For almost twelve years, my Great Pyrenees Tulip was the farm’s jokester, a shiny-eyed, smiley-faced cross between an oversized seal pup and a benevolent polar bear. For twelve years she multi-tasked as the farm’s protector and its own personal stand up comedian. She died in my arms several years ago, and is buried just a few feet from the front porch, where she used to stand and bark at the coyotes who yip-howled their way down a ravine toward my young lambs. No coyote, or canid of any kind, ever bothered our sheep when Tulip was alive, yet she loved everyone equally, dogs and people alike, unless they appeared to be a threat. Once I was awoken at 2 AM by hushed and hurried voices coming from my front yard. Alone that night, I peered out the window to see three shadowy figures moving Read More
Applied Ethology: Translations and Mis-Translations
Last week I posted a photo of Tootsie's face that got a lot of reactions like: "She looks so angry!" "She looks mean!" That got everyone who knows Tootsie laughing, because she is about the least "angry" dog we've ever met. But, people who don't know her were making reasonable assumptions, based on what ethologists call "sign stimuli," or sights or sounds that get automatic responses. Usually we talk about these responses in non-human animals, like the famous beetles in Australia that tried to mate with orange, bumpy beer bottles that looked and felt like the backs of female beetles. In other words, if it's orange and bumpy and you're a male beetle, it's got to be a girl beetle ready to mate. As mammals, we're not immune to this phenomenon, and I'm grateful to Tootsie for remind all of Read More
Small Dog Privileges? Yes or No?
Let me begin with full disclosure: I have my own answer to the question above. I don't begin to treat Tootsie, my King Charles Cavalier, like I treat Willie the Border Collie. Not just because she was a mill dog, and not just because she is spaniel instead of a Border Collie. But simply because she is small and adorable and docile, and I can spoil her all I want without it causing the slightest problem. Not so Willie. He, as many of you know, is one of the loves of my life, but he arrived as a pup with a myriad of problems, and even at the age of seven he sometimes needs managing because his reactivity and lack of emotional control can get the best of him. The only result of Tootsie's occasional lack of emotional control is that she sometimes begins to whine piteously while I'm fixing Read More
Decoding Your Dog: A Book Review
Decoding Your Dog is a new book from the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists, edited by D. Horowitz and J. Ciribassi, and it has a lot going for it. I have some quibbles too, but let's start with the good news. Without question the best part of the book is its continual reminder to dog owners that 1) you don't need to get "dominance" over your dog to train it, and that 2) most aggression is motivated by fear, not a desire to become a pack leader. This point is made by multiple authors in a variety of chapters, and is a welcome addition to the chorus of progressive trainers and CAABs who are fighting the good fight against the misuse of the concept of dominance. There is a lot more to cheer about. Authors Herron and Melese do a good job of explaining that behavior is the result Read More
Kiss to Dismiss?
Here's an interesting question for you: What does a dog intend when it repeatedly licks the face of another? Muzzle licking has traditionally been interpreted as an appeasement behavior, usually done by a younger dog or a subordinate to the muzzle of another. Erik Zimen, one of the world's experts on wolf behavior, labeled face licking as "active submission," most often seen when puppies of both wolves and dogs lick the muzzles of their elders during greetings. (It's not important for this discussion whether you label the action as "appeasement" or "submission"... That's a different discussion. What's relevant here is that muzzle licking is often done by dogs who appear to be appeasing another, for whatever reason.) We know that muzzle licking, in wolves, stimulates the adult wolf to Read More
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