Breeding The American Tundra Shepherd

"The Variables of Vocalization"
or
"Juveniles & Adults" Versus "Dogs & Wolves"

.....One of my standared lines is that the ATSD should not bark for no particular reason nor should he howl just to be heard unless promted by his owner /alpha! Experimenting with and observing the results of breeding the ATSD for these years has been a study in evolution and behavior. My experience and study of dog training and the application of many methods and techniques have given rise to the question of just what do dogs mean when they bark in certain tones, if anything. Also, I have made the observation that most dogs have a greater or lesser tendency to bark at times for obvious reason at all. For instance, Foo Foo and Fee Feecan bark all day for no reason, while the stock dog seems to bark for hours just to let us and any predators know he's there. So what do I want the ATSD to vocalize like? I'm going to use some quotes from researchers and my own observations and experiences to attempt to explain my goals and reasoning in the following paragraphs.

.....Dogs make all kinds of noises but, more than any other, they bark. Most bark too much for my appreciation and for the wrong reasons. It can be irritating to the point of lawsuits. In most municipalities, it is regulated. This behavior seems more than habitual to me sometimes to the point of neurotic. You cannot stop it, train it away, or lesson it by enviromental change. Shock collars are effective, according to the trainer's ability, or lack therof. One of my high priorities has been the regulation of barking ability and/or lack of ability. When crossing and breeding resulting progeny for some time, I observed that some animals barked more or less than others. I could control the excessive barking by command but not eliminate it. Other animals were not so quick to bark, nor the barking last any longer than the approach and passing of a jogger or passing people walking their dogs. So I have been breeding animals that alert me to these presences and I can usually distinguish between people, people with dogs and just dogs.

.....The only other reason I would want a dog to bark would be what is known as the "bark and hold" in Schutzhund. This consist of holding an intruder at bay from either the sit and bark position or the down and bark position. Of course, That is high tech training and if a dog has to much propentisity to bark, then this is difficult to accomplish. So I want a dog that can bark repeatedly upon command, as there are also hunting techniques which require this ability as well. This includes treeing a coon, or bringing to or keeping big game at bay. I also want a brave dog which is equally submissive to me, a hard medium to obtain. All these qualities are present in the ATSD to greater or lesser degrees. Being able to distinguish which animals have what drives and which combinations each parent will lend to each individual breeding requires knowing the strengths weaknesses of each animal and the ancestors of each animal to make up the best prospective combinations.

.....The drives and temperaments of the ATSD correspond to the vocal and tonal abilities of each animal. All ATSD' have varying degrees of these abilities which are also stronger or weaker in their background. The wolf blood lessons the propensity to bark, while increasing the flight or avoidance instinct, making the result less likely to protect, much less die for his owner, although not altogether eliminating this trait of the GSD. By breeding the half-wolf/half-GSD back to GSD, a greater instinct to serve and protect humans was infused but a flight drive higher than the GSD remained. When breeding ATS, care should be taken to avoid breeding dogs with aggression control problems, although this can also be the result of stressful training methods and is difficult to distinguish by all but the most trained eyes and ears. Care must be taken when breeding away from this flight drive that aggression control is not compromised. The ATSD may bark from some indecision but, on the other hand, should not exhibit barking purely from aggression.

.....Tractability must be differentiated between animals and humans and I believe it can be. There are other big game hunting breeds which also provide protection to their homes and families. This is selective breeding in its purest form. After all, the dog was not created by natural selection. An ATSD should be entirely predictable through intentional domestication as opposed to the common dog, which reason indicates domesticated himself. Obviously, the dog did not take barking into consideration when he did this. The ATSD can be, or should be, able to be taught to bark to convey signals such as to be let in. I find this preferable to scratching, which may come to the animal instinctively, iif not taught to bark. In other words, I teach my animals a communication system and vice versa. I find German, a gletteral language, the most conducive for this purpose, as many of the sounds are wolf like which results in faster communication and understanding for wolf or dog for that matter.,

.....To set up a communication system, one must also be able to read and stimulate not only the tonality of the animal's signals, but convey the proper body language when sending or receiving these signals. It may be easier to just teach your own system but I find it preferable to learn theirs. Remember, it is easier for you to learn their system than it is to teach yours. Granted, dog barks are hard to understand but if you listen long enough you begin to understand the meaning of different tonalities. By gaining this understanding, you convey to the animal how to act. Otherwise, the bark may result in mixed signals and indecision.

.....Breeding the ATSD is an experiment in artificial selection, a process of conscious human selection which endeavors to avoid radical heterochronic variations by manipulating and regulathe rate of these evolutionary mechanisms to reflect the desired traits.

.....Barking is but one of the traits which must be addressed when considering mating. One must be conscious of selecting for breeding, not only tameness and the general appearance of the GSD, but also the size and working ability. Leave out size considerations and the animals

will become smaller. I have seen this manifestation in the ATSD and have revised our standard to require breeding larger animals. Even though a loss of agility and drive will result, the natural lack of severe angulation seen in the GSD decreases the probability of hip dysplasia.

.....So we see that the heterochronic changes accessible through this breeding process requires that we attempt to manipulate growth patterns to reflect the traits we desire, although variability in shape, color and additional estrous cycles emerge as part of the heterochronic equation.

.....Growth patterns are under genetic control, as genes "turn on" during the development, other genes "turn off" and the animal changes and matures. Geneticist say these processes are determined by regulatory genes that control the animal's growth and rate which individual parts grow.

.....A change in timing of these regulatory genes incurred when crossing wolves and dogs, and results in slowing down the rate the wolf genes mature and speeding up the rate that the GSD genes mature so that the heterochronic change overall reflects different levels of maturity in each dog. To attain homozygosity in the desired level of maturity, traits or drives of each animal, requires much time, experimentation, observation and luck. In this process, I have seen maladaptive and non-functional behaviors. By selecting the correct balance of physical and physchological traits, I attemt to avoid breeding in these unwanted behaviors, such as overabundant barking.

........At the same time, I want the ATSD to be able to communicate his feelings and to do this he must have the adult wolf traits of vocalization. Also, the ATSD should retain a near fully developed wolf's pattern of hunting and predatory abilities while remaining tractable to humans unlike a dog which remains a metamorphic adolescent for life. An ATSD should retain the tonal qualities of the infant wolf and dog as he matures, yet aquire noisy adult signals like growls. ATSD should have a mix of the waning infant behavior and tonal vocalization of the wolf. This eliminates barking as serving no particular adaptive need and gives barking a specific function according to the tonality perceived as opposed to the average dog barking, which is merely the functionless byproduct of heterochronic change during the process of domestication. The biologist, Euene Mortan, at the Smithsonian's National Zoo, must be correct in claiming that vocalizations like barking are motivated by indecision. I believe that wolf barking capabilities can indicate, through their tonal qualities, a greater range of emotion than dogs are capable of. Therefore, wolves can vary the tonality of barks to signal these emotions. Hence, the ATSD has been imparted with a greater range of emotions and signals than adog. Indeed, he exhibits a greater I.Q., as observed in the higher mammals.

........The ATSD can learn to bark and the abiltiy naturally varies somewhat. Also, he can mimic so he may have the same motivation and tonality of the Doberman, The GSD, or whatever breed he is up with so try not to expose your ATSD to terriers, which bark incessantly. (Just a Joke). I've seen ATSD raised in the same house as both Dobe and terrier and while he picked up some of the Dobe's vocalizations, aquired none from the terrier. Indeed, the terrier's barking got on the ATSD' nerves, as well as his owner's. So your ATSD may develop many reasons to bark.

........Best of all, you can teach him what tonality of barking means what. In the process, you set up a communication system conveying different levels of urgency from a warning to a demand. The ATSD, being 75% GSD and 25% wolf, is less mature than an adult wolf and more mature than a GSD. He also tends to be a better learner for longer in life. By retaining a measure of juvenility he should be a better leaner than an adult, as juvenile animals generally are. Therefore, barking in dogs, researchers think, simply came along as a piece of the whole package of changes incurred by genetic alteration in the life cycle of growth patterns of the ancestors of dogs. Arrested or frozen heterochronic change is why dogs bark so much. Being frozen in adolescence, dogs bark so much because that is what a juvenile canine does. The ATSD' maturing process is frozen at a higher level of maturity of the dog, but earlier than the adult wolf. The trick is to organize the segments of infant and adult behaviors so we achieve a full range of infant tonal and noisy adult behavior and vocalization while retaining tractability to humans without diminishing the hunting and herding drives. The ATSD should be able to learn to control these drives through proper training and socialization. Each successive generation, therefore, should reflect refinement in all aspects, both physically and psychologically.

To be continued;

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