LIFE WITH APPENZELLER
A rural savage who was evolved with the intention of humanizing and socializing with the urban world. Did it work? I will try to answer this question later. The breed standards that were published date back to 1914. One of the main goals was to popularize the breed and maintain it in its "natural state", which was successful. Over time, popularization works were also introduced in urban areas, trying to preserve as much of the "naturalness of the breed" as possible, while socializing the Appenzeller. Appenzeller selection led to the creation of dogs that were very cheerful, joyful, lively, temperamental, indestructible guardians, much gentler than their ancestors. The result was a dog that was friendly and open to work
with a human and on your human. A wonderful life companion for people who value dedication and work in a dog.
But as we know, nothing in nature is lost, the same is true with features. In the already narrow pool of genes used to create the breed, by introducing selection for behavior, their frequency of occurrence was minimized, which is not clear.
with the complete elimination of an undesirable feature that may always occur, e.g. in our dog.
The creation of a sociable, gregarious Appenzeller, let's say - adapted to life in the city, relatively gentle, with a medium-high excitability threshold, with a large dose of distrust of people, with a drive for work, resulted in the popularization of the breed and its spread to Europe and even America, to a greater extent.
and smaller urban agglomerations, as a dog for houses with a garden, as a companion for humans.
The difference of this breed from a large part of other dog breeds accompanying humans is such that all the breeding and socialization changes made to the breed in order to "domesticate" it did not significantly affect the originality of the breed, its ancient type of rural "mongrel", the features of the dog which it is no longer present in other races, but it used to be. It's still a dog from ten years ago.
A dog that thinks, analyzes, acts and feels. It perceives stimuli very realistically and consciously, even from a small puppy. He becomes independent very quickly, which proves his naturalness, his "wild survival instinct"
I dare say that this dog is very introverted, rebellious, distrustful, and has excellent awareness of its body.
and strength, which he does not hesitate to use in case of danger, he is often hyperactive. He acts according to his analysis, which does not necessarily go hand in hand with the actual course of a given situation if his host is not nearby.
A dog full of fear, which is the result of the above. features.
A dog that, despite the enormous progress in civilization, remains a country herding dog, an exceptional guard dog, a dog that bites, a dog that avoids people, a dog that loves the farm, the barn, eternal work, its human/handler more than life and lives in the urban jungle, like Tarzan in New York.
The Appenzeller is a working dog, a utility type, i.e. most often focused on obtaining economic benefits for humans as their right hand. Valued for intellect, not colors and the spread of white meanings, as is the case today. They managed to create a breed of dog that "thanks to its excellent ability to observe and incredible ability to adapt to working conditions, is able to easily communicate with its master. He observes his guide's features and gestures very carefully and usually recognizes and understands whether his behavior is appropriate or not. The Appenzeller accepts the dominance of its human and is relatively easy to breed
and education. Nevertheless, from time to time he tries to break with subordination. Short orders are usually enough to make him obedient again. Punishment is very rarely necessary.” quote (http://www.bastian-net.com/appenzeller.htm)
The literature says that Appenzeller is an outstanding observer, that he sees the "invisible", that is, he uses emotions apart from his eyes. What does this mean? About further features of the breed, which are: sensory sensitivity (reactivity - the ability to respond to sensory stimuli of low stimulating value) and liveliness (the tendency to react quickly, maintain a high pace of activities performed and easily change reactions (behavior) in response to changes in external conditions) .
When talking about the emotionality of the apek, we cannot forget about the empathy that this breed has exceptionally developed, significantly standing out from other breeds. He reads and feels people and animals uniquely, examines human emotions and intentions like RM, which makes him an excellent guardian, but not only that. The complexity and ambiguity of a person's display of emotions, the expression of two or more contradictory information in words and gestures, causes communication "conflicts", resistance in coexistence, and failure to communicate. A simple misunderstanding/mutual misunderstanding is the beginning of problems with your dog. With high sensitivity, human anger or anger makes the dog shy, increasing "natural distrust"; lead to aggression
h behavior towards people and animals or withdrawing into oneself, falling into disrepair
into depression. Psychosomatic diseases appear, constant incomprehensible diarrhea, vomiting, itching
and self-harm, without valid veterinary reasons. The same effect can be achieved by not offering the app what it needs, i.e. yourself - a person who is honest and open to the dog and for the dog, a demanding person who gives orders to be followed, a person at whose feet he will fall asleep completely relaxed after a WHOLE DAY OF WORK - like the host was.
By strengthening the above-mentioned natural and standard distrust, don't be surprised if, in a fit of good intentions, you approach a dog and hear a growl or a quick snap of its fangs.
Numerous descriptions of the breed refer to the Apek as a dog for active people (running). I believe that appenzeller activity
Nowadays, it is wrongly associated with people's physical activity (cycling) and its need.
Activity regulates the demand for stimulation, i.e. physical activity that: - discharges accumulated energy, stimulates the production of endorphins, thus improving mood
and relaxing (most often in people), - stimulates in the sense of motivation to act (like a good warm-up before the start), - regulates activities that evoke emotions that "stimulate" pleasure, fear, threat.
Appenzeller activity involves a long-term open/active brain. This dog has excellent endurance for long-term, monotonously performed activities with elements of relaxation, i.e.: grazing cows all day long, guarding the herd; in the event of an individual breaking away or being chased away, it runs
with incredible speed; after bringing the breaking individual back into the herd, he very quickly returns to his previous, not fully muted (because he is constantly at work) emotions - and he does it perfectly. Appenzeller is a dog that is lazy when it comes to exercise and likes privacy and naps. A dog, regardless of breed, sleeps 16 hours a day in the prime of life.
Appenzeller activity involves a high demand for external stimuli to achieve internal peace, not marathons to run on time. This is not a long distance race. The anatomy itself is contrary to the predispositions of long-distance runners.
He loves to walk, explore the world with his host, accompany him step by step and constantly watch because he does not know when his master will order him to do something, but he waits for it with all his being.
Appenzeller's endurance, as the definition says, is the ability to respond adequately to long-lasting or highly stimulating stimuli. You can say: wow, and this is probably the most accurate description, because few breeds can work so actively and mentally for such a long time, and maintain monotonous activity at the same level.
Activity, liveliness, sensitivity and endurance are the components of the Appenzeller's extraordinary temperament. They appear in every app - they are born with it, they have their own starter package. The division of temperament types was discussed by Pavlov, and breeders decide which trait has more or less when creating pairs. Unfortunately, for the current breeder it is a business, sometimes a way of life. More and more often, breeding pairs are selected for their own convenience and at the lowest cost, with the greatest benefit for themselves; Unfortunately, there are fewer and fewer hobby breeders
and enthusiasts working for breeds.
Appenzeller's distrust is included in the breed standard and "required" according to it. Publications like
and the pattern says that he is a bit distrustful of people, a phenomenal guard, friendly, self-confident, brave, family-oriented... Everything is true and nothing is true. Distrustful of people - yes, very much so; there are individuals who are downright hysterically anxious, able to hide in a distant hole at the sight of a person, or attack everything that moves, solely out of fear, but there are also individuals who love all people too much. Distrust gives the app the vigilance and perceptiveness that fuels the guarding phenomenon. Self-confidence and courage are features that, unfortunately, are increasingly being replaced by fear. The original appenzeller was very brave, self-confident, decisive in action, unyielding until he finished what he was doing and thus stood his ground. Breeding evolution has made the app more polite, giving it fear so that it softens up and doesn't have such strong drives. Unfortunately, fear is not a good "solvent" - it may seem that the dog becomes gentler and easier to manage in everyday life. Unfortunately this is not the case! Because not only does such a dog not trust people, but it is also afraid of humans. Fear aggression combined with Appenzeller's physical strength - this combination is asking for big trouble. An important role and challenge for breeders to teach the Appenzeller to know a "good person" from the first days of the baby's life.
To make him accustomed to touch. Let your own person, i.e. the breeder, and strangers, friends, etc., act as a link for future dog owners. The distrust that comes down the line from grandfather to grandfather requires a lot of effort to overcome
develop an app for a "city dog" adapted to life there. To be able to start doing anything
with our app, we first need to gain the puppy's trust; it often happens that already at this stage there are problems, that the puppy runs away, hides, is afraid, howls (and sources say that it is easy to adapt to the environment), not reacting even to the food given - and it is known that at this age the puppy is only guided by and only the instinct and genes from which it was created: the dog, refusing to eat, accepts death or fights against the whole world of monsters, rebels, blocks access to any positives coming from the outside, becomes rebellious
and very lonely, destroys everything in its path (apart from the standard of destruction for small puppies). It can be compared to human ADHD, psychomotor hyperactivity is associated
at the speed of general development, such a puppy is everywhere, he runs, jumps, walks everywhere
and he comes in, forever and ever, mashing everything with his beak, acting like a vacuum cleaner, biting, biting, tearing pants legs, having great fun at the same time, just like any puppy, only at a higher speed, not paying attention to anything along the way, because he is running with a kidnapped pet of yours sock or steals your child's favorite toy that he or she is playing with - just to attract attention.
Apparently it is now a family dog, but is it really? Yes, it has adapted to its host's family, it has accepted and will accept its household members, including children, but it is a small tank that when it runs, it runs, for example, knocking down our child, colliding with it on purpose, aiming at weak spots that strongly transmit pain, just to win and get your way. Just like in a field among cattle: you don't always have to bite, sometimes it's enough to hit the spot well to get them to comply.
So yes, if we have already gained the trust of our puppy (it may be a month or two), we can become a link with the world, but before this happens, we need to develop a relationship with the dog, which is based on an emotional bond, on mutual trust, on being support for our toddler so that he knows that he can run under our skirt if he sees a monster on the street. Appenzeller may be afraid of anything that is different from what is at home in his area - in fact, by moving an armchair or table to a different place, we can scare the dog for a long time, maybe even irreversibly. If we are enough of a skirt for a child, we can conquer the world, then the monsters are not that scary, there are significantly fewer of them or they appear sporadically. The specificity of the app also lies in the fact that it enters life empty, i.e. without knowing stimuli, objects, etc. Being aware of this, it knows the smell of the countryside, the smell of the city is completely foreign to it. Everything, everything in the world needs to be shown to the app, in a pathological way. Everything together and a large part separately, following his skirt, he must know, see, smell, have fun, everything must become his backyard. The more you learn together, the better. Exploring the world is very bonding only for each other. There is a lot of work and "only a year" to do it, these more difficult stimuli are repeated several times. You should remember to introduce him to the world gradually, taking into account only the baby's well-being and the dog's discomfort and mental fatigue. And probably the most important thing: do not touch or pet the dog! What's more, an anxious dog, which sometimes you can't even look at because it causes him pain, kills a mentally weak dog. Since the Apek is a dog used to herd cattle on the farm, the owner does not play with the dogs, does not wash them, does not hug them, and if he does, it is very rare. He simply doesn't have time for it, and he has a dog at work to help him. The other side of the medal of inviolability - he is in the field with the cows and is constantly working, looking at the herd and the surrounding area, subordinating the cattle, growling, adopting an appropriate threatening and pressing attitude; if necessary, it will bite with one snap, but only if the cattle do not comply. He has one shot to achieve his goal. In order not to get hit by the irritated cattle, the apek jumps and dodges, showing incredible agility, using all his legs and muscles just to prevent the bull from "TOUCHING" him. Each effective kick that the dog receives makes the dog let go of this animal and accept its dominance, just like its host - cows know this and take advantage of every moment of inattention. Guarding
and incorruptibility is a huge distrust of the outside world. How can a dog that excels in these functions love strangers? It goes against any logic. A big achievement is gaining the trust of the entire family with a strong emphasis on the host, i.e. +/- 3-5 people in a Polish family and every other person is a foreign intruder on their territory! Potential aggression, pressing against an intruder or snapping its fangs should not seem strange because the dog is doing its job!
He shows his no clearly and clearly
satisfaction with the intrusion of a stranger into his territory. If the body's signals have no effect, its intruder, and our guest does not listen and does not obey the dog, the dog bites! And we shouldn't hold any grudges against the dog, because this is his role, this is his function, which he performs properly -
after all, he is a phenomenal guard. Our task is to explain to the dog and teach the dog the behavior that the dog should perform at a given moment and situation.
Distrust of people and fear of people. There is a fine line between both. As I mentioned above, apek is an outstanding observer. Another important issue for both the apek and other races is us as his person, his boss
and host. Our attitude must be respectable. We have to command respect, we have to be demanding, we have to control our emotions very well, we have to give support, be nice, calm
and sustainable; you have to be very stubborn and persistent, especially if you have Appenzeller as your "opponent".
You have to realize that the life of an appenzeller is his constant work for his people; he goes to work wherever he goes with a person, assuming that the relationship with his host is a partnership, nice and demanding, based on mutual respect. Then the superlatives presented about this breed are completely true. But before that happens, you have to eat a bag of salt and put the most effort into yourself to adapt to the Appenzeller, to be able to shape it into the most wonderful dog. Trust and the human-dog relationship are the basis in this "relationship", the key is work, joint work, which opens this wonderful dog.
Details about the life of Appenzellers in Poland and the impressions of their owners are available on the Appenzeller Polska Facebook group, to which I cordially invite you.