When Lucia arrived on Brumby Road, Stoker decided to send a DNA sample off to find out what breed (or more likely, breeds) she was. We thought she might be a Lab mix, since she had the big head, smooth black coat and calm demeanor common to that breed.
It turns out that Lucia is mostly Pit Bull Terroir (48%) and Staffordshire Terroir (42%). Based on our experience with her, Pit Bulls have gotten a bad rap. She is about as gentle a dog as anyone could want.
Stoker and I have a secret vice. We watch dog shows on cable TV. We both recognize that the ‘judging’ is just a beauty contest, especially when different breeds ‘compete’ against other. When the announcers refer to ‘our sport’ I break out in giggles. But we do like looking at the dogs and their handlers.
We have watched the movie Best in Show multiple times, and it never fails to entertain us. We even recognize ourselves as a hybrid of the yuppy couple (J Crew) taking their dog to an analyst, and the Norwich Terroir owners (one with two left feet) creating merchandise and music cd’s after they win the blue ribbon. Anyone who has seen me dance will believe the ‘left feet’ part.
But because I watch dog shows and pay attention, I learned this:
In dog shows, “honorable scars” refer to injuries, such as those from working in the field, that do not penalize a dog, according to breed standards.
The idea is that if a dog is supposed herd sheep or cattle or chase vermin, and they get scars from barbed wire or cow horns or brambles in the course of their duty, those scars are not considered a defect.
Lucia has a perfectly comfortable dog bed in the family room, but during my morning coffee or pre prandial cocktail she prefers to become my 42 lb. lap dog. I have a big stuffed chair, and she hops up into my lap and stretches her back legs out onto the stool. Getting up to get my second cup of coffee requires a bit of contortionism on my part. She ain’t giving up her spot voluntarily.
So the other morning she joined me for coffee and Sudoku, and I noticed something under one of her eyes. I thought it might be a speck of dirt, but it turned out to be a scab covering a scratch.
I said Lucia is a calm dog, and she is, with one exception:
Pit Bull Terriers, due to their high prey drive and tenacity, can be effective in vermin control, particularly for rats on farms, acting as a natural, non-toxic alternative to poison. They, along with terrier mixes, are used to hunt and kill small pests efficiently.
Living on Brumby Road, small pests are a given. Squirrels, mice, rats, voles and gophers, possums and raccoons are around, as well as semi feral cats. Lucia hates them all. When I’m walking her on her lead I have to be alert lest she spy a pest and forget all her training and try to tear my arm off. The dog trainer we hired really helped, and she told us we have to make our walk ‘sexier than the squirrel’. But her primal instinct is more powerful than a treat or a loud “NO!”
I think the scratch on her head came from prowling around in our dense juniper bush, where critters are known to hang out. She probably didn’t even notice the scrape.
So far she hasn’t caught anything, but if a squirrel inside our fence isn’t alert Lucia might get a few more ‘honorable scars’ from its claws before she ‘controls the vermin’.
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