Magick

All the way through his puppyhood, Magick was the sweetest (though mischievious) little critter I myself had ever come across. I knew of their reputation as being nasty towards others if not properly socialised, so I took him to obedience training. We made many friends there, and never did I once see any inclination of disdain for strangers. Obviously it's not instinct, or it would have been displayed here.

When he was 6 months old I walked him around to our local vet for the various booster shots that pups need at this time, and for a general check-up. Our vet knew what a full-grown, nervous rottie is capable of (I did work experience there and heard all the horror stories). Rottwielers are one of the few breeds who become vicious when frightened. Being in a strange place with strange dogs, being locked in a cage all day and being pricked with needles before taking them through for an operation makes them frightened, so they defend themselves. This is the only side of the breed that the vet ever deals with, so naturally they treat the animal with caution right from the beginning.

Nervous dogs pick up on this, and my little one used it to his advantage. He fast learned that if he didn't like being prodded there, simply placing the ears back would make the offender back off. If necessary, a low growl would produce the same effect, only faster, and it would be longer before they touched him again. The result - at 6 months old, approximately the size of a cattle dog and still covered in puppy fluff, he learned that though he'd done nothing wrong, people were frightened of him, and he could use this to his advantage whenever he felt like it. Now he has to be muzzled to be taken to the vets. God help us if he ever has a dental problem.

What really pisses me off about people though is the average reaction of the person in the street when I take him for a walk. I'm not talking him roaming free along the nature strip and peeing on everything, running amuck and picking on other dogs and people, I'm talking of him being on a leash, at my side in the classic 'heel' position. Like I said, he was taken to obedience from a very young age. Yet still people do stupid things.

One day on such a walk we were headed home along the main road, on the bike path. There was a woman talking to a friend over a fence, the woman on the path had a pram and was letting a little terrier run amuck on the nature strip. It saw us coming before the woman did, and came running up to the extent of its leash, stood on its hind legs yipping and snarling. Magick ignored it until it snapped at his heels, when he lowered his nose to it for a sniff. At this point in time, the woman belted him in the face with a rolled up newspaper! What is that supposed to teach a dog, then only 8 months old?!? I grabbed the newspaper off her before the second blow came down, and tossed it into the gutter. We walked on and I gave Magick praise for handling himself so well.

Another time we were on the local sports field. The whole thing is fenced on three sides, a housing allotment makes the barrier for the fourth. I checked the field, then let Magick off to play fetch with a stick he'd found. He has the stand back and chase the stick after it is thrown aspect down pat. He also knows he has to bring it back for me to throw it for him again. But he also thinks the game is more interesting if he then gets me to wrestle the stick off him, sometimes making me chase him around a bit. During one such wrestle, Magick was up on his hind legs, mouth clamped around the stick, growling as I tried to work it out of his mouth. A man from the housing allotment saw this, misinterpreted it as me trying to fend off this obviously savage dog, and came bolting out to offer assistance. Very noble of him I must say. We were both too involved in our game though to notice him running up, and before I knew it he'd grabbed the dog and tossed him aside, stick and all. He then took up position between me and Magick, grabbing another stick, shouting and shaking it at the dog. I started laughing and tried to explain the situation to the poor man. However, at the same time Magick had sized up the situation. In his eyes, a stranger had come and interrupted our game quite rudely, and had now placed themselves between him and his mistress with a weapon held in a threatening gesture. Almost immediately, hackles were raised and he was growling in all seriousness at the opposition. Luckily, I managed to get the stick off the man, and put the dog back on the leash before anything nastier than that happened. I explained to the very embarrassed man that it was my dog, and we were playing, and thanked him for his bravery and concern. He apologised and returned to his house.

While I was living out at Chermside, I did have a few problems with the fencing and keeping the dog in (he used to jump the fence every morning when I left for work and tried to follow me up the street). Every time I put him back in the yard, and I eventually had to get a chain to keep him on while I wasn't home. I didn't want to do this, but until we had the fence altered there really wasn't any other option for him, and I consoled myself with getting a decent sized chain (15m in length), locking one end around a pillar under the house so he had plenty of shade, access to his bed and water bowl, and also room to get out into the backyard and check on the neighbour's dogs (his friends). I'm babbling though, because this happened before I got the chain.

I have this story on good authority from our next door neighbour. One day after I'd left for work, some kids who lived in our street were on their way to catch the bus for school. As they did every morning. As they were walking past our house, Magick began barking at them (as guard dogs do). The kids were early for the bus, so they stopped off and began throwing things at him. They came in to our FRONT YARD to do this, because they couldn't get the missiles over the fence from the road. This was such an incredibly stupid thing to do.

You can probably imagine how the dog was responding. With each missile that struck its target, he became more and more infuriated - barking, growling, running up and down behind the fence... the kids seemed to think the fence was more than high enough and stable though, because they just increased their taunts and the size of the stuff they were throwing. One large block of wood hit him in the side of the head. That must have been the final straw for him, because he then hurled himself over the fence and proceeded to run down each and every kid. All three kids were flat on their faces in the dirt, and their mother called the pound.

By the time the pound got there, Magick was sitting at the top of our front steps, waiting for me to get home and let him back in to the yard. Each of the children were examined, and not one of them had been bitten or had even felt teeth (generally speaking, when rottwielers are discouraged from biting at an early age, they don't use teeth as a means of defense - their herding instincts cause them to 'bump' children over and as long as they remain down the dog usually ignores them... quite a different story than when some fool jumps the fence and intrudes on the dog's property). Each of the children had been knocked off-balance by him bumping the back of their legs with his shoulder and had found themselves lying face-down in the dirt. It was only because he didn't bite that he was not put down on the spot. When I later spoke to the guy at the pound, he said if Magick wasn't a rottwieler, then he'd have been let back into our yard and nothing more than a notice of complaint would have been given.

BUT, because he is a rottwieler, it cost me $200 worth of various charges, he is now listed as a dangerous dog (I had to get him re-registered and pay the difference in fees, get a sign indicating that there is a dangerous dog on our property, have the fence raised, AND pay the pound for holding him overnight). Technically I am also obliged to have him on a muzzle wherever I take him, but because he hasn't bitten anyone, it's not a legal requirement. If he ever commits another offense, he gets put down on the spot. I don't believe he was treated too kindly by the pound when he was collected either, but that's another matter.

The point is, you can't expect ANY dog to get treated in this manner, and not hold a grudge of any kind. I myself have a baby coming in a few months, and am trying desperately to get his phobia of children out of his psyche. I'd hate to have to give him away because of some fool kids ruining him. It's not just people who don't have dogs and aren't familiar with dog behaviour either, because people walking their dogs have belted him for sniffing their pooch - that's a typical dog greeting, for heavens' sake! ALL animals should be treated with respect, whether they're this or that breed, likely to do this or that, they're behaviour is all in the upbringing. People in general should know and respect that - not come tearing up towards a dog cooing and patting it, but don't hit it either!