Libby, Queen of the Universe

Libby is Ringo's sister and owned by Karen Cline. Here is what Karen has to say about her:

Libby is certainly not the dog for everyone, but she is an incredible dog, in my opinion! She is a complex mix of traits with a very dominant alpha personality at the top of it all. She is the bossiest, most courageous dog I've ever known. However, her very wonderful biddability offers balance and makes her easy to work with - so long as you're someone for whom she has respect. She is exceptionally friendly toward all people, but she will not work or "perform" for just anyone. If she's not going to work for you, you'll probably think she's deaf. I have a son that she can't hear unless he has food in his hand. Sometimes she can't even see him if he doesn't have food in his hand. He doesn't understand much about dogs and Libby knows it and exploits it. LOL

If you don't know Libby, you might be inclined to think she didn't listen to anyone. When I correct her, she doesn't cower or give any physical sign of submission. It does not matter how strong the correction. Her response is more like, "Oh... gotcha!" However, it is obvious that she takes the correction to heart, as I rarely have to correct her twice. She would do just about anything to please me.

Her bossiness and dominance is reserved for the animal kingdom... and not people. She is incredible with children, despite the fact that we do not have any kids in our home. She proved herself as a protector of children when she was just 12 months old. We were at the ranch and out in the middle of the pasture, when she stopped my border collie from attacking my five year old neice (totally out of the blue). Libby saw what was happening and placed herself between Chim Cham and Maddie, and made Chim Cham back down. However, before the adults could get there, Chim Cham decided to try one more time. I yelled "DOWN!" but Chim Cham did not obey. Libby's enforcer personality came out immediately, and she put Chim Cham into a forced down and held her on the ground until I could get there. Chim Cham is much larger and more stockily built, but Libby had no problem putting her on the ground.... and no problem holding her there. By the way, Libby had only seen Maddie once or twice before... so this was about protecting "a" child rather than protecting "her" child.

In obedience class one night, a young, goofy golden retriever escaped from his handler and was doing "zoomies" all over the ring. We had an Aussie in the class that had dog agression issues, so many people were trying to catch the golden before he got too close to the Aussie. Libby watched several people dive for the golden, then in exasperation, ran across the ring (she'd been on a "wait" while I walked across the ring for a recall exercise), grabbed the golden, and held him for his handler. I was really afraid that she'd hurt him... but he didn't have a mark on him. She just wanted him to know that we *do not* run in class. LOL

Because Libby has such a strong enforcer personality, we have to be very careful of disciplining (or even correcting) other animals in front of her. She will take it upon herself to discipline the other animal for you. Heaven forbid you tell another dog it's "bad". She'll offer to spank it for you. She reminds me a bit of a mafia hit man... "You want I should handle it, boss??"

Libby can get along with other dogs if they are willing to accept that she is the reigning Queen of the Universe. The "problem" is that not every dog is willing to bow and scrape. :) She generally does not start fights - at least not in a way that is obvious to most people - but she will not back down from one. She does have a way of ticking off other dogs just by her presence, however, so I always have to watch with new dogs to make sure that things don't get out of hand. This was demonstrated recently at Lynda's farm when Libby accompanied us to pick up Melody. Things where going along pretty well, then all of a sudden there was a donnybrook with Gabby and Libby... and Ringo and Daisy jumped in to help. There are just signals between Libby and other dogs that are about impossible to see... until suddenly a hockey game breaks out. Lynda's lovely girl, Gabby, ended up with a pierced lip courtesy of Libby... but she gave as good as she got and Libby went home with a third nostril punched in her nose leather. LOL Fortunately, everyone was easily called off and it was over as quickly as it started.

Libby is not bothered by sights or sounds. She sits in the back yard watching fireworks on the 4th when all the rest of the dogs in the neighborhood have gone to hide. She'll look over at me with excitement as if to say, "Hey, did you see THAT one??" She's also not bothered by guns. I have only found one thing that frightened her - a 5' timber rattler and I think that it is a good thing of which to be afraid. However, even with the rattler, she did not run or back off - she just kept her distance while making sure that no one else accidentally got too close to it.

Libby has so many "gears" I don't know if I can describe them all. I have used her to move bulls that my border collie could not begin to work. She has all the grit you'll ever need for close work with large, rangy stock. Libby is a naturally low heeler, but she will go to the head when necessary. She doesn't bark much when working, but will if it is needed and will grip when it's appropriate. She definitely takes it down a notch when working sheep. She has caught and held chickens and rabbits for me when I needed help catching one. In those instances, she is super gentle and does not use her teeth, but holds them with her paws and/or lays on them. She tends to use her front feet a lot like hands. She uses her feet to open and close gates (and crates), which is quite funny to see. My son calls this tendency of hers "being foot-y". She also passed this trait to her daughter, Sera.

Because of Libby's strong personality, I have some challenges in choosing mates for her. I have to choose a dog that will temper the Queen of the Universe tendency, but maintain the excellent working qualities and the biddability. The combination of Boo and Libby was excellent in this respect. Boo has subsequently been neutered - and so there won't be more from that match. (No, despite a friend's attempts at starting a funny rumor, Libby did not neuter him herself ;) The combination of Libby and Sir is still in the "wait and see" stage since the pups are just now three months old. However, my initial observations of the litter and reports from their new owners are encouraging.

She is an incredible mother and it doesn't matter the species. She tried to raise the cat's kittens at the same time as she had a litter of 12 pups. Obviously, the lowly cat was just not equipped (in Libby's mind) to be as good a mother as Her Royal Libbyness. ;) We are very fortunate that our cat tolerates Libby being Libby. Libby has also been known to attempt to resuscitate a dead newborn rabbit, and when she failed to do so, she openly grieved for it.

While Libby is always friendly to people, there have been two times when she made it clear that she would take no prisoners if she thought I was in danger. On two different occasions, while walking along Tulsa's Riverparks trails just after sundown, I've encountered men that seemed to have bad intentions and they gave both Libby and I the "heebie geebies". She immediately went into protective mode and made it clear that if they got any closer, they might lose a limb. In both cases, they turned and went another way. I've never known if she was reading the men herself or if she was keying from my interpretation of their actions. It doesn't matter to me.... she's proven that she'd protect me, and I won't walk in the park without her unless is it broad daylight (and even then I take one or more of the dogs "just because").

Finally, I have to comment on her intelligence. She seems to understand **everything** I say... and she watches everything I do. I recently had told Sera (out of Libby by Rott's Boo) to go outside, but Sera had found something interesting to sniff and seemed not to hear me. I turned to Libby and said, "You need to go tell your daughter that I said to get herself outside!" I really didn't expect Libby to do anything.... I was just talking. However, she immediately left my side, went straight to Sera and gave her "the look". Sera dropped her head in submission and skeedaddled for the back door. Libby just looked at me and grinned. Smart alec!

I'm very grateful for having Libby in my life. Like I said, she's certainly not the dog for everyone, but we adore her.

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Karen in Oklahoma
Concharty English Shepherds http://www.concharty.com