John D
UKC Forum Member
Registered: Jun 2003
Location: Missouri
Posts: 4321 |
We always like to see things in black and white. "Either a dog is mean or it ain't". Thats not true most of the time.
In the real world there is alot of gray area. A dog that might fight to death over his feed pan might be a perfect citizen at the tree. A dog that will guard a tree might move over and never even growl in the dog box. A dog that will tree with other dogs just fine might be aggressive towards other dogs if they have a coon in a hole or over a dead coon.
Another complication in understanding all this is that some dogs are touchy at certain times than others. I once saw a female get aggravated by a male dog while hunting. When she got treed, the same male came into her tree and she snapped at him and he cowed away. Technically she was mean and should be scratched. Then, take a male out thats recently bred a female and hunt him with a male and a female thats either been in season or is going out. You might see him do something he wouldn't ordinarily do. A dog that is in an all out dog fight at the tree one night might be fine with pups crawling on him 2 nights later.
IMO, thats why the rules are set up the way they are, to give dogs a chance to prove, CONSISTENTLY, that they have a problem getting along with other dogs. If they do this, then they are gone. If they slip up once in awhile, then they will get another chance. Most dogs, in some circumstances, will look "mean" to someone at some point.
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