after the library talk, i came home and we all went down the street to jj’s favorite ice cream store, amorino. it is a chain of stores that shapes the ice cream in the cone to look like a flower. we had brought maynard and on our way home we encountered a lady whose dog began inspecting him. the conversation was in french.
she asked, “is it a dog?”
i was confused so i answered “it is a labrador”.
she asked again, “but is it a dog?”
at this point, my mind was scrambling. i didn’t understand the simplicity of her question. i didn’t know what to say. it wouldn’t be polite to say “no, it’s a rabbit. what do you think? of course, it’s a dog.”
but jj, who hit the inflection point at that moment when her french was better than mine said: “no, it’s a dog”. this seemed to satisfy the lady who said “oh, in that case we should go, because mine is a dog.”
as jj began explaining it, i realized what had happened.
since the french language has gender built into it, the question correctly translated would’ve been: “is it a female dog?” “c’est une chienne?”. jj figured this out and answered correctly: “no, it’s a male dog.” “no, c’est un chien.” i was very proud of her.
the lady pulled her male dog away because she was afraid they would fight. but maynard is a fixed dog and not prone to fight. i have been told that the french view neutering dogs as barbaric and inhumane, so their dogs are not fixed. perhaps this would explain why they are always pulling their dogs away from maynard, for fear of doggy conflict.
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Since I have a neutered male lab (Henry), I can talk a little about this problem of fighting, although I am not an authority.
ReplyDeleteI was told around the age of 2, many male dogs challenge each other. They try to figure out where they fit into the hierarchy. Henry, at age 2, challenged a number of dogs. Usually these were younger male dogs. Since I was vigilant about these challenges, they never escalated into any full-blown fights.
Now that he is 3, Henry doesn't challenge many dogs. But every once in awhile, he gets a little snarly. (He is normally very docile.)
Apparently, neutered dogs and "intact" male dogs often challenge each other, regardless of their age. I don't know which type of dog is the aggressor. I just know it's best to keep them separated, or to keep a close eye on them if they mingle.
If a dog starts to adopt the male "posture" or gets a "mohawk" on his back, then it's time to pull the dog away. That's surely a sign that a fight is in the air.