THE OTHER END OF THE LEASH

I hope you got a chance to watch the video I posted last week from trainer Aki Yamaguchi (thanks so much!). I greatly enjoyed reading the comments; some of you did a fantastic job providing detailed descriptions of the behavior of all three dogs. My goal in posting the video (beyond the fact that it is a great video of dog behavior) was to 1) emphasize how much behavior can occur in a very short period of time, and 2) how difficult it can be to separate out descriptions of what you saw from interpretations of what you think the behavior represented.

First off, here are a couple of tips that all budding ethologists are given when asked to describe behavior, especially when viewing multiple animals:

1) Learn to identify each animal as an individual.  This was easy here but when watching wild animals (or a litter of Golden Retriever puppies)  it can take a long time. When I first began working with Cotton-Top Tamarins it took me many hours of observing to be able to sort out each individual by sight. But we are lucky here because the dogs are so easy to identify. If the animals you are watching are hard to ID, then do what you need to do to be able to identify them instantly, either through practice or marks on their bodies.

2) Give each animal a short hand designation (as many of you did, good for you). Let’s say that in this case, the seemingly younger and whiter Border Collie is W (for Whiter BC), the seemingly more mature, darker Border Collie is B (for Blacker BC) and the other dog is G for Golden Brown dog. You could also use numbers, but unless there are too many animals I prefer names if you have a data sheet or program you are using, or letters if you have to write down long hand who is doing what.

3) Begin observations with an already established “ethogram,” a list of categorized and detailed descriptions of every possible behavior seen in the species. Part of my training in ethology as an undergraduate was creating a ethogram of a particular species. I worked with a band of ponies owned by the university, and froze my fingers off sitting and watching them, recording notes and diagrams of what I was seeing. After many hours, I converted my notes into an organized list of behaviors, categorized loosely by function (if known), ie: gustatory (feeding), grooming, social interactions, etc.

You might think that there would be a plethora of ethograms of dog behavior, but alas, familiarity breeds contempt, and there are relatively few. A great source is the website EthoSearch, in which you can type in any species once you have registered (it is free, yeah for that). I registered and typed in “domestic dog,” and 14 entries came up.

If you do the same you’ll see tremendous variation, from a list of behaviors as broad as “play,” to as fine grained as “Chin over: W places chin over L’s back, usually right behind the neck or near L’s shoulders, W’s chin may or may not touch L but W’s chin must be at or near a 90-degree angle in relation to the plane of L’s spine. (Bauer & Smuts 2007). How detailed a description is necessary is, in part, driven by what the researchers are investigating. Do they want to know how much time an individual animal played versus how much time it spent sleeping? Then there is no reason to be much more specific (as long as they define play itself very carefully–not always an easy thing to do.) But what if one is trying to sort out the relationship between two individuals? Then “play” is going to be a useless category, while “full play-bow” and “turn to face” are going to be much more meaningful.

If you have the time and inclination to join EthoSearch, you’ll find that it lists published articles that include full or partial ethograms of any particular species. You’ll note that some of them are problematic, either in that they are indeed a tad vague or ascribe too much function to what should merely be an observation. Of the 14 listed, in my opinion the best partial ethograms on domestic dogs are Bauer/Smuts 20xx, Fargo/Pongranz 2010 & Ward/Trisko 2009.

Other good sources of canine ethograms are Sue Sternberg’s article in Chronicle of the Dog, An Ethogram of the Shelter Dog, and Barbara Handelman’s book, Canine Behavior, A Photo Illustrated Handbook.

Almost all of the behaviors recorded in wolves are also seen in dogs, so although dogs are very different in many ways than wolves, each of their movements, postures and expressions are derived from that of wolves, so wolf ethograms are an important source/ (or perhaps I should say that the other way around).

4) Record Your Observations. The hardest way to do this is to do what we all did: try to write down as fast as possible what we saw, then rewind, start again, and continue writing and refining. Actually, that’s not the hardest way. The hardest way is to do it in real time; video are a great luxury in the world of behavior. Because things happen so fast, anything you can do to facilitate record keeping is helpful.

Use data sheets or event recorders: Serious researchers know that they can’t record everything, so they learn enough about the subject and their area of interest and record only certain behavior. They might have a list of the particular behaviors they are interested in, or certain individuals they are focused on. Having a list of behaviors written down or coded into an event recorder (for example, you’d tap key 1 for a tongue flick) makes recording much faster and more accurate. There are also a variety of ways to focus your attention. I won’t go into this in detail, but one can focus on one individual animal in one session, record what one animal is doing at timed intervals, or scan the group and record if you see any individual doing X.

So… how does all this relate to our video?

First, recall that we have dogs W, B and G. Here are some definitions for our ethogam:

Tongue Flick (tf): The tongue is extruded forward and then retracted from between the most cranial aspect of the jaws, both movements in and out usually occurring in less than a half of one second. (See Lip Lick)

Lip Lick (ll): The tongue is extruded laterally on one side of the mouth for less than one second, and then retracted. (See Tongue Flick)

Standing Over (so): One dog places its forelegs onto the dorsal surface of another dog, usually while standing at 90 degrees to the cranial/caudal plane of the lower dog.

Turns to Face (ttf): Dog rapidly turns body and head to face directly toward the line of travel of another dog who is close by (approx’ly within 2 feet), its gaze steadily directed toward the head of the other dog.

Hip Slam: Dog turns body rapidly and presses/rubs lateral side of one hip against the body of another, often directed toward the other dog’s hip also. Can be done with force, or relatively slowly and with little visible impact.

Here is the video again, so that you can reference it. I’m not going to begin describing every behavior that occurs, but here are some examples of how I would describe what I observe:

SECOND 8 to 11: B tf, moves back and faces W, bb W.

SECOND 17: W low intensity hs to G.

SECOND 12 to 28: B ttf 5 times to W.

Etc etc. One can describe what happens in each second, or list how often one action occurs in a specific time frame.

And my thoughts on all this? Oooh, such a great video of the subtle dance of social communication! I agree with many readers who suggested that these dogs all have good social skills. All signals were clear and moderated. The young dog, W, responded well to the signals of the older B. Beyond the obvious “young dog being aggressively obsequious” (that is a term I coined, although I will admit it presumes a lot) and an older dog behaving in ways to inhibit it, I find especially interesting that the older BC appears to tolerate the muzzle biting and licking of W when it is directed toward him/her in the beginning of the video. It is not until the pup switches to doing the same to the lab that B begins to behave as if to inhibit it. It takes a while for the pup to respond (5 ‘turn to faces’ as a matter of fact), but the pup does eventually perform a lot of appeasement behavior to B.

I should say here that I am indeed now making attributions of the behavior we’ve described. We must always be aware that we are just guessing about motivations, but social signals are meant to be read and interpreted, and at some point one simply has to sit back and ask ones self what it all means.

And so, why is the older BC trying to inhibit the younger one’s behavior around the lab? Possibilities include 1) It finds too much movement stressful, 2) It is trying to protect the lab from the pup, 3) It is competing for attention and wants the attention back on it. [Interesting note: Aki shared with me that a week after the video was taken, the lab was discovered to have a urinary infection. Very, very interesting, especially considering that the pup appears to actually have sampled some of the lab's urine by licking its prepuce... watch and you can see suggestions that the pup is moving its jaws at Second 38.]  I’ll bet there are other hypotheses to explain motivation, I’d love to hear more!

And why is the pup so relentlessly licking/mouthing the lab? Trying to get it to play? Trying to get some social acknowledgement from it? (Note that the lab is being tolerant, but neither is it acknowledging the pup in any way). What was the hip slam/body rub about at second 17?

I could go on and on, but this is getting toooo long, and my dogs are waiting to get their dinners! I’d love to hear your thoughts about the questions I’ve raised here . . .

MEANWHILE, back on the farm. One reader gently reminded me that Tootsie hasn’t gotten much press lately. So true. Willie’s work with sheep and the new cats have been stealing the show. The good news is that Tootsie is doing really, really well. She gets to cuddle in bed every morning, goes into rapturous states of bliss at night on the couch as I rub her belly, responds to my petting Willie with desperate attempts for attention and has discovered that one never knows when one can find pieces of kibble hiding in the grass. Regrettably, she’s also discovered that one can also find cat poop hidden in the mulch in the flower beds too… sigh. We’re working on that. She’s learned to stay out of the main garden by the house, to respond to “leave it,” and that I have the best food on the farm in my pocket. That means there’s not a jacket in the house without food stains on the pockets, but then, who cares if it keeps Tootsie attending to me instead of cat poop?

Here she is in her native habitat: my lap:

Here is a fantastic video for our analysis, provided by dog trainer and blogger, Aki Yamaguchi, or “BCNerd” (love the name!). In it you’ll see three dogs, one an adolescent with the typical over enthusiasm for his age. There’s lots I can’t wait to say about what is going on here, but I’m going to tape my mouth shut and let anyone who would like to play use it as an exercise in observing and describing behavior. (Lots of you loved the idea of us watching and analyzing videos together, which I’m thankful for, because I love doing it too.)

If you want to respond with a comment, and I hope you do, I suggest that you include :

1) An objective description of what is happening. Practice making clear, detailed observations about what you are actually seeing. Hold off on making any assumptions about motive until you’ve done this first. Try doing it yourself before reading the comments. Another interesting exercise is to watch it once and write down everything  you see. Then watch it again and notice if you missed something. (It is almost impossible not to first time around…)

2) Make your best guess about what transpired here. Although we can’t possibly ever know what’s going on inside the dog’s heads or what their motives are, it is perfectly reasonable to give it our best shot. Your summary can be very short, a chapter title if you like, but don’t hesitate to add whatever you’d like about motivation or interesting issues that this video brings up. I think this video stimulates some interesting questions about social behavior and cognition in dogs.

MEANWHILE, back on the farm: More unseasonably warm weather. It is much appreciated, since we have several farm chores to do that require the temp to be over 50 F (painting for one). Otherwise, little Polly (not so little anymore) is at the vet clinic recovering from spay surgery, Nellie is trying to figure out how to get over the fence we’ve put around the bird feeders to protect the birds, Tootsie is thrilled with her new “Treasure Hunt” game that sends her off scenting for kibble strewn about a fenced woodland area while Willie and I do the barn chores. This, by the way, is not just for Tootsie’s enjoyment, it is also a management tool to prevent her from gobbling up cat poop in and around the barn. Sigh. It doesn’t “solve” the problem, but it sure manages my way around it, which is almost as good.

I’m easing Willie back on working the sheep now that I’m back home and King Charles is in with the flock. Rams can be extremely aggressive to dogs, and although Willie handled the last ram well, Redford still went after him several times. I’d rather avoid that now while I’m working on getting Willie’s confidence back. A sex-crazed 250 lb. battering ram is something a good dog needs to be able to handle, but I want Willie feeling a lot more confident before he has to face down with an animal with an anvil attached to his neck.

To avoid that, I let Willie move the flock around on the front lawn yesterday, but I took a huge leaf rake with me (the kind that looks like a big fan) and held it vertically at my side. (Recall the Grant Wood painting with farmer and pitchfork, that pretty much was me, except I’m not skinny.) I kept Willie with me, and only asked him to “Walk Up” on the ram when I was walking 20 feet behind him, rake held up over my head like some prehistoric dinosaur. King Charles took one look  in our direction and walked meekly away. I’ll try that one more time and then see how he responds to Willie without my “head gear.” I’ll also use the sorting chute that Jim built me and work Willie on just some of the flock, along with visiting friends with flightier sheep. Wish us luck, he and I were doing so well together when I left for Texas, it feels like we need to get back into the groove…

What a great time we’ve had the last two nights: I had the pleasure of doing a fund raiser for the Austin Humane Society in Austin Tuesday night, and for the Animal Defense League of Texas in San Antonio last night. Both nights had fantastic turn outs and raised lots of money for good causes.

By the way, please please please check out the website of the Austin Humane Society. This is what I shouted in my office, months ago, when I first found it: “You guys, you guys, you HAVE GOT TO COME SEE THIS!!!”

A few hours south of Austin, the newly formed San Antonio Pet Trainers Alliance (all progressive trainers, and as nice a group as you can imagine) organized the San Antonio event and donated all the money to the Animal Defense League. You can learn more about the Alliance by writing saptaoffice@gmail.com. Its founders are Lorraine Martinez, Diana Wilkins and Irma Bice who trains at the Palms Pet Resort. If you are in the area, this looks like a fantastic opportunity to pack up with progressive trainers who are committed to educated and positive-based dog training. They are planning a series of educational events, and it was a singular pleasure to help them get the ball rolling.

One more special person to mention:  a generous woman (who preferred to be anonymous), the best friend and partner of a Portuguese Water Dog, bid $150 dollars for one of Willie’s “distressed” toys. We converted the proceeds into lots and lots of Love Has No Age Limit books for the Animal Defense League to send home with adopted dogs. A win/win all the way around.

Now that the speeches are over, I have time to show you a few photographs from our time at the Lake Austin Resort & Spa. First off, here are four lovely individuals we got to enjoy for two and a half days at the Celebrating Paws week at Lake Austin Resort. Susan and Mary Floye belong to Hap and Dorie, both dogs rescued from pretty horrific lives, and doing amazingly well.

Along with the services of a great clicker trainer (yeah Tina!) and a massage therapist, the Lake Austin also brought in Pet Photographer Jay Herman of Zoom Pet Photography, who does amazing work, is a delightful man and has about the most oxytocin producing Golden Retriever who ever lived, Abby.

Here’s one of  his photos of Hap, who Susan rescued from life on the streets in the barrio. Hap was extremely polite, but cautious of unfamiliar people. He made great progress at Celebrating Paws and seemed to be enjoying himself immensely.

And here’s the lovely Dorie, who Mary Floye adopted from Border Collie Rescue:

Following are a few photos of the wild critters Jim and I enjoyed. A far cry right now from November in Wisconsin for sure. Here’s a Monarch on what looks like what we call a Butterfly Bush. (And was it ever, it was covered with dozens of butterflies, gorgeous to watch.)

Next is either a Soldier or a Queen Butterfly. It’s in the Monarch family. The two species are very close, and apparently sometimes interbreed. It’s not a butterfly I’m familiar with, anyone know how to distinguish the two species?

Jim took the last photograph, on a boat tour we took of Lake Austin. It’s an Osprey, sometimes called a Fish Eagle, because it eats fish almost exclusively. It is one of the most widely distributed raptors, we see them in Wisconsin too. We had a great time watching this and many other gorgeous birds on the lake edge, from herons to egrets to grebes. Truly heavenly for a bird watcher like me.

And now, Jim and I are going to go play with dear friends and add two more fun and silly days to our honeymoon. Happy Dance again. Then home on Sunday, where I’ll melt into a puddle because as wonderful as it is here, if I told you how much I missed Willie you’d send me to counseling.)

Last week I posted a blog about giving our dogs more autonomy, and asked for comments about ideas on how to do so outside of working dogs on sheep. Many of the comments sent in response to that post are extremely helpful, and I encourage you to read through them. However, I know that time is short for many of us, so I’ve summarized some of the best ideas and some of my own this week.

First, as a preface, it is important to note that just like people, dogs vary tremendously in their desire for autonomy. Some dogs are extremely independent and others find too many choices burdensome. That’s why Willie stays in a crate when I’m gone. I am 100% sure that he is more comfortable in his ‘bedroom’ than being left loose in the house. When left loose he’s been a wreck when I returned home; no chewing or defecating, but wild-eyed and panicky. I believe that he perceives himself as “off-duty” in the crate, rather than responsible for alerting the household to noises and unexpected visitors. And who is to respond to his alerts if I am gone?  However… his is just the kind of personality that can gain confidence from having autonomy in other contexts. So, suggestion Number One: know your dog.

In addition, there are some contexts in which some dogs simply can’t be given free choice, whether it’s because they’d never coming back if running off leash in open areas, or you’re walking beside on a busy highway. Bottom line again: Know your dog.

With those caveats, here are some suggestions, especially for people whose dogs can never be off of a leash or line, for ways to give your dogs more choice.

1) Do ask: Ask yourself how often you can change from telling your dog what to do to, into asking your dog questions. Granted, there are plenty of times when we really do require our dogs to do what we say. (Thus, the title, “Do Ask, Do Tell.”) Example: I am not requesting Willie to respond when I say “Stand” (still). Sometimes it doesn’t matter if he listens to this cue, but other times it matters greatly (ie, several 150 pound battering rams (also known as sheep) about to run you over… it happens, believe me), so I need him to stop and stand still every time I say it. How would he know the difference between “you must” and “please” when only I know the context? I can’t imagine how you could mix and match the same cue to sometimes mean “you must” and other times mean “only if you feel like it.”

Job One then is to decide beforehand which cues you use that are not negotiable, and only use those when you expect a response. However, other cues aren’t necessarily that essential.

Here’s an example: When Willie and I play “Find It!” with his frisbee outside, after he’s had a good romp with it in his mouth, shaking and flipping it around. After a few minutes, I ask him to drop it so I can hide it for our Find It game. Although he’ll drop it on cue in other contexts, if we’re outside on the lawn he clearly wants me to throw it for him (I can’t cuz of his shoulder) rather than play Find It. So we’ve had a bit of a struggle when I say Drop It and he doesn’t. Actually, he’ll drop it, but when I reach for it he snatches it up in his mouth again. I’ve countered that by giving it right back to him when he does drop it, knowing that the best reinforcement for giving up the frisbee is getting it back again. I’ve also said “Okay, game over” in a cheerful voice and walked away if he won’t release the frisbee. That has helped, but not completely.

After I wrote the post on autonomy, I found myself watching him grab up the frisbee as I reached for it one morning and thought “Why not switch this around and give Willie the choice? It is a game for him after all.” So this time, rather than saying “Drop It,” I asked him if he was ready for me to take it. “Ready?” I said, and reached toward the disc. Nope, he wasn’t. He dipped his head and took the frisbee back in his mouth. “Okay, I said, no problem.” I stood in the same place, smiling and enjoying the sun shining through the clouds, and then said “Ready?” again. It was a sincere question. He was. When I reached for the toy this time, he watched me with shiny eyes, and stayed in place while I walked to the other side of the house and hid it for him to find. I can’t tell you if it made any difference to him, but it did to me, and that matters too. [Note: I can imagine a context in which Willie would have to drop an item for his own safety, say he picks up something poisonous. In this case I would say NO, which I use to mean absolutely cease and desist whatever you are doing this exact instant. I use it very rarely, and only when I really, really need it.]

2) Autonomy on Leash Walks: This is tricky, because no dog on a line can be truly autonomous. However, you can give him or her some choices:

- Several people noted that they let their dog set the pace. This is a great idea: who said that walking a dog meant keeping it from smelling interesting things? My favorite leash walk combines a) periods of brisk walking during which I get good exercise and Willie/Tootsie trots by my side ignoring all smells and b) the dogs setting the pace (and direction if possible) while I basically follow behind. If I’m getting antsy and Willie is still sniffing, I might say “Ready?” and as often as not he’ll stop sniffing and move forward. If he doesn’t, well then, he’s not ready. What’s important here is to be clear about which is which. Have a clear signal that means he’s following your lead, and a clear signal that means he’s in charge. Dogs learn the difference very fast.

- Explore the world with your dog by picking up things and asking your dog to sniff them. Try sniffing them yourself. I’ve seen dogs stop in their tracks and look you right in the eye as if surprised when you do this. “You? Smelling something? Really???? I didn’t know you could!” Of course, you know I don’t have a clue what your dog is thinking, but it’s fun to guess and even more fun to try to share their world a little bit. You can also hide treats in tree bark and later show your dog where they are. I learned this from Clarissa von Reinhardt’s book Chase, an excellent source of information regarding keeping a dog with you when off leash.

- Extra long leads or Flexi-lead-like leashes can also give your dog more choices. Like many trainers, I’m not a fan of flex-leashes in many contexts (training classes, vet visits, etc.) and don’t like that they teach the dog to habituate to a constant, although minor pulling sensation. That said, life just can’t always be perfect, and these kind of leashes can give lots of dogs some freedom when they would never have it otherwise.

3) Choices in the House: One commenter (thanks!) related this issue to environmental enrichment for wild animals in captivity. Several of the ideas mentioned included give your dog choices about the basics: two water bowls, several sleeping places, a range of toys, etc. You can also swap out toys: Willie must have 50 toys (sigh), but I only keep a limited number out at one time. That way they stay more interesting. Other variants of choices are asking your dog how they’d like to play. One reader has a dog who loves walks and ball play. She holds the leash in one hand and the ball in the other and does whatever he dog indicates with his nose. Great idea!

4) Fun with Food: Besides all the interactive toys that dogs can manipulate to get food, you can use the cheap, easy and always-enthralling method that I use every day with Tootsie. Because she would rather eat cat poop hidden like min-treasure chests in mulch, pine needles and straw, I let her come to the barn with us when I feed the sheep and cats. So I have taken to giving her a twice daily “treasure hunt” in a small fenced area that I call the “play pen.” I take a handful of kibble from her daily quota, and throw it as if I was scattering seeds. She then spends 10-15 minutes finding it, piece by piece, while Willie and I do the barn chores. She has a great time, her mouth doesn’t smell like cat poop, nor does she ingest heaven knows what. You may not have a fenced area, but you can do this inside too.

5) Honor your dog’s bark: This is a great reader comment that I completely support. Although we do have to be careful to not inadvertently reinforce barking, many dogs bark less if you acknowledge their alert signals and respond in some way to them. Willie could be a horrific barker, and I won’t pretend that there aren’t times he barks when I wish he wouldn’t, but like many of my client’s dogs, he calms down fastest if I acknowledge his barking. Just last night he lept up and began barking wild-eyed at the door to the garage. I went to him, asked him what was wrong and investigated. Sure enough, a side door was banging in the wind. I closed it, said “Hey, Willie, we’re fine,” and then took him into the living room. This won’t help with all dogs, but I envision lots of dogs screaming in frustration that their pack member is oblivious to their warnings or requests for assistance. Bottom line here: Barking isn’t always bad. (See more on this in Turid Rugaas’s book, Barking -  The Sound of a Language.)

5) Problem Solving: Some interactive food toys are in this category, but we can also ask our dogs to use their heads and solve other kinds of problems. Ask your dog to come to you with a barrier in between and help them learn to go around the side. Think of the world as an obstacle course and start asking your dog to go through, over and under objects both inside and outside of the house (with obvious concerns for safety). Some problem solving turns out to be a dog creating a new way of doing something. Here’s a great example: Finna’s owner wanted to teach her to  use a treadmill, but when Finna came up with a new way to do so, she was encouraged. Another reader has taught her dog the cue “Figure it out!” meaning: figure out yourself how to open this door, box, or get the food out of something. Problem solving at its best and too wonderful!

Another reader wrote about the body awareness work she is doing, in which a dog is asked to “Get on This” with all 4 paws, but ‘this’ is highly variable in terms of size, shape and surface. It’s the dog’s job to figure out how to get on and stay on. I love this kind of thinking… isn’t this what dogs who live freer lives would be doing all the time? Learning where one’s back paws are, learning body awareness of any area surely is as good for dogs as it is for people. Susan Garrett has a video on this, worth checking out.

6)  And finally, back to the nose: Engage your dog’s nose whenever you can, it truly seems to make them happy. I see people work so hard to keep their dogs from smelling things (“Don’t sniff that poop. Don’t sniff the garbage. Don’t Don’t Don’t…”) But it must be difficult for them to be restricted from using their best sense so often. We can turn that around easily. I often let the dogs sniff things that I bring home from the market, or anywhere else. They seem to enjoy it immensely. The easiest cue in the world, as a matter of fact, is “Sniff, sniff.” Just hold something out toward your dog and as he moves his head forward to investigate, say “Sniff, sniff.” It has broadened my sense of the world, and it feels (we all know I’m only guessing) like the dogs appreciate it. Several people who commented mentioned this too, so join the pack and give it a try!

That’s a start anyway, more ideas always welcome. By the way, one reader asked for a discussion about autonomy versus NILIF. Great question, and definitely worth discussing, but it deserves its own blog….

And here, just for fun, is one of my favorite comments about this topic: My dogs would probably say that one of their favorite autonomous times is deciding which dog bed in the sunny window or which forbidden couch to sleep on when we are at work. And how about the cat that insisted on being allowed to solve problems for himself? The perfect reminder that many of our companion animals still need dignity and choice in their life.

Thanks to all of you who added your smarts and experience to the requests of others for ideas. You came through, as usual, brilliantly.

MEANWHILE, back on the farm. Thank you all so much for your good wishes about the wedding. Jim and I are still floating on oxytocin, although in a buzz for the Texas Two-Step Tour coming up. (I’m writing this on Wednesday the 7th, but I’ll post on Friday as usual when I’ll actually be speaking in Texas.)

The cycle of life at the farm continues. All the lambs have been taken to market, never an easy day for us. But it helped that we just brought King Charles over to Redstart from his c0-owner’s farm to begin the cycle again. (He is named after KC Spaniels, because he seemed so tiny when he first arrived.) I’m happy to say the King Charles is doing is work with enthusiasm.

To keep it simple, we loaded King Charles with the help of the buck goat he had been living with. Buck boy was happy to walk on a halter up to the trailer and King Charles was happy to follow him. Loading was relatively easy because of the way cool trailer Jim built this summer that is easy in/easy out for the sheep. After loading it was only a few miles drive to the farm, and then Willie brought the ewes out to the front lawn as a magnet for King Charles. Much easier than backing the trailer through the mud into the sheep pen.

King Charles went to work right away, sniffing each ewe in turn. Here he is checking out Lady Godiva, who was far more interested in the grass than the new guy in town. (Notice the red color on his chest: It’s called marking paint and it allows us to know when each ewe has been bred, because it rubs off on their butts as he mounts them.)

Spot attracted much more than a quick sniff. He tried to mount her right away on the front lawn, but she wouldn’t stand still for him until later when they were back in the barn pen. Perhaps she just wanted a little privacy? I checked the pen an hour later, and both Spot and Buttercup had clearly been bred. Good boy KC, good boy.

How much autonomy does your dog have?  Willie’s work with sheep is  what motivates me to ask this question. As I mentioned earlier, Willie and I attended a sheepdog clinic 2 weeks ago with Patrick Shannahan, and the big take away for us was that, too often, Willie looks to me to tell him what to do while working sheep. It’s not that he doesn’t know what to do himself, he’s just in the habit of being dependent upon me to tell him before he takes action on his own. This was not a complete surprise to me, but I didn’t realize what a significant issue it was until I worked with Patrick.

I think I know why this has happened: First, Willie is a naturally biddable dog and dependent dog. I chose him over his 7-week old brother because Willie seemed to care deeply about where I was and what I was doing, while his sibling was busy independently exploring the universe. In spite of a long list of serious problems that developed in Willie’s youth (projectile diarrhea, a ridiculous level of sound sensitivity, a pathological fear of unfamiliar dogs and an extreme problem with impulse control) Willie has always been an especially responsive dog.

Here’s a recipe for a dog unwilling to act independently: Mix 1) Willie’s personality with 2) 14 months of recovery from a shoulder injury in which one is a virtual prisoner. After his injury in early February, we tried complete leash rest for all of Feb and March. When that clearly wasn’t enough, we decided on the surgery, but Jim’s sister was dying of ovarian cancer, so we put the surgery off until May. After the surgery he basically lived in his crate for 1-2 months, and then gradually was allowed to do carefully structured physical therapy, all under my control, until January of the next year. Gradually after that he was allowed limited amounts of free time, but basically we are talking a about a dog who lost all autonomy whatsoever for a significant period of his life, an inevitable response to his recovery. Don’t get me wrong, he got lots of mental exercise: I spent over 2 hours a day with him on PT (which he saw as games) and any trick he was allowed to do, but the fact is that he went from a dog who was outside off leash for hours a day to a dog whose every movement was controlled and monitored. He came out of it thrilled to be able to play with his toys again (14 months after the injury) and get his life back, but lost a lot of confidence working sheep.

My job with sheepdog Willie right now is to let him make a lot of decisions on his own. I’m providing feedback (“Yup, that’s right,” or “Nope, that was not the right decision.”) or just letting the work speak for itself. Willie has enough experience to know when things are going well, so often I’m just shutting up. (Never the easiest job for a dog trainer, right?) I can’t tell you how this is going to translate onto a trial field next year, but we are having the most fun I think we have ever had working together. It’s wonderful, just wonderful.

I’m relaying this story to you because I think the issue of autonomy is highly relevant to companion dogs everywhere. A journalist asked me once, “What do dogs want?” And I answered that, beside the obvious primal needs of food, water and shelter, dogs want 1) positive social interactions and 2) opportunities to make decisions on their own. Certainly too many dogs still suffer from a lack of social interaction, being tied up in backyards or kenneled by themselves until hunting season begins. But I suspect that many beloved dogs who are surrounded by love and attention suffer from a lack of freedom of choice. Of course, we can’t know for sure, we aren’t dogs, but sometimes it is useful to compare the needs of two different species, especially if they share so much and live together. As humans, being able to make choices about our lives is our most important possession. It is one of the things that we take for granted until we lose it, like water to drink and good health. Only when it is lost do we realize how precious it is. Ask prisoners about their time in confinement and they will tell you that the worst thing about it is having no autonomy. Want ice cream after dinner? Too bad, not being served. Want to stay up a little later one night and read? Sorry, lights out at 10. Most of us haven’t had that experience, but we can remember when we first had some control over our lives as teenagers. and the giddy joy of being free to make decisions on our own about what to do at any given moment in time.

It is certainly true that many companion dogs have little autonomy, and that is not always a bad thing. They go outside when their owners open the door, not having learned yet how to open doors on their own (thank heavens).  They are often on leashes, and therefore safe from being hit by car. But they are also unable to make decisions about where to turn, which way to go, and how long to spend on one spot. Their elimination behavior is controlled by us once they are house trained. Granted, gazillions of them pick up one of their numerous toys and decide when it’s play time by dropping it in our laps, and plenty of dogs have got their owners pretty well trained….

But, still, compared to feral or free-ranging dogs in other countries, some of our own companion dogs live relatively constrained lives. Granted, they often get better medical care than most people, organic food and acupuncture, but you could argue that they also lose something in the process. Author Ted Kerasote talks about this as well as anyone in his book Merle’s Door, and if you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it. (And FYI, he has a new book coming out in February, Pukka’s Promise: The Quest For Longer Lived Dogs. It is beautifully written, extremely thought-provoking and summarizes five years of kick ass research. Here’s part of what I wrote about it for the back cover: “…one of the most important books written about dogs in a decade.” I’ll write a real review of it long before it is released.)

There are many ways dogs can have more autonomy as companions who can’t safely run free or work sheep: Some of them are small things, like asking a dog if he is “Ready” to do something or not. (See discussions about this in an earlier blog.) Leash walks can be directed by dogs as often as by their owners. (“Which way do you want to go?”) I think most important to dogs is to be able to explore the out of doors off leash. There’s nothing like a long walk in which a dog is allowed to run here, sniff there, and be free to explore at his or her own pace to make a dog healthy and happy. Nose games for dogs are great too: dogs get to play to their strengths and make decisions based on their natural abilities. I’ve seen many dogs who gained confidence and what only can be called joie de vivre after playing nose games with their owners.

I’d love to hear more ideas from you about how to give dogs more autonomy, especially ones who can’t safely run free in their home neighborhoods, or anywhere else for that matter. I expect a lot of dogs and owners too will profit from hearing your ideas.

MEANWHILE, back on the farm. I’ve recently heard from three of the people who adopted the kittens who were born on the farm this summer. All kittens are doing wonderfully. One kitten is best friends with the family dog, and cuddles up with him every night. One kitten is a fireball, and her owners adopted a second kitten to give the older resident cat a break! All the kittens seem healthy and happy, and it makes me happier than I can say that of the 12 feral kittens born in my and my neighbor’s barns, all 12 are in good homes, well taken care of and will be spayed or neutered to prevent more feral cats roaming the woods. Speaking of, it’s time for kitten Polly to get spayed too. Time flies.

And, oh yeah, one more piece of news: After twelve wonderful years of being each others best friend, Jim and I are getting married tonight. I’m thinking you’ll forgive me for taking the night off and staying off line…?  Happy Dance.

Here’s Willie this morning, driving the sheep away from me. His job here is to keep them going in a straight line.

Notice how the sheep are beginning to drift to the right. Rather than telling Willie to counter that, I stayed quiet and let him take care of it. You can see him already starting to shift to his right too.

The sheep are still drifting right, but Willie is continuing to counter.

Voila. Sheep moved back into the correct position. Willie did it all on his own, and I managed to keep my mouth shut. Will miracles never cease?