[PyrNet-L] dominance/aggression

[kemske@wi.mit.edu (Gerry Kemske)]

Our Pyr Travis is a dominant beast but does not have an aggressive bone in
his body.  He adores cats and happily shares his sofa and bed with them
when they come to visit.  He also guards the birds that land on our feeder
and the only time he chases squirrels is when they get too near the birds. 
When friends come to visit with their toddlers, and the toddlers sit on the
floor or lawn, Travis curls himself around them.  If they start to wack him
or pull his hair, he gets up and moves off a little way.  With bigger kids,
he really wants to jump up on them and start a rough game of bump and
chase!  We have a large fenced-in yard and he does the normal bristling,
barking and posturing if something comes down the street, but if I invite
one of the many neighborhood dogs inside the fence he is just fine with
them  (I have to say that most are hesitant to come in, what with our
little boy bucking and huffing like crazy).  We also have many coyotes in
our fairly rural area (about 50 miles northwest of Boston); you can see
them sometimes just lying down in families in the pastures.  The farmer on
the end of our street says that his rescued Rottweiler once went up to the
family and exchanged nosings with two of the adults without taking any
further action..  One last thing - our neighbor up the road in a rental
house that changes hands every six months has a wolf which is often chained
behind his house.  He takes it with him when he leaves every morning.  I
noticed one weekend that he had a visitor with a boxer and that the boxer
was playing happily with the tied wolf in the back yard.  I walk Travis on
the road in front of the wolf twice a day, which agitates the wolf
considerably, but Travis pays very little notice to it.  The wolf howls and
runs in circles (wagging his tail) but Travis just ignores him.  I don't
know what would happen if they met.  Travis is very dominant but has never
bitten anything, even when attacked by another dog, as he has been twice on
our walks.  He looks baffled and turns away and the other dogs slink off
with my foot in their side and a mouth full of white hair.  If the other
dog tries to play with him, though, he turns into a happy Lippizanner. 
Luckily our area is pretty safe, because once shortly after we moved there
we didn't hear the oil man drive up and only noticed when he opened the
basement door and threw Travis in so that he could leave the gate open for
his truck!  Of course, if it had been the UPS man, it might have been a
different story.

Gerry Kemske, Travis' mom