course, my knowledge on the canine culture and their way of thinking has increased some more during that time. I learned how to train our 4-legged household members to conform to our ways of living in this house. I also learned how to teach them a few tricks.

      But with my star Dalmatian Spotty growing too old now for agility — I had no other Dalmatian to follow in his footsteps. My other Dalmatian, Toby, had too many emotional issues to qualify for competition. So my mind shifted to our native mutts. Can I handle a native dog, I wondered.

      The native dog first caught my attention when I visited the widow of my mentor, the late dog behaviorist Fred Alimusa (yes, he’s been training the dogs over at the Rainbow Bridge for over a year now). I once visited his farm a few weeks after he was taken by brain cancer. Fred used his farm as a location for his training segment in the weekly show, Dog TV. The house sat at the top of a slope and there were three cottages there – the main house on the top level, the dining area on the middle level, and a one-bedroom guest cottage on the lower level. The Alimusa property was a wonderful and windy place with a fabulous view of forests, hills, and the metropolis in the distance.

      I knew Fred had left behind a handsome Rottweiller and a handful of Beagles housed in a row of kennels. But when I descended the stone steps to go to the dining cottage down the slope, I was greeted by a pack of native mutts who emerged from their dens and barked defensively, threatening to chase me. Huh? Fred has native dogs here? A yard boy shushed them away and the dogs retreated.

      Later, when I returned to the main house, I asked Rina, Fred’s widow, why there were natives down the property. “Fred said they make good perimeter dogs,” she informed me.

      Oh. So that’s what the native mutt is useful for. Weeks later, a friend offered me one of his native mutts for rehoming. I accepted readily. This was my chance to test the truth of this breed’s usefulness. Plus — to see if I can train one too.

      That’s how Toto came into our household, assigned as Dog No. 4. Small-boned, light of feet and wavy haired, he had the coloring of a German Shepherd. But that’s as far as the similarity went.

      On his first night with us, recalling Alimusa’s teaching that the native was a “perimeter dog,” I assigned Toto outdoors. I lured our newcomer with a biscuit to go out the door before we turned in for the night. Toto followed the bait and settled into a corner before our front door. “Guard duty,” was what I told him to do.

      Our maid, Lourdes, however, reported an observation. During the night, she heard Toto’s occasional bark coming from the front yard, then later in the backyard. All that – while our purebreds were indoors, slumbering peacefully in their cushioned beds and pillows. In contrast, our native mutt was awake all night doing guard duty.

Toto poses shyly beside our Christmas tree last year where he was assigned the "a" of  "...and a Happy New Year" greeting set I composed in an e-card.

      A few days later, when the rains came, Toto resisted to spend the night outside, preferring to stay indoors. Unfortunately, he was not welcome in any of the bedrooms because our purebreds had a claim to them. So he settled in the front part of the house. I put out the light and left him in the dark to sleep with no company.

      During the night, however, I heard Toto pacing. We have wooden floors and I could hear his soft padding around the house. He was patrolling! He was doing something none of our indulgent purebreds never did! I heard his footsteps linger outside my door (I leave the door ajar so Spot can go out when he wants to), felt him peer in, then heard him turn around and move on. All this he’d do in the shadowy darkness of the house.

      So this is the behavior of a “perimeter dog.” This is our “Bantay” (guard) – the classic native dog found in local children’s stories. He is, indeed, our local guard dog, born to do patrol duty.