I'm pretty sure I've written about this before, but the difference is so great that I think it is worth writing about again. Namely that there is a difference between dog and dog, and I intend, as usual, to start from my own experience and use above all Ella as an example. Now that I've hung out with a bunch of others, normal dogs, I realize even more that Ella was not like that.
I do not know how many times I tried to explain to other people that Ella was not a normal dog. I have friends who, after knowing both me and Ella for many years, still do not fully understand what is in a dog bred by the defense.
For those who after following the blog for a while, you probably remember that I usually say that Ella lived her life at thousands of kilometers a second. She had extremely high energy levels, and it was easy to perceive her as a dog with both ADHD and Asperger's. She was also extremely intense and completely convinced that the world belonged to her. Above all, she loved people and assumed that everyone loved her at least as much. She was also quite a sharp dog, and didn't work very well with very many dogs.
She sure had would have been calmer if she had an outlet for her need to work, but now it didn't turn out that way. I did my best to turn her on, but what I have done with her has never met her needs. Now I've been lucky, because she has worked anyway (although there are certainly those who think differently) and has done well as a companion dog and barometer for me.
But insult me not by saying that you've also had a high-energy dog and certainly also know what it's like. I have met dogs after Ella who had high energy, been intense and wanted a lot – but none of them have even been close to her level. And I'm not saying that because I'm biased, but because it is so.
Namely, it is difference in a dog that has a certain level of stress and because of that is perceived as high energy, and a dog who is a whirlwind of nature. There is a difference between a dog that is easy to learn and can do anything for a piece of candy, and a dog driven forward by such a strong will to do, that its entire psyche and mentality vibrates with it.
The clever thing with the whole thing is that you have to feel the dog. And by that I don't mean that you know what it likes, don't like, how it works and so on. That's not what I'm talking about now. What I mean is that you have to feel the dog's energy field. And believe me when I say it; I have so far not met a dog that has felt in the same way as Ella. But maybe it is, that many people either do not know how to feel energy fields, or they screw it up.
A dog bred of the armed forces is an elite dog. They are bred for a single purpose; to work. If you watch various film clips with military dogs, police dogs, watchman with dog and the like, then you see that they are almost always in front of the person (who likes to stand/walk slightly backwards to resist) because that's where they do their job. Such a dog does not get tired in the same way as a normal dog. Apart from Ella's last six months when she slept a lot (and actually slept deeply instead of with at least one eye open), I think she was completely knocked out maybe a couple of times throughout her life.
I have met a human who also had an FM dog for a while. A guardian, and when I told him how rough it was to walk with Ella when she was on the leash, he knew exactly what I meant. I have friends who believe that you can teach all dogs to walk nicely on a leash, and I believe that to be true. As long as it's a normal dog.
But Ella was not a normal dog. On the whole, I think I did quite well with her. Especially considering she was my first dog. But there are a few things where I never managed to get it right. For example, this thing about hanging on the leash. Not always, but very often. Her need to move forward and discover what was behind the next blade of grass and the next stick was greater than her willingness to do what I asked of her.. Another thing was her exaggeration, shitty joy when the doorbell rang or we met people outside that we knew – or who happened to look her in the eye.
I do not know if I will ever get people to understand the difference between a normal dog and an FM dog. It is perhaps difficult to understand if you have not had an FM dog yourself. The only similarity they have is that they are dogs, regardless of how they are bred. But there the similarities end. The psyche and mentality of an FM dog is something completely different from that of a normal dog.
I'm full aware that I'm talking about Ella as if she were some kind of überdog. And she was in and of herself. But that doesn't mean she was easy to live with. On the contrary. She was extremely stressful to live with, and I don't think I will ever recommend a private person to either become a foster host or adopt an adult FM dog. There is too much that can go wrong, if you are unlucky or ignorant. It takes way too much blood, sweat and tears to learn the hard way.