Page 42 - ShowSight Presents - The Briard
P. 42
“The breed’s natural touchy/feely tendencies
PROVIDE SOOTHING TACTILE THERAPY TO THOSE IN NEED OF A GOOD DOSE OF AFFECTION.”
citizen in the world. Good Briard raising practices include constant exposure out of the home and away from the famil- iar surroundings to create contact with constantly changing situations and new people. This is a process which needs con- stant reinforcement for the first year or more of a Briard’s life.
Briard social behavior is fraught with potential for wonderfully positive things and equally negative things. Briards are warm kind and fuzzy therapy dogs for the needs of hospitalized and shut in individuals. The breed’s natural touchy/ feely tendencies provide soothing tactile therapy to those in need of a good dose of affection.
However, the flip side can be coupling a dog with a discriminant nature and high prey drive, and exposing that individual to
dog parks or doggy day care. The recipe for a bad reputation is waiting to happen. Add in a dose of an owner or handler not paying attention or exercising clear cut impulse control rules... voilà... dog fight, or dog chase... or bullying... or recipient of bullying reacting extremely emotional... sometimes igniting the prey reaction of the Briard even more.
Here is where the subjects of dog parks and doggy day care enter the picture. A relatively new subject for dog owners, but of realistic concerns to Briard owners in keeping their Briards safe and not add- ing to the statistics of BBB, “Bad Briard Behavior”. Many Briard owners recog- nize that offering their Briard the chance to run wildly in a dog park with others, can often ad a spark to the already elec- tric social dynamic of multiple strange
canines gathering to interact while their owners pay half attention. It becomes a bad habit to introduce and a bad prec- edent to set.
Likewise in doggy day care settings, if rigidly clear management is not applied and half attention paid...BBB, “bad Briard behavior” can rear its ugly head. The more sophisticated and educated of dog people avoid such dog/dog/dog settings to limit exposure to bad behavior learning oppor- tunities and the liability of the blame.
In their best form, the Briard is a remarkably easy and quiet house dog with a keen and developed sense of humor all evident from an early age. They are smart and engaged, busy and involved when appropriate and quietly content to lay in a heap on their loved one’s feet for the rest of their day.
“Briard social behavior is fraught with
POTENTIAL FOR WONDERFULLY POSITIVE THINGS AND EQUALLY NEGATIVE THINGS.”
