N.K. Poongsans in 2000

I have these pictures on the kennel website, but I thought I would post them here for additional reference. 

These two Poongsans were sent by the now deceased North Korean leader Kim, Jong Il in 2000 to South Korea.  They were 6 months old in the pictures. 

 

 

Poongsans from N.K. leader Kim, Jong Un

Photo by Kim, Jae-Won/Reuters

These Poongsans were sent by the current North Korean leader Kim, Jong Un to South Korea's Reverend Moon.
http://in.finance.yahoo.com/photos/top-news-photos-1370239005-slideshow/north-korean-poongsan-dogs-seen-near-cheongshim-peace-photo-010714855.html

Star Spinner Toy

I've wanted to purchase a Nina Ottosson dog puzzle toy for years, but I just couldn't justify paying upwards of $40 for a dog toy that the dogs could destroy or get bored off.

So when I saw this Kyjen Dog Spinner toy at my local petstore, I thought, "Good enough at a reasonable price."

Here is PoongSoon's third try at the toy:





And here is HwangYoung's third try at the toy:




Though toted as a puzzle and a test of a dog's problem-solving skills, I don't consider this a test of a dog's intelligence. 

Both dogs can get to the treats inside the toy, but HwangYoung has a greater reluctance to possibly "break the rules" and go at something that he's not sure he's allowed to manipulate. 

Temperament and Behavior Scale

The following blogpost has been making its rounds on Facebook.   I think it a very simple but clear illustration of temperament/behavior and so I recommend reading it in its entirety.

http://paws4udogs.wordpress.com/2012/12/10/its-all-in-how-theyre-raised/


I like it so much because it parallels my outlook on temperament & behavior in Jindos.


The following is not an ideal situation in my book:

I don't think it normal for a Jindo to be so fearful that it takes a huge amount of work to have the dog behave reasonably.  I do not believe that requiring hundreds of hours with a behaviorist or thousands of dollars in paying in a trainer should become the norm for a Jindo.  

Kudos to the owner for sticking with the dog and putting in so much effort into the dog, but for a Jindo breeder, this is not an ideal situation at all. 



My memory of Jindo dogs are more of the below scale:

Dogs who are bold and not well-socialized are still known as "smart" dogs who don't require a lot of effort on the part of the human.  Since most Koreans don't commit heavily to socialization and training, dogs are still good family dogs but not reaching their maximum potential. 

The occasional Korean that does do the socialization and training of the bold dogs are rewarded with dogs of exceptional talents.  ie. the ones known as being as smart as a human child, reading minds, and so forth. 


I hope I produce dogs like this so that more people can enjoy what the hype about Jindos is all about. 

Know Thy Limits

This morning, I was entertaining notions of importing a Japanese Shikoku. 

Why? 

Recently, there was a flurry of discussion on the Nihon Ken Forum when a 1.5 yr old male Shikoku imported from a famous kennel in Japan was going to be neutered and rehomed. 

There were, in my opinion, so many insensible decisions in how this dog was handled, that I came out thinking "If you want to have it done right, you have to do it yourself." 

This morning, when I learned of an available male in Denmark looking for a new home, I thought about whether he could add something, pedigree-wise, to the small population of Shikoku in southern California. 

Then thoughts migrated to whether I should get a puppy from a Shikoku litter in Korea that's bound to be outcrosses to what's in California.

Then thoughts moved to "I might as well import an adult Shikoku which is a known quantity, rather than a puppy that is a big risk.  I don't have any issues with the idea of dealing with an adult who probably won't get along with other dogs."   

I was still contemplating this, and self-congratulating myself about my willingness to import an adult Shikoku, when I learned about a group of people who are planning on importing and establishing Hokkaido in North America. 

I lost my desire to get a Shikoku then.


For a while, I couldn't figure out why my interest just evaporated into thin air.  There's no squandering of Shikoku efforts by having a Hokkaido effort so it's not like there's a "betrayal" involved.  

PoongSoon helped me figure it out though.  As she layed on the ground, wagging her tail and asking me to play with her, I realized that all the talk about "preservation" wasn't me nor my interest.

I never intended to be a preserver of Jindos and Poongsans when I started this.  I still don't.  All I wanted to do is have some dogs with the temperament that I enjoy and that the people sincere in their interest in Korean dogs can enjoy in the future.  The direction of the entire breed, the preservation of the entire breed - that's beyond my connections, my resources, and frankly, my willing to accept responsibility for.  I just want to be responsible for my "small scale hobby kennel."


So, to even consider picking up yet another breed and become "THE PRESERVER" of not just the population in CA but also Japan is just silly talk for me.  An ego trip for sure, but ultimately, not something that's right for me. 

  

Happy 1 Year Birthday, HwangYoung!

JinHo!

From this....

To this:

JinHo's First UKC Show

They grow fast! 

Neighborhood Coyote

We have coyotes in my neighborhood.  It's actually quite neat to hear the yipping and see them around in the early mornings.  Though I've been told stories of a big male that has jumped into a yard, snatched chickens from a porch, and ripped up a boxer, the coyotes have been pretty good to us since we've moved into the area.

 

Of course, our chickens are kept in a predator-proof hardware cloth coop with a welded wire fence, the scent of several dogs, and another chain-link fence as barriers, but still that's nothing to a real determined coyote.



This coyote was a regular up until the 4th of July.

A crop of the coyote

I think the neighbors setting off fireworks in their pond scared him (her?) off from the area.  The Poongsans and Jindos haven't given their special "There's a Coyote here!" bark lately.

I hope he hasn't been shot for going after small dogs.  Some neighbor's visitors were letting their small dogs loose in the street which means prime coyote bait.  The Poongsans have been letting me know about it with their special "There's a dog that shouldn't be loose!" bark.  Sometimes their owners catch on and retrieve their dogs, and sometimes they don't.

Slab Fracture

A couple weeks ago, PoongSoon cracked her upper right pre-molar #4 while chewing on a knee bone.  (Not the typical knuckle bone.)  It was frustrating to see as she really didn't need that bone to clean her teeth.

Cracked upper tooth among clean teeth

This particular crack is called a "slab fracture" and it exposed her pulp and went into the gumline. When I took her into the vet, he actually wiggled it and I could see it moving around within her gums.   (I felt kinda ill looking at it.)

Since I noticed the fracture immediately, the vet said a root canal was an option, but since she wasn't a show dog, I opted for a complete removal. 

Leaving the cracked tooth in was never an option in my mind because keeping a grumpy 75 lb dog among other dogs is not something I ever want to deal with.

So, PoongSoon was taken in and her cracked tooth was removed.  Because it was a healthy tooth with healthy roots, the vet had a chore and charged me the max for the task.  He had to break the tooth into several pieces in order to extract the tooth. He gave me the pieces since he thought I might be interested in it.  Or maybe he thought it might ease the sting of the vet bill.

Tooth broken into 6 pieces

PoongSoon was placed on canned dog food for the two weeks following her recovery.  Only 5 days into the canned food regimen,  her teeth had become very dirty from the plaque and tartar.

No tooth, but really dirty teeth

Now, the spot is fully healed and I'll have to get her teeth back to its pristine shape some other way.


 

10th Southern California Jindo Picnic

Yesterday was the 10th Southern California Jindo Picnic.  This time it was located at Griffith Park's Mineral Wells Picnic Area.  Alas, unfortunately, I gave one long-timer bad directions and told him Mineral Springs Picnic Area.  The rescue website had exceeded the monthly bandwidth quota and so I went by memory.

Apparently, I'm getting older and my memory is not as locktight as it used to be.  I took two wrong turms even though I've been to this site about 7 times.

People flowed into and out of the picnic at different times.  That was actually okay since we didn't have a Canine Good Citizen test scheduled (nobody RSVP for that) and it was discovered that the jumps for the agility course had been damaged while in storage. 

So we ended up just chatting about Jindos, which is the core purpose of the picnic.  

I had bought three dogs to the picnic.  PoongSoon the 2 year old Poongsan, HwangYoung the 10 month old male Jindo, and JinHo the 5 month old male Jindo.  (I'll give an intro about HwangYoung and JinHo in a later post.)    

At the picnic, I got a chance to see my former foster dog, Gracie, again.  She grew into a pretty girl dog although not quite standard Jindo.  Nice thick fur with good length, pretty eyes, and rounded ear tips.  HwangYoung thought she was quite attractive and flirted his teenage heart out to her. (Sorry, HwangYoung, she's still quite spayed.)

HwangYoung and Gracie (now named Daisy)

HoSu and JinHo

JinHo, in the meantime, was placed in the same x-pen as HoSu.  He knew she was "FEMALE" as well.   During the picnic, he made sure to practice his newly-found skill of peeing with his leg up.  Perhaps in Winter 2014, he and HoSu might be bred together, pending health checks of course. 

It seems almost strange to talk about a future litter at a picnic hosted by a Jindo rescue, but one thing I realized from talking with the folks that came is that the Jindo breed has lost its way in the U.S. 

There were several folks that had owned good Jindos before, and their current Jindos just did not compare to them.   Just not as smart and not very lively. 


One person had a dog that bit people 5 times before Animal Control put down the dog.  It might have been hypothyroidism, but about 15 years ago, a Jindo that bit a family member with no good reason was disowned as a purebred Jindo.  Biting was abnormal.  Now too many people are accepting it as normal and won't put down such a dog.   

It used to be common knowledge that you just don't board a Jindo at a trainer's and expect the trainer to "fix" the dog.  Throwing money at the trainer is no substitute for learning how to train a dog yourself.

One family had "put in an order" for a Jindo Ranch dog.  I don't know if they understood what they were getting into and whether they absorbed what they saw when they saw Gracie who was from Jindo Ranch.  I had put in lots of time socializing Gracie and taking her to Puppy Class.  It is lots of work to bring such a dog up to the level of what a well-bred Jindo would be by default.   

There was one female Jindo there that should have been well-bred.  I knew much of the maternal line and met the dogs in person but several unwise decisions tipped her over into an aggressive dog that no dog or person could approach.  She was very much over her threshold and resorting to "a best defense is an offense".  She even lunged at PoongSoon who was just minding her business while laying on the ground.  It was the first time I've seen PoongSoon get irked enough to stand up to her full size and respond with her own growl.   

This could have been addressed earlier if there were other experienced Korean breeders that could have provided GOOD instructions, but pretty much the better Korean club is dead and the other one has "issues".

Good Gopher Dog!

PoongSoon dug out her first gopher of the year.  It was a big fat one responsible for eroding our side yard slope.  Good dog!