Feist Dogs
Let us begin with a definition.
Feist Dogs
[Sometimes rendered homophonically in journals as “Fice Dogs”]
A Feist Dog was a hunting dog that was the offspring
of Native American hunting dogs and those dogs brought over by colonists and
settlers.
A feist dog was not so much a particular breed as an amalgamation
of the elements of the hunting and work dogs used by indigenous tribes and the
more meticulously bred Old World dogs.
To some, a feist dog was an ungainly cur that didn’t
take to commands [obedience] well.
To others the feist dog was an admired crossbreed that
seemed to benefit from the mix of the “savage” or “wild” elements and the “cultured.”
An animal that possessed the best of both traits.
Human Feist Dogs
We also find references to some humans as Feist Dogs,
or sometimes simply calling someone “Feisty.”
This refers to someone who has “Gone Native” or “Gone
Savage.”
That is, someone raised in the bosom of “civil society”
but due to close association with the native population, adopted their ways, and
in many cases preferred their ways.
[The record of “Indian captives” returning to their “captors”
after barter or rescue is copious.]
To some, a Fiest Dog Human, or Feisty Man was an abomination.
A cur of a Man or Woman.
To others, they were individuals that possessed the best
of both traits.
To some, to be a Feist Dog was the epitome.
Feisty Humans were found not in cities or townships,
but in the trackless forests, mountain fastnesses, the airid deserts and
wind-scorched plains of the frontier.
The environment bred Feistiness.
Be it the physical environment or the cultural environment.
This is perhaps best summed up in the words of Stuart
Lake, associate of the legendary Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp.
“The frontier breeds men. Good or
evil, law-abiding, or lawless, the pick of the strain are fighting men.”
The European Dream
In the comparatively settled regions of Great Britain
and Europe there was a long tradition of holding the blending of the “civilized”
and the “wild” as the epitome of the Free Man [Feist Dogs]. This tradition of elevating
the wild in man has gone by many names but was famously rendered as “Noble Savage”
in the works of Rousseau.
Rousseau’s Noble Savage was the pure-bred indigenous
human.
The European Dream was to return to this realm while
not completely losing the appreciable veneer of “finer association.” [The perks
of civilization.]
[For a fascinating look at how Indigenous Thought was likely
the inspiration for much of what we take as products of The Enlightenment, including
what spawned Rousseau’s “Noble Savage” appellation, see David Graeber’s and
David Wengrow’s magisterial The Dawn of Everything: A New History of
Humanity.]
This desire to embody what the New World Frontier
called feistiness is expressed in philosophical tracts, song, literature, poetry
and theater as in this extract from John Dryden’s The Conquest of Granada.
“I am as free as Nature first made man,
Ere the base laws of servitude began.
When wild in woods the noble savage ran.”
There was a yearning to be free. That freedom was
thought to be found in wilderness among “wild” peoples.
An environment that no longer existed in the New World
but was found in abundance in the New.
Thusly, feist dogs can be rendered also as a blend of
the Old World and the New World.
Again, Mr. Earp’s associate.
“The frontier breeds men. Good or evil,
law-abiding, or lawless, the pick of the strain are fighting men.”
The Mythic Iteration
European myth is rife with quests, journeys, ventures
and crusades into the unknown.
As expressed by the esteemed scholar of myth, Joseph
Campbell:
I can quibble with Campbell’s use of the word “supernatural”
as we have no need of it in the Feist Dog reality. We can render the word “supernatural”
into a super-abundance of the Natural and we have a truth instead of a myth. An
actuality instead of a metaphor.
Let us read it with that Frontier aspect in mind.
With that, we deal with what actually occurred and to
what Mr. Lake refers.
“The frontier breeds men. Good or evil,
law-abiding, or lawless, the pick of the strain are fighting men.”
The New World Actuality to Myth & Back
Again
We have mythic quests in the Old-World tradition, that
become actual adventures of grit and ruggedness in the New World and then New
Myths are made.
But often these new myths are rooted in that
ruggedness of the New World.
Feist Dogs are the amalgamation of the born and bred
and the encountered and adapted.
The Roots of Tarzan
Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle, Lord Greystoke [Viscount
actually] was author Edgar Rice Burrough’s fictional rendering of the ultimate Feist
Dog. A man who is Master of Civilization and the Wild environment.
The Tarzan of the novels is no monosyllabic brute, but
a highly intelligent, articulate human being who functions beautifully in both
worlds [Wild and Mild.]
Burroughs’ Tarzan is set in Africa, a continent he had
never visited.
But…Burrough’s inspiration is New World borne.
His Tarzan was midwifed in observation from actual experiences.
Burroughs served in the 7th US Cavalry stationed
at Fort Grant, Arizona Territory in the 1890s. What he saw there, the feats of frontier
scouts, indigenous prowess of survival and adaptation in the harsh deserts and mountainous
terrain was a stark contrast to his Chicago Oak Park upbringing.
He saw in the scouts and the indigenous peoples, feist
dogs capable of astounding feats in the wilderness yet also ready and able
companions in the “civilized” environs of Fort Grant.
For his fiction, Burroughs did not want to write yet
another “Western story” as these were dominating the market, so he altered his
tale and other particulars to Africa, but the cast and model were found in the
reality of the Feist Dogs he saw and served with.
The Attributes of Fighting Dogs/Feist Dogs
I repeat our opening caution.
[Caution: At
some point in this essay we will be discussing fighting dogs, if thou art one whose
parlor-bred disposition cannot encounter, even in abstract, such topics proceed
no further. This is an essay of Men and Fellow animals born and bred for the
edge.]
Noted authority on fighting dogs of the world, Dr.
Carl Semencic, makes the following claims for wisely raised fighting dog
breeds.
He offers that they are the “Best choice as a
Companion and Home Guardian” not as an apology that they “are as good as”
non-fighting dogs, but “Best Choice” because they are
fighting dogs.
Bear in mind, a fighting dog is still a domestic
animal [a civilized hound if you will] but with aspects that hint at its former
wolfish ancestry that have been allowed or bred to persist.
In short, yet another iteration of Feist Dogs.
Dr. Semencic claims that, in his experience, the
expression of loyalty and devotion are higher in fighting dogs due to the
higher stakes of the bonding process.
I offer an analogy to seat his idea.
The Band of Brothers phenomenon, those who have fought
alongside one another, survived an ordeal together, pulled through a tornado
and following flood together often forge bonds far stronger than we build in
comfort.
Bob and I, who have survived a backwoods snowstorm in
a subpar tent seem to be tighter than me and Chuck who I meet and discuss Bronson
movies around the water cooler with.
I like both men, but…one I aided in his survival and
he in mine.
The bond seems tighter because of higher stakes.
This devotion in the fighting dog “is based on a
loyalty that will preserve and protect its owner at any expense to itself.”
A quality rarely encountered in humans.
The Good Doctor, of course, offers the fighting dogs
superiority in guardian ability.
We recognize that same distinction in humans.
Your car breaks down at 2AM, cell service is sketchy
and it’s a 6 mile walk to the next exit.
Who would you rather have by your side?
Dave, face buried in the non-working phone yammering
on about how they screwed up the last season of Stranger Things, or Pam,
who is eyes, up, squared away and always packing with a .357 in her gun purse?
Dr. Semencic also offers that fighting dogs have
superior adaptability. Rarely subject to hyperactivity. The energy spent training,
fighting, or having the realities of the fight well inside the noggin seems to
lead to less false-positive barking fits, less conniptions over nothing.
Many of us are lucky enough to know squared away folk
who are known for risky feats occasionally, who display nothing but CCC [Calm,
cool, and collected] in the everyday “annoyances of life.
We are also unlucky enough to know the lap dog that
never stops yipping or peeing on the carpet.
Or the acquaintance wo never stops complaining or
peeing on the carpet of civility.
Dr. Semencic also makes claims for high intelligence.
All dogs are trainable.
All dogs also lean a bit into what the breed was bred
for. Retrievers retrieve, as anyone with a Lab and a tennis ball knows.
Shepherds will spend hours corralling toys into
designated areas.
Dr. Semencic reminds us that if we are not hunting
these dogs, or keeping our sheep confined, we have unexpressed attributes.
The fighting dog, whether it fights or not, still is
on watch whether it fights or not.
His point being, we may not hunt with our Labs or ride
herd on sheep with our shepherds, but that does not prevent us from owning and
loving them. The same with a fighting dog, we may never introduce it to the pit
but that does not prevent us from loving the dog just as we would the other attribute-unutilized
breeds.
Loyalty, devotion, guardian ability [toughness], adaptability,
and intelligence are the attributes of a good fighting dog.
A good Feist Dog.
A Good Human.
A Feisty Human.
Humans who choose the interplay between “civilization”
and what changes encounters with challenging frontiers render.
Mr. Lake again.
“The frontier breeds men. Good or evil,
law-abiding, or lawless, the pick of the strain are fighting men.”
Our altered Mr. Campbell again.
“A hero ventures forth from the world of common day
into a region of super-abundance of the Natural: fabulous forces are there
encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this
mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.”
Wanna join me on this Frontier Hero’s adventure--
Resources for Livin’ the Warrior Life
The Rough ‘n’ Tumble Raconteur Podcast
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