“Chris Buck” Los Angeles Animated Film Director
It’s not surprising that a successful film director would be a great storyteller, but I wouldn’t peg the co-director of Frozen to write a spot-on (and hilarious) piece about masculine pack mentality.
My house is full of plastic rifles, water polo balls, video games, three boys and a dog. Bouncing back and forth between my major jobs of trash man, chef and referee, I finally made the connection between raising my boys and raising dogs.
About 8 years ago, my neighbor’s dog was having puppies. My wife thought it would be a great idea to get three of them, one for each boy. They all were cute, yet very different looking- Jack Russell (yikes!) and Sheltie mix. Each boy had picked out one for himself, one that matched his personality- and amazingly, they were all males. Life was bliss as the puppies charmed everyone they came in contact with.
Then they grew up.
As my boys were then 10, 8 and 4, fights were a regular part of their daily routine. From who got to ride shotgun to who got the last piece of any food, competition ran rampant. I was so used to it, I barely heard or noticed anything unless there was blood.
But to my surprise, I really noticed the puppies’ fighting. They were constantly at it, snarling and snapping at each other. They’d race to finish their own food so they could run over to their brothers’ bowls to gobble that up also. After eating, they’d mark their territory by pissing all over the house. One would piss on the corner of the couch and the other two would follow right behind, adding to the mess. There was definitely a leader- Uno, with Rocky a close second, and Tres bringing up the rear. Tres was always being picked on, and if one started fighting with Tres, the other would gleefully join in, teaching me more about pack mentality- and where the phrase ‘dog pile’ comes from.
Pack mentality is extremely primal. If someone is injured or in trouble- Great! Let’s all take him down together- thinning out the weak ones. One of the worst examples was when we decided to get bark collars for all of them. Great idea- zaps them when they bark; they equate pain with barking- no more barking! Wrong.
Being the leader, Uno was usually the first to bark. But because they ran in a pack, his bark would set off all the collars. So they would all let out a yelp after Uno’s bark. But then Tres’ yelp would set off his collar again. So he’d yelp again setting off the collar until it was an endless stream of zapping and yelping. But before we could get the collar off, Tres’ yelping set off the primal instinct in both Uno and Rocky- wounded animal! It was insane trying to get them off of Tres and the collars off of all three. We managed, but that was our first trip to the Emergency Vet with many more to follow. They had many more fights, jaw-locking themselves onto each other with being thrown in the pool as the only way of becoming unlocked. Our cute little fur balls were now deadly killing machines, ready to take each other out at the drop of a hat- or piece of cheese.
Here’s where the boys and dogs differ. We had every intention of keeping all the boys but it was time to split up the dogs. The boys protested, but as much as they hated all the chores that the dogs produced, we knew they wouldn’t grieve for too long. I know it sounds like we were going to put them down, but that wasn’t an option. They had to find loving homes, willing to take them with all their faults. But we knew once they were separated, and got to be the only dog in the house, they would all be happier.
Big question now- which one do we keep? I opted for Uno since he was the smartest. The boys each wanted to keep the ones they had chosen originally. But my wife wanted to keep the dopey one- Tres. I couldn’t imagine having that moron all by himself, but she persuaded me that he would be a great dog once his brothers were gone. Once the others were dispatched (Uno to my mother-in-law, Rocky to my brother’s neighbors), I was humbled by my wife’s wisdom, once again.
Tres blossomed without his brothers always bullying him and grabbing the spotlight. It was his time to shine and get all the love and attention he deserved. Tres lapped it up and has become the sweetest companion of all of ours, and has become my ever- ready jogging and hiking companion. Something I can’t say about my boys or my wife.
My boys are very much like those dogs- each so different in personality and temperament. Pissing on each other’s territory, grabbing each other’s food, fighting until a good toss in the pool is all that will break it up. But I love each one of them on their own terms and each one needs their time alone to shine.