The Nature of the Corsican
Dog, by Danilo Giorgio
The topic "NATURE" is very actual and it is
often dealt, also on specialized or non-specialized magazines, by authors who
do not always have acquaintance with dog psychology. In so doing, they often
and maybe intentionally create confusion and disorientation among the
enthusiasts, and they foment unnecessary and sterile quarrels.
Recently, ENCI, in the occasion of the last Judges’
Meeting in Massa Carrara, underlined two aspects that, according to me,
deserve to be emphasized:
1) ENCI has and will have more and more need of
specialized societies to increase the value of every and single race
from a zoo technical point of view.
2) The zoo technical value and evaluation of a
race is not only given by results obtained during the show or for the
sole evaluation of the "model", but the esthetical and
harmonic beauties keep up with the psychic beauty and I add the
"functional" beauty.
Clearly, we should also consider non-visible congenital
diseases. In brief, there are always the danger and risk of having brought out
only those subjects that approach the parameters described by the race
standard for their esthetic and morphologic nature. To this purpose, I would
like to make a little remark: the standard of the Corsican dog is very
scrupulous and detailed on morphologic side and measurements, and it is,
according to me, one of the most complete standards in the absolute meaning.
This is fruit of years of work and priceless efforts performed by meritorious
researchers.
However, it is a little less deep concerning its
character side; I would say, it is "essential" and dedicates little
space with respect to the numerous great capacities of its race.
The nature of the Corsican dog is certainly its most
fascinating peculiarity and therefore, it is right to dedicate to it an
adequate treatment.
The word "character" from Greek means
"print", i.e., the whole of personality features of an individual,
either man or dog.
Character is the sum of all those components consisting
of the genetic and hereditary patrimony and the acquired factors defined by
environment, breed, imprinting, socialization, education, and training that
influence behavior.
The analysis of character endowments of a dog is
certainly not a topic of a few words, and it should deserve a real treatise on
dog psychology, but we will confine ourselves here to list them.
We will define them and try to uniform communication and
language.
The character endowments of a dog are:
TEMPERAMENT, which is the capability of reacting more or
less quickly to pleasurable or unpleasant stimuli. The more the reaction is
quick, the better or higher is the temperament.
FIBRE: it is the capability of tolerating unpleasant,
external situations and stimuli and forgetting them in short time. It can be
"weak" or "hard." "Weak" subjects are useless,
the "hard" ones need a capable trainer.
COMBATIVENESS: it is its natural endowment which
includes capability of answering to unpleasant, external stimuli with two
simultaneous actions: fighting and biting.
AGGRESSIVENESS: it is a natural and innate quality
tightly bound to preservation of the species. It is the reaction that springs
when the dog believes that itself and its environment are in danger (e.g., the
reasons can be: restricted space, defense of brood, nutrition, etc.)
DOCILITY: it is the dog’s capability of accepting man
as its natural superior with no need to use repression and submission from man’s
side.
SOCIABILITY: dog’s capability of socializing with
human beings.
WATCHFULNESS: it is the capability of perceiving or
signaling the presence of strangers or closeness to external dangers both for
dog and man in a timely manner. Watchfulness is strictly bound to its
"territory," i.e., that "ideal" space considered its own
by the dog.
CURIOSITY: dog’s interest for everything which
surrounds it with particular use of its olfaction; it derives from its
predatory instinct.
The best qualities or character components typifying the
race of the Corsican dog are: combativeness, docility, sociability, and
general nervous balance. These endowments make the Corsican a staid, quiet,
reflective dog. The Corsican dog’s nervous balance and its own firmness of
nerves represent the race’s true force and mental power born from an
interior balance and therefore from a very good genetic substrate. This
substrate needs to be increased more and more, checked by a proper breeding
and balanced by the proper relationship Corsican dog-owner.
From here, it emerges the necessity and need, in part
intelligently treated by the Society of Corsican dog lovers by creating CAL 1,
to control or verify more and more race’s aptitudes, mainly nerves’
firmness and therefore nervous balance of the dog.
Recently, I had the opportunity of judging around 40
Corsican dogs within CAL 1. I have to say that all of them brilliantly passed
the test. Once the test was over, I have to say that 90% of the Corsican dogs
properly stimulated entered immediately in combativeness by firmly grasping
the sleeve and entering a fight with the shaking of the figurant.
This stimulation was only for training purposes to
deeper verify combativeness, which is not possible to check with CAL1, since
there is no contact with the figurant. The most surprising and extraordinary
thing is that once the aggressive and fighting impulses were over, all the
dogs, I repeat, all the dogs rapidly resumed control of themselves by going
back to that indifference and natural behavior which were allowing me to
manipulate them and check all dentitions at a big surprise of the figurant and
the judge who was assisting me.
The Corsican dog, as well as the Boxer and other
Molossoids, is not a neurotic or instinctive dog. It is not a
"lightning," it is a reflective, well-balanced, light, swift
Molossian, but with its own reaction times. Its reaction times are not
suggested by a low excitability level but by the awareness of being able to
evaluate situations and understand the difference among the nature of various
stimuli. Sometimes, it may even seem indolent, lazy, absent-minded,
superficial, while some other times it is very swift, hard, determined, and
implacable but always with self-control.
I had the opportunity of checking, mainly during the
show, that there are some biting, aggressive, and shy subjects; they are kept
on a very short leash by their owners who are afraid of uncontrolled reactions
of their dogs. Well, all this surely goes back to a wrong education system, a
wrong man/dog relationship, an absent socialization, being too tolerant or
weak, or having consciously pushed the dog into developing aggressiveness and
fighting spirit (fighting/biting) towards its fellow dogs or man. In so doing,
their owners convey them frustrations and inhibitions or repressed willingness
typical of a man and not of a dog. The Corsican dog, because of its rural
origins, is capable of living in any environment, of adapting to carry out
multiple functions and utilizations. It being understood that the Corsican
dog, by virtue of its character map, is a watch- and defense dog to all
intents and purposes. It is better to point out that a watchdog is often
confused with the defense dog. Instead, the watchdog has got completely
different tasks and therefore more or less developed and differentiated
character components in comparison to the defense dog.
A watchdog can be the simple and classic warning dog, or
it can actively oppose eventual ill-intentioned people determined to violate
its space and cross the territory entrusted to it. Therefore, it must have a
lively temperament, a great vigilance, a scarce tractability and sociability,
an average aggressiveness with a scanty or no combativeness and temper,
especially if it is only an "alarm-bell" dog. The defense dog is a
technically prepared dog which has got complete self-confidence and
self-control of its own means. During learning and training, the defense dog
has matured positive experiences which allow the dog to select the different
reaction phases it must have under command, control, and order of its owner.
Therefore, the dog needs to have an absolute obedience towards its owner, full
aggressiveness, a strong temper, and a great combativeness and mordacity.
These qualities must be developed through a specific development and training
with experts in this field.
Another quality cited by the standard, which is worth
underlining, is the obedience and love for the dog’s owner but mainly love
towards children and family. There is nothing more beautiful and educational
than observing the relationship the dog establishes with a child through what
we adults often forget to do with the children: playing. Play, both for the
puppies and children, means learning, cheerfulness, understanding, confidence,
safety. This is a topic, together with socialization, first education, and
training which should be treated specifically and specially, but for time
reasons we cannot deal with it here.
On the utilization of the Corsican dog,
the standard still expresses: watchdog, defense dog, police dog, tracking dog.
Another quality of the Corsican dog is
to have a good nose. In the past, it was used to start and hunt big game and
as war auxiliary. Today, for its very good olfactory capabilities, it can be
used in every different specialization as tracking dog, searching dog,
starting dog, and in all work trials, particularly if it is endowed with good
nature and good physical and psychic constitution. It can be successfully used
for humanitarian purposes within the civil defense as searching dog on surface
and as starting dog for disasters or wreckage.
The standard synthetically concludes
with two words about behavior and character of the Corsican dog: easily
trainable.
I will only give some suggestions of
general nature on this topic, since I am not a professional trainer, but in
the past I trained many Boxers, a race which is very near also in character to
the Corsican dog. My experiences with the Corsican dog are limited to my
quality as a judge of competitions and shows and as a careful observer and a
passionate of this race. I can attest that the Corsican dog does not have
character deficiencies and it has got a 360° in potentiality for use at work
and therefore in training. Its trainability is high, but its will to work is
not very prolonged in time; e.g., in agility, where a continuous and constant
action in different tests is required, it tends to weaken its propulsive
action. However, the Corsican dog is able to concentrate its efficiency in
short times by giving the best of itself. Its learning with respect to other
races is less quick also for its strong character, but memory is very good,
and this can have a lot of influence on the adult dog. Play is the most
suitable method to start its training. This means that the dog must feel
pleased in learning and establishing the dog/owner relationship. In any case,
the Corsican dog can be trained as the majority of dogs. We only need to take
care to socialization during its first education as a puppy, and during the
training we need not to restrain its outbursts and nature, so that its joy is
always enhanced, and to avoid any repression and coercion on the dog.
Now, I would like to summarize the
character outline of the Corsican dog with a summary card and its typical
behavior ("WORK STANDARD") during the work phases of nose,
obedience, and defense.
Character outline of a Corsican dog is
following:
a quite vivacious nature, character with
a tendency to hard, fairly good obedience but in close relation with the
capabilities of its guide, marked sociability, aggressiveness towards its
fellow dogs but relatively scarce towards man, very high fighting spirit, good
watch, high curiosity as well as possessive character. Learning time is very
short with puppies, and it becomes quite slow with adult dogs. Its memory is
very good. In nose work, its olfactory capability is very good in the various
specialization with a good perseverance and quite long attention times; its
gait is rather swift with some paces at a gallop, mainly on an easy ground by
cool temperature and very strong trail.
The position of its signaling is taken
on in very short times. Gathering is performed in an exuberant manner, and we
are often afraid that the dog lets the object fall in case of delay of its
guide.
Obedience work:
the Corsican dog seems particularly slow in learning if training is started at
an advanced age (over twelve months), while it shows itself much more swift if
training is started at a young age (4/5 months). Curiosity, possessiveness,
and a very good memory play in favor of a precocious training. The performing
pace is quick, and the Corsican dog shows itself to be attentive to the
movements of its guide and ready to receive the commands. However, it is worth
noting that in most cases it does not love inclement weather conditions such
as very high temperatures or heavy rainfall. Major difficulties are in
exercises where the Corsican dog has to detach from its guide because of its
natural relationship of tractability. The return pace in the taking-back
exercise is clearly slower than going to the object because of the
possessiveness that causes the dog difficulty to leave the object to its
guide.
During the test of indifference towards
strangers, its great curiosity often leads the dog to linger by the occasional
passers-by on which it has to perform all the typical dog rituals: the dog
often touches strangers with his snout, but this is an absolutely regular
action.
Defense work:
the pace of patrolling field and hiding places must be quick with frequent
paces at a gallop. In the affront and barking, voice must be deep and full. A
moment of delay in barking is regular because typical of this race is barking
little and rarely. In behaviors, the Corsican dog is always watchful and ready
to jump; in chasing the figurant, it is swift and determined at a gallop. Very
good is watching with continuous attention to the figurant even when its guide
is approaching. Engaged by the figurant, it demonstrates a very short
aggressive impulse followed by a fighting impulse on a high intensity level
prolonged in time. Therefore, this dog loves the sleeve kept high and a long
and quick transportation during which the dog keeps the figurant busy with all
its limbs in the fight and a catch with a full mouth in a clench of very high
intensity. Once the fighting impulse has ceased in presence of a figurant
really capable of relaxing, the Corsican dog performs a good let go, while
many difficulties show up with less capable figurants. After the let go, the
Corsican dog rapidly returns to a regular attitude. The catch on the sleeve is
strong with full mouth and well centered in the middle part of the figurant’s
forearm.
Now, I would like to conclude with an
invitation to the breeders, all members of SACC, and all the Corsican race
lovers. Approach the world of work tests, which have been established in order
to check, in potential reproducers, the existence of typical work qualities
and therefore the potential capability of transmitting them.
Last but not least, the capability of
receiving the training, which is guarantee of balance and "psychic
health" that are reached in breeding through a scrupulous selection on a
behavioral basis.
Walter Gorrieri was teaching that it is
not permissible to express judgements on a non-trained dog, as it is not
permissible to judge a book by its content about which nothing has been
written: both have no value because they have no possible use.