SOCIALIZATION OR HABITUATION?

[Fenris]

https://www.facebook.com/dennis.mckeon.33/posts/10152389318606829

SOCIALIZATION OR HABITUATION?

Dennis McKeon

It seems that more and more people who are unfamiliar with purpose-bred
dogs, who are raised within large colonies, are being confused by the
reams of disinformation published on the internet, particularly as it
concerns NGA Racing Greyhounds.

Today, most greyhounds who are bred to race on the track, are raised as
part of a large breeding colony. These colonies of greyhounds are
usually referred to as having been raised on a ?farm?. There can be
anywhere from 50 to 500 greyhounds housed at such a facility.

Unlike most other breeds, greyhounds are kept with their dams for
extended periods of time, sometimes until the puppies are nearly young
saplings. These dams teach the puppies about pack etiquette, they
demonstrate ?hunting? techniques, and serve as the ?playground monitors?
for their developing, energetic, and rowdy, would-be racers. At some
point, the litter of youngsters is introduced to other litters of
similar age and development, usually around the time that serious race-
training is to begin.

One of the many remarkable things with which adopters and other
greyhound enthusiasts are always impressed, is the greyhound?s capacity
for getting along with other dogs, even with those to whom they are
complete strangers. This is because correct pack behaviors and
socialization skills are learned and reinforced at every stage of the
greyhound?s life?from the farm, to the advanced training facility, to
the kennel at the racetrack. As a result of their colonial, pack-centric
upbringing and racing environments, there is probably no breed of canine
which has better or more highly evolved, canine coping and social
skills, or who is more habituated to a punctual, predictable routine,
than the NGA Racing Greyhound. When greyhounds experience difficulties
with other dogs, it is often because those other dogs are simply not as
well schooled in pack social skills.

Because they are valuable, meticulously and expensively bred
individuals, racing greyhounds are handled by their human caretakers at
very early stages, where grooming, leash-training, and chase-play are
all begun. This is done to prepare the greyhound for his/her racing
career, where their proper deportment and manageability are crucial to
the individual greyhound?s success as a racer.

There, at the kennels and at the racetrack itself, they will encounter
dozens of people each and every day, from the racetrack leadouts, to the
various state and track judges, to the local and track veterinarians, to
their personal trainers and assistants (and often their families), as
well as assorted visitors to the kennel, all as part of their training,
racing and career development. Greyhounds, during the course of their
racing careers, may perform at a variety of racing venues, as they seek
their competitive level and a racetrack that flatters their individual
talents and aptitudes. In so doing, they will encounter and become
familiar with dozens of other people.

It is a symptom of our culture, where we often aspire to ascribe human
emotions, reactions and perceptions to animals, that many people have
been led to believe that a performing, purpose-bred canine, such as a
Racing Greyhound, cannot possibly be happy or fulfilled, as a member of
a pack or a colony of other, performing, purpose-bred canines.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Greyhounds, like most canines,
have amazingly accurate, biological time-clocks. Like most canines,
greyhounds demand routine and regimentation. They thrive on it. They are
nothing, after all, if not highly sociable creatures of habit. There are
few environments or situations which demand more consistency,
punctuality, adherence to a routine, repetition and regimentation, than
those of a professional performing athlete?be they human or canine--and
perhaps just as few which rely upon large colonies of dogs learning to
live together in close contact, seamlessly and peacefully interacting
with one another.

So, whether you choose to believe it or not, in order to fully
appreciate and understand your Greyhound?s behavior and formative
experiences, you should be aware that the vast majority of Racing
Greyhounds are perfectly content and happy to be given the opportunity
to express the very behaviors which are written on their DNA, and which
define them as a breed, as members of a large racing colony. It may be
hard for you to believe that the peacefully snoozing muppet, who
currently decorates your sofa, was once a rip-snortin?, highly
competitive and unthinkably bold racer?one who was thrilled beyond your
wildest imaginings, just to partake in the chase with the rest of the
pack--win lose or draw.

Even the young greyhound who fails as a racer, is, when compared to the
rest of the canine population, a remarkably well-adapted and gifted
athlete. The difference between a world-class, racing greyhound and a
greyhound who cannot credibly compete, even at the lowest performance
levels, is just about .75 seconds, give or take a few ticks of the
stopwatch, over the duration of a 550 yard race.

When greyhounds are retired from racing, they are asked to make a
universe-spanning leap of change, from the familiar activities,
surroundings and routines of their kennel and the racetrack, to the
completely foreign and often intimidating environs of the home or
apartment, leaving behind their kennel mates and human familiars, some
of whom they have known their entire lives. They are no longer required
to expend vast resources of energy training, racing and re-charging, and
in most cases, they suddenly find themselves absent an outlet for their
primal and ingrained need to express themselves--in what for them, is a
most natural and healthy behavior, but which can now ?build-up? within
them.

Your racing greyhound was not bred to be a coursing greyhound, nor was
he bred to be a show greyhound, and believe it or not, he was not bred
with any consideration in mind, for what we deem as traditional,
desirable pet attributes. He is the result of nearly a century of
focused and meticulous selective breeding, to produce a greyhound who
will excel at chasing a prey effigy around a dirt-surfaced oval track.
His forbears were the competitors and the winners of coursing
competition?s coveted Waterloo Cup, and those splendid individuals who
were capable of producing a greyhound which was athletically well-
endowed enough to make the difficult transition from the coursing park
to the racetrack.

There are all sorts of strains of greyhound families and bloodlines,
which tend toward all types of temperament and manner of disposition.

Some are extremely ?keen? and focused, almost to the exclusion of
anything other than seeking the chance to pursue game, whatever they
might perceive it to be, often to the point of seeming to be aloof or
stand-offish, not readily given to seeking or even caring for your
approval. These sorts can often be described as having an almost a cat-
like persona.

Some are hot blooded and mercurially skittish, highly reactive to
anything and everything within their 270 degree field of vision, feeling
as if they may be either predator or prey in any given situation, or in
any split second. They can be reflexively fearful of anyone or anything
with whom or with which they are not thoroughly familiar.

Others can be quite gregarious and outgoing, or simply confident and
curious, often unfazed by novel experiences and environments.

Still others can be edgy, willful and aggressive, particularly when they
view themselves as being challenged by another dog, or in any situation
where they perceive the chance or the need to compete.

Many are combinations of all of these things, to a greater or lesser
degree, dependent upon circumstances and situations, and their ancestry.

Most of these temperamental tendencies and dispositional traits that
greyhounds manifest are heritable. The fundamental maxim that is true of
all breeds, and which is chapter 1, verse 1 in the Bible of the
greyhound breeder, reads as follows:

?Like tends to produce like??with the operative word being ?tends?.

Exceptionally bold and aggressive greyhounds, tend to produce
exceptionally bold and aggressive greyhounds.

Unusually durable and relentless greyhounds, tend to produce unusually
durable and relentless greyhounds.

Timid, skittish and/or painfully shy greyhounds tend to produce timid,
skittish and/or painfully shy greyhounds.

Exceptionally fast, agile and tenacious racing greyhound performers,
however, can be the offspring of any of these ?personality? types, or
any combination of them.

The modern racing greyhound is the amalgamation of a vast palette of
greyhound temperament and disposition, disproportionately influenced by
a dazzling array of hugely influential, prepotent ancestors, who ran the
gamut of ?personality? types, but who were all racers of almost
supernatural talent and ability. From the sometimes skittish and/or hard
to manage descendants of Unruly, to the often hell-bent-for-leather
descendants of Downing, to the occasionally quirky and inscrutable
descendents of Dutch Bahama--the genetics of both greatness and
fallibility are there, in a dizzying, diverse variety of context and
combination, and they are indelible.

Equally as indelible, to your greyhound, are the daily, structured and
busy goings-on of the racing kennel. Things are usually done promptly
and with near universal punctuality throughout his racing world. A
greyhound who begins his career in West Virginia will find very little
difference in the day-to-day kenneling and training activities, should
he be sent to race in another state, at some point later on in his
career. He will, in all likelihood, have very little trouble acclimating
to his new surroundings. Regardless of where he races, things like
cleaning the kennels and crates, turnouts, feeding, exercising,
schooling, grooming and massage all have to be done on a daily basis, in
addition to handling the greyhounds before and afterwards on race days.
Most trainers follow a basic activities template or ?system?, which is
inescapable, if they wish to accomplish everything that needs to be done
within a 24-hour period.

So, when embarking upon the final chapter in their careers, as a newly
adopted retiree, the racing greyhound has a lot to sort out in his
mind--the first of these evaluations, being his perceptions of new owner
and/or family. Greyhounds are not necessarily inclined to accept strange
humans unconditionally. As a general rule, you have to earn their trust
and devotion. A greyhound who has left behind everything and everyone
that was known and familiar to him, and who has been suddenly thrust
into a situation fraught with novelty at every turn, right down to the
food he will consume, can find his innate, intuitive powers and his
heightened perceptive apparatus, in a state of utter and complete
sensory overload.

This is not a matter of socialization, as the popular narrative would
lead one to believe. It is simply a matter of habituation--of adjustment
to a brave, new world of objects, situations, experiences and
challenges. It is is, in no small way, up to you, as to with how much
difficulty or ease the greyhound learns to cope with all these many
existential novelties, and with this complete life-change, well beyond
his formative stage.

The best way to approach the task, is always from the vantage point of
knowledge and understanding. That means, in all likelihood, letting go
of certain prejudices and most of the preposterous notions that are
shamelessly promoted by those whose sole ?interest? in greyhounds is to
recast them as wretched, pathetic, objects of pity, with themselves as
his ?saviors?. It is a never- ending fable of woe, precisely and
deliberately contrived to entice you to send them your hard-earned
money?which will then be spent on anything other than actual greyhound
welfare.

It is a modern tragedy that this unique, phenomenally popular,
athletically gifted, and supremely functional breed has been the subject
of so much misinformation and often, willful, targeted, counter-
intuitive mythology.

The truth of the matter is often much less convoluted and complex than
the ?garden path? the public-at-large has been led down, as it applies
to the vast and overwhelming majority of racing greyhounds.

And it begins with the simple acceptance of what one, solitary visit to
a greyhound ?farm? or racing kennel will reveal to all but the most
imperceptive and canine-averse of individuals.

A racing greyhound, who has been bred, raised and trained to do just
that, within a colony or pack of his peers, can be completely happy,
well-adjusted and fulfilled, expressing himself to the demands of his
genetics and heritage, within a regulated and structured environment,
where the humans involved rely upon his optimal well-being to insure
theirs.

Suddenly being separated from everything and everyone he has known since
the day he was born, and then being asked to seamlessly integrate to a
radically different and novel universe, seemingly overnight, is a
daunting challenge for any dog. If a greyhound appears reticent or
reluctant and fearful of embracing this wondrous, new situation, it is
far more likely that he was quite satisfied with things as they were,
and is having some trouble processing the plethora of new information
and stimuli he has been suddenly confronted with, rather than assuming
that he had been the victim of profound neglect and abuse.

We are part of a culture where dog owners literally worry themselves
sick over leaving their pets at a boarding kennel, so that they may go
away for a brief vacation, Each detail of every peccadillo and quirk of
those pets is related to the board kennel operator. The dog?s personal
belongings are brought along to ease any imagined or actual anxiety the
pet may feel.

It is a triumph of human conceit and of disinformation and propaganda,
that we often view the retired greyhound through prisms of hurtful and
sometimes hateful mythology, in light of a life-change that can be a
shattering and awe-inspiring experience, even far more challenging than
his former athletic pursuits, not to mention simply going to a boarding
kennel for a few days.

There is no excuse, today, in our world of instantaneous, mass
communication, for anyone to misunderstand their retired greyhound, in
spite of those whose agenda and income requires that you do.

Empathy begins with knowledge. Take the time to truly know, understand
and accept your greyhound for the majestic and magnificent individual he
was and is--quirks and all--and you will learn far more about each of
you than by simply cloaking yourself in the vestments of those who
promote pity-advocacy for profit.

Copyright, 2014



--
Fenris

The SHG for RSPCA Problems Blog
http://theshg.wordpress.com

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