(Excuse me, there’s a growth on your head. Is it dangerous?)
Recently I read an article in Bark Magazine titled “8 Things We Do That Really Confuse Our Dogs.” Written by Melissa Starling and Paul McGreevy, (and originally published in The Conversation), the authors lists several points to which I say Hear Hear! (And some I question; read on.)
One of my favorites, because it is not intuitive, is #3: We change our shape and smell. I’ve written often about this in the past, observing over years that dogs don’t seem to get the concept of “removable parts.” And why would they? They don’t decorate their bodies like some animals, nor do they pull on rabbit fur hats if their ears get cold. However, they do make additions to their natural scent, as any owner of a committed “roller-in-horrible-stuff” knows, and their scent changes with fluctuations in their physiology, so I’m not as sure about scent being an issue as much as shape.
Another favorite is #4: We hug. (Or we did in the Before Times.) This is another well-known example of differences between people and dogs, and this one, unfortunately, can cause dogs to bite. Dogs aren’t as much confused by hugs as they are made nervous by them. But oh, how people resist being told not to hug; as I write in The Other End of the Leash, it seems to be part of our DNA. Below is a photo given to me by a seminar participant. Says it all, right?
But I think my all-time favorite is #5: We don’t like to be bitten. It’s my favorite because 1) It’s true, and 2) I’ve never thought of it quite that way, and I love looking at the world of people and dogs in new ways. Last night I watched Skip and Maggie play in the house, play biting and mouthing each other all over their faces and paws. It’s just what dogs do. But us? Not so much. There might be a certain amount of playful biting that occurs between frisky humans, if you catch my drift, but not much, and certainly not between individuals who are just, uh, buddies. How confusing it must be to puppies when we yelp, as if terrorized or badly damaged, to teach them not to bite on our hands or tug on our pant legs. I’d love to know what they think about it.
I’d REALLY like to know what they think about #6 on the list: We don’t eat out of garbage bins. But I suspect that I do: “My humans are INSANE. They pass by GREAT food ALL THE TIME and completely ignore it. And THEY WON’T LET ME EAT IT. What the hell is wrong with them?” I’m pretty sure that Maggie thinks I keep her away from cat poop because I want it for myself. But then, does she wonder why she never sees me eating it? Does she think I am caching it for the apocalypse?
There are a few points on the list that I think ask for more discussion. The first is #1: We Leave Them Alone. We do indeed, but is this really such an unfamiliar concept to dogs? Wolves often leave an adult behind at the den. (Although, granted, they aren’t really alone if they are watching over puppies.) Wolves explore and investigate on their own sometimes; otherwise we wouldn’t see videos of single wolves being killed or attacked by members of another pack when they stray into their territory. Yes, sometimes single wolves have left the pack looking for a new territory, but not always. Closer to home, genetically at least, village dogs are often on their own. What perhaps is atypical is being together from sun down to sun up, and then having all the humans (adults?) leave during the day. Certainly there are no small number of dogs who panic about being left alone, poor things, but I suspect that is as much about being helpless–locked into a house with no access to food or an approved bathroom–as being left alone. Or perhaps not, Separation Anxiety is no doubt a serious ‘behavior problem” and needs to be prevented if at all possible.
But most of all I want to talk about point #2: We are visually driven. Yes we are, but then, so are they. Dogs may have olfactory abilities that we don’t, and scent is an important aspect of how they explore and understand their world, but they too are highly visual. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be so affected by us putting on hats, would they? In my experience, relationships between people and dogs suffer greatly because so many are not aware that their dogs are watching them closely. They say Come! but move forward and block their dog from obeying. They think their dog knows Sit to a word, but it’s really a visual signal that the dog has learned.
I see I’ve buried the lead here, because along with hand claps for a mostly great and helpful list, this one point really does need to be clarified, especially to people who are new to dogs. The more aware we are of how we move our bodies around dogs, the more dogs will understand us. Dogs are visual creatures, and a picture is worth a thousand words to them too.
I expect you have your own good list of how we/you/anyone is confusing your dog(s). I’m all ears. And eyes. And nose, sort of, a little.
MEANWHILE, back on the farm: Blursday, a truly great new word if there ever was one, fits our weather too. Lots and lots of days of grey, gloomy weather. The sun came out a few days ago, and it was as welcome as a walk on the beach. Well, no, not even close, but a girl can dream.
Our poor barn has been in major surgery now for three weeks, but the end is near. This is the last wall that was taken down and replaced; high hopes it will all be done by the end of the week. My work will start in spring–besides the painting and cleaning, I’ll be trying to get grass to grow on soil compressed by ton after ton of concrete being moved across it. Maybe we can have a Barn Warming Party in summer if there is enough vaccine to go around. Now that would be fun.
Cheering up the gloom are the winter bulbs I bought from White Flower Farm. Here are some starting to add color to the house:
Some nice morning sun up the hill behind the house. More predicted for the next few days. Yay!
May there be literal and metaphoric sun in your life this week too. We certainly all need it.
Jackie d says
Body language – oh yes. I’ve done a little bit of fun agility and Hoopers, and I discovered that my new dog could simply *do* the basic Hoopers moves with no training, because I already knew how to move a dog around the course with my body language.
Confusing the dog – I’m half convinced my Springer thinks I like to collect poop, given that she runs out of the bushes to come back and ‘go’ right in front of me, which is the opposite of all other dogs I’ve had. I also wonder what they make of car journeys. Do they understand that they’re moving, or is it more ‘beam me up, Scotty’?
Kat says
It’s always seemed to me that dogs are like people, some crave togetherness and others value their alone time. I know that’s true of my dogs. Finna would have been happy to never let me out of her sight but Ranger and D’Artagnan would choose to spend much of their time alone in the yard. When D’Artagnan is in the yard and I go out he will come to see what I’m doing but it always seems like he’s hoping it might be interesting than that he wants specifically to be with me.
I’m looking forward to completed barn pictures. What a huge undertaking.
Dian says
I do think most people are more visually driven as opposed to being driven by the sense of smell. And dogs are definitely driven by their noses, unless trained out of it. Even though our vision is detailed and more colorful, dogs seem to be better observers. And if movement or size are involved, dogs are right on it. They also hone in on differences in their environment, whether visual or olfactory, but then so do we!
In the fall, we walked by an opossum camouflaged in leaf debris. I noticed, but my dog did not (or perhaps I didn’t notice that he did!) There was no movement on the part of the opossum and the wind worked against his nose detection (again I can’t usually see his nose twitching when we are out walking…so I might be wrong here). On the other hand, he’ll often raise his head and spot critters on dusk/night walks way before I see them. In fact, I only spot them after following the direction of his nose. I don’t know if he saw them first, or smelled them…all I know is he beat me to it!
Alaska says
I don’t think dogs like to be bitten, hard, either. When they play fight, there’s lots of mouthing going on, but don’t they normally inhibit the actual bite?
Also, I’m only mentioning this because you are such a great writer. Nowadays I believe it’s usually “burying the lede” (not “lead”).
https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/bury-the-lede-versus-lead
Crandellpop says
#>8:
I/We flounder around in the water then get mad at them when they paddle over to help.
I must be a terrible swimmer. Not only does my dog have to watch me intently whenever I go in the water, a life guard in Hawaii asked me if I needed assistance when I helped a panicked swimmer struggle to shore. Sheesh!
Lenore says
Great post as always Patricia! I continually wonder if our dogs (and cats) wonder why in the world we enjoy staring at the flat black rectangles we hold in our hands all the time! What’s funny is that I’ve noticed my pets when I start to look at my device they have that “oh… THAT stupid thing again. Ok I’m going over here. Let me know when you’re back on planet earth again. Weirdo. ” 😄
Margarita Palacio says
I often find myself wondering what dogs think about this recent development of humans covering their face (masks).
Considering they look to our faces for info it must be one more thing we do to confuse them.
Betsy says
Good morning! Love the barn and crocus photos! I have found we confuse our dogs mightily by our inconsistency in responding to their behaviors. For instance, the response to a stolen shoe. Sometimes the response might be, “Bring is here, Sweetie.” (Delivered in cheery tone). Sometimes, maybe within minutes on the same day the response is, “&$@!!! You &@$”!!! dog!!!” . That response comes complete with loud voice and vigorous gestures. Makes us seem unpredictable and not to be trusted . Pendulum swings are dangerous things (reminds me of a song!)
Rachel Lachow says
I’ve always had Pharaoh Hounds and some were huggers, literally wrapping themselves around my body, and some were not. My favorite non-hugger was my first Pharaoh who would confuse visitors by smiling, bowing, nodding, wagging and then not let letting them touch her when they got close! I started prefacing by saying, “she wants to greet you but doesn’t want your petting.” How I miss that dog.
Bill Larson says
New pup in our home. Murphee is a 8 month old Great Pyrenees. For no particular reason, I started combining hand signals with verbal commands while training. She’s not deaf, selective Great Pyr hearing but not deaf. I try to stick with ASL hand signals as much as possible. And she’s getting it pretty good. We can do sit, down, stay, wait, and come with either verbal or silent hand commands. The bonus aspect of all this was unanticipated, but welcome. She started to scratch at the back door to come in. Tough habit to break as one would open the door to get them to stop scratching. But I can stand on the inside and she can see me thru the glass in the door. I give her the “sit” hand signal and she does, then I open the door. No more scratching the door and she “sits” to come in. Sometimes she needs to add a bit of a ‘woof” to get my attention. I also think that by combining verbal and hand signals, it makes me a better, more consistent trainer. I have to make sure my verbal sez the same as my hand !
Good effort on the barn by the way. I love that your saving it.
Trisha says
Bill, please give your teenage GPyr some love from me. Good going on the back door training, smart!
Trisha says
Rachel, I’m reminded of a good friend of mine who hates hugging anyone but close family. Actually, come to think about it, my Mom never hugged us, even when we were young. Takes all kinds.
Trisha says
Betsy: What? You’re inconsistent? Ah, that makes you a member of a very, very large club. (Also known as The Human Race). We just try to get better every time we catch ourselves, right?
Trisha says
Great question Margarita. I wrote a blog post on that very issue: https://www.patriciamcconnell.com/theotherendoftheleash/why-arent-dog-bothered-more-by-masks.
Trisha says
Great point Lenore. And computers…. what cat does not try to insert herself in between our faces and our screens?
Trisha says
Alaska, thanks for the correction (lede versus lead). Love it, much appreciated! And I agree dogs don’t like to be bitten hard either, but they play bite a lot in play, and we don’t, right?
Trisha says
Dian, agree completely that scent is essential to dogs, but that doesn’t mean that vision isn’t also important. It’s not “people visual, dogs olfactory,” it’s “people and dogs visual, dogs olfactory. A dog’s vision is different than ours, (they can’t tell red from green for example), but that doesn’t mean that vision isn’t important to them. That was the point I was trying to make. Would that we could use our noses as well as them!
“
Trisha says
Alaska, you sent me down a rabbit hole of “lede” versus “lead”.. a fun one, so thanks for that. That said, I’m sticking with
“lead”! See https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2019/lead-vs-lede-roy-peter-clark-has-the-definitive-answer-at-last/ for the reason why. 🙂
Sandi says
Well, speak for yourself on number six…I’ve been married almost forty years and I’ve heard, “No, don’t throw it out, that’s still good” from DH more times than I care to count LOL!
That being said, your counsel on #1 is spot on. Our Abby had separation anxiety when we got her and, for awhile, we thought she’d never improve (now it’s just occasional FOMO, and now that she’s eight and needs more rest, sometimes I think she’s happy to see us leave). SO much better to prevent the problem in the first place, and I see that as a potentially serious issue upcoming for a lot of C-19 adopters once things get back to whatever-normal-is-going-to-look-like.
Sam says
My dog has always been mystified when I talk on the phone. I live alone, so he can’t figure out why I’m talking, if not to him.
He also finds it very strange when I sit staring at my phone for long periods of time. One can only imagine how a dog interprets that strange behavior.
Terrie says
I’m pretty sure my late doberman was confused by bathing. When I was in the shower, he’d demand to come in and check on me.
linnaea bohn says
My family consists of 8 pyrenean mastiffs and one great pyrenees. Over 25 years I have adopted 2great pyrenees, a maremma, a newfoundland, a few labs, a few goldens, and fostered a few. All were adults from animal control shelters, or from rescues that pulled them from AC shelters.
Each one initiated body contact with me, by leaning into me, pushing their heads between my thighs. I would lean down or lean over and stroke them, they enojyed it. So I leaned over and hugged their full body. Each one enjoyed it. If not, I would have stopped.
Now they will not go in their kennels or go out the door unless they get a hug. I did not train them to do this, other than to respond to their prompts.
I am so glad I did not follow all the warnings posted on websites and FB that dogs don’t like hugs. It is obviously not true with any of the 19 dogs I have adopted.
Perhaps it has to do with my heart energy. However, that would be egocentric to credit myself when these and 99% of the dogs I meet come over to me and put their heads in my lap when I sit down to meet them. Perhaps it depends on both the dog and the human at that moment.
I have seen the photo with a short hair dog wall eyed when a child is hugging it. Perhaps that is one moment, or one dog, or reflective of the relationship between that child and that dog.
But I cannot believe through my observation of dogs and humans that dogs not liking to be hugged is universal. In other words the “Truth”.
By promoting this concept, I believe that people are taught a subtle fear that may hinder dog adoption. I would not have adopted all these dogs if I had read this prior or if I did not already know from life that there is no one universal behavior in dogs or in people. Everything is dependent on conditions.
I adopted a 6 yr old male pyrenean mastiff. His owner said he loved to cuddle and loved to put his head on her thigh. A few hours after he arrived, and he had time to explore the barn on his own, I sat down on the dog bed. He laid down next to me and put his head on my leg. After sometime I laid down next to him. He sighed and his body relaxed. For weeks he would follow me around outside.
On the third week I left the house doors open for him to come in and explore if and when he was ready. He did so slowly and slept inside that night. The next day he was frightened to go out or in the front door. He would bark at me outside. He would not let me touch him. Yet my behavior and feelings toward him had not changed.
That behavior has not changed much over 6 weeks. Respecting his behavior, I leave the door open and walk away. When he inside I rub his ears, and his back. When he is relaxed, I slowly sit down with him. He puts his head on my lap.
I do not hug him. I let him decide if and when he wants body contact.
What I observe is that dogs’ behavior change, and what is essential for me it to respond to what the dog is showing in the moment.
Jean Blanchard says
I have a one year old Plott hound mix that was/is very mouthy. I kept trying to redirect it onto chew toys. My husband continued to let the dog playfight/mouth his hands. If the dog chomped too hard the play stopped–if he mouthed gently the play continued. I thought this counter-intuitive but now the dog knows how much pressure is too much & what is just right for human skin. (A side note for further confusion for dogs— not all humans in the family have consistent/similar behaviors—but I think our dog learned to adjust accordingly)
Bruce says
My first dog, a beagle-retriever mix, lived through her nose. Out on a walk, her nose was rarely more than an inch or two above the ground. Occasionally she would raise her head, confirm that the visual world was still there, and immediately go back to following her nose.
Current dog is much more visual/hearing oriented. Amazing how she can detect a small critter moving in the dense undergrowth at considerable distance. She uses her nose around dog scent markings, and she will sniff a headwind intently. But if I drop a treat in the grass she struggles mightily to use her nose to find it.
So my experience is that there is a great deal of variation among dogs. Shocker, I know. 🙂
With regard to visual vs. verbal signals in dog training, I have always used both. Visual signals come in handy when old dogs lose their hearing, as a couple of ours have done.
Jann Becker says
Re hand signals, I was proud of having my CGC candidate doing the whole Come, Sit, Down, Stay sequence by hand signals alone, when my review class instructor pointed out that I might not always be in her line of sight! That way of stopping them from clawing the door glass definitely sounds worth a try.
Linda B says
It’s not just cats. I dressed up in my homemade lion costume to show my boyfriend and my poor cat took off, all four paws scratching across the wood floor. My cat hid underneath the furniture until he realized it was me.
leila sesmero says
I think we confuse dogs when we break a typical pattern we usually knowingly or unconsciously have created for the dogs. I am talking about time to walk for example: I am pretty rigorous in my schedule of walking my dogs when 11:30am comes I find them at the door already waiting. They don’t have a watch… One day I decided to surprise them and I came later at the door to check how they would react. It was easy to notice how they felt with their eyes especially. Looking at me with a big question mark. THey waited for a little while while I showed no intention in walking them at that exact usual time. Then they dispersed and went to sleep telling me. Oh well. Next time perhaps . I loved the way they asked their question no judgement but surprised and went kept on with their doggie lives.
Judi McLachlan says
I found the hand signals I taught my Border Collie (along with voice commands) when he was young, really paid off as he aged and became very deaf. We were able to easily communicate right up to the very end.
HFR says
I do nosework with my dogs and one of the things that struck me when watching other dogs work in class is how, when released into a search area, every dog will first use their eyes to search. They will go to a chair or a box first and then work odor from there. It has a lot to do with expectations but clearly they use their eyes first and then use their nose. I remember watching very experienced nosework dogs sniff right past a hide and I asked my instructor how, if dogs have such wonderful noses, they can miss something right under their noses…literally. She explained that dogs usually use sight to investigate and then will use their noses to backtrack (which is where the “head snap” comes from). Maybe because their vision is not so great their noses got better or maybe their vision decreased as their noses improved. Hello? Darwin, are you out there? 🙂
Yes, my career was in journalism and “lead” is perfectly acceptable. And makes more sense, if you ask me.
As to confusing our dogs…why do we go into these small rooms and sit on a container filled with water for long periods of time (and sometimes with a book!) to do something they can do in seconds anytime outside. Humans are weird.
Good luck with the barn. Can’t wait to see finished product!
Charles G. Couturier says
Moving our hands away when they feel like caring for us through licking our hands. Or worse, being punished for doing so.
For Sana, it’s something important (which some might call rewarding, though I find it goes well above pleasure). Love shouldn’t be just a word, it is a set of behaviors, licking our hands, for some dogs at least, being one of these.
Jo says
I think people are also driven by smell, we get less info from it than dogs but more than we think. We just like to pretend it’s not important – I was just listening to a podcast with Harold McGee about scent and he points out we consider smell to be too animalistic to be valuable. But there’s been talk of increases in depression related to long term loss of smell sense in people after COVID. As an ICU nurse I could tell when someone had a fecal impaction from walking into a room. It’s a particular poop smell in a veritable bouquet of body odors. This makes me feel not unlike my filthy poop sniffing dog.
Alice R. says
Body movements, smiles, hand motions, sometimes it’s so hard to figure out what you have done. I had two orthopedic surgeries in one year so taught my a bit too large lap dog to wait before leaping into my lap when I sit down. Over time, it has become harder and harder to figure out what he regards as the signal. I have been driven nearly crazy trying to figure it out without success. What it’s not apparently: the verbal cue, the way I learn my body back (although that seems involved), the arm signal, other words or motions. It seems to be some combination that changes as I try different things to try to figure it out. Reteaching is the only solution, but I don’t want to encourage him to jump up, only allow it if and when he desires. Ugh.
BARB STANEK says
My White Flower amaryllis is beautiful! It’s named Sweet Star. I purchased it because my youngest pup is named Starshine. Bliss.
Can’t wait to see your “new” barn! Bless you for repairing, not tearing down and building a whole new structure. Although I suspect that might have been more cost effective.
Grace says
Love this post, and so many of the responses made me smile or laugh out loud. I do nose work, tracking, & agility with my Basenji (not for competition, just for fun), so get to see so many behaviors all in one little dog package. I look at whatever behaviors in the dogs I work with at my local animal shelter to see what moves and if/how I can use it as enrichment for them. One of the great things about volunteering at a shelter in a rural area is being able to walk the dogs off-site where they can see & smell & hear lots of things. And it’s so interesting to see how each individual dog responds to his/her environment. The Catahoulas are alert to everything; the hounds generally have their noses to the ground, and especially enjoy following the game trails in the fields; and for the pitties it’s all about the walk, they couldn’t care less about the discarded trash or animal bones just on the edge of the fields. The “add-ons” (hats, gloves, coats) can be a problem for our shyer / less confident dogs, so I always let them see & sniff the item first (“look what I brought you”), talk to & pet them while I put it on, let them sniff it while I have it on, then take it off. I do this twice. After they realize it’s still me, we go for our outing.
Tonya says
Great post, much food for thought!
One thing I’ve noticed is that dogs seem to focus on one sense to the point where they ignore input from the others. For example, when I take my dogs out to do their business, at first they’ll be very alert and reactive to every sound or movement from neighbors, squirrels, etc. But as soon as they find an interesting smell, they focus on it and won’t even notice loud footsteps approaching on the sidewalk or a cat sauntering by five feet away.
In another example, I can be at one end of the house while the dog is in the other, and call to him, and watch him come down the hall looking into every room, obviously looking for me, rather than just following the sound of my voice as I continue to call. In this case it seems that although the sound of my voice is what alerts him that he should come to me, he relies on his eyes to locate me.
I love all your posts and your photos, thanks for sharing so much with us!
Catherine says
I recently got a virtual reality headset, and I’m pretty sure my dog thinks I’m nuts when I play it 🙂
Another Rachel says
This post really helped give me some insight around how our pit bull mix Bo reacted when my now 6-year-old son first started crawling. The dog hadn’t been around babies and didn’t pay too much attention when my son was non-mobile, but I distinctly remember how he growled at the baby when he crawled over to the dog’s bed. Now that I think about it, the dog had probably never seen a human move in that position, much less the small one that normally stayed in one spot when he was on the ground at the dog’s level. How odd that must’ve looked to poor Bo! And I can see why he reacted with a growl at the time, which freaked new-mom me out soooo much back then. Happy to report he eventually adjusted to and tolerated both that kid and another one two years later, although he still preferred my husband and me over the rambunctious kids.
jen says
Owning and training a blind dog makes me realize just how visually oriented dogs are. It is very hard for them to communicate with each other without sight! And I have to be vigilant when I train, to avoid picking up bad habits I”ll pay for when I have a sighted dog again. On another note, it is great you have decided to save an old barn! There are fewer and fewer left, as it is so expensive to maintain and repair them. Even so, an important part of rural history.
Jenny Haskins says
When I first read Melissa Starling and Paul McGreevy’s article I was utterly amazed.
My dogs are confused when long standing routines are changed/don’t happen.
Afterall, living in a human world is all they’ve known from birth.
They have known from birth that humans wear clothes and ‘change shapes’. But we continue to smell the same, which is more important to them, We also sound the same 🙂 Dogs are NOT stupid.
They know that when we are both out (DH & I) they go to their crates. They would probably be unhappy if we were away longer than usual, but not confused.
They know that DH and I behave differently and accept his ‘teasing’ because that is what he does.
The love attention, they don’t bite each other of us. Well BigFat used to try biting his sister on the neck and she objected strongly. Mad Millie on the other hand told him off in NO uncertain terms when he tried it on her. He no longer tries.
They do not eat out of the garbage – that is a total rule in our household since my first dog took a strychnine bait. In fact, the German Shepherds don’t ever want to. – Millie is rather disappointed but I would not say confused. She has never been permitted to scrounge. (Millie was my first dog out of over 20, who behaved like everybody used to insist that all dogs behaved. She works for FOOD! But she also works for her favourite games 🙂
All most of my dogs have been more than happy to smooch – only the terriers didn’t like it.
Frances says
I cannot resist… Old, but still a classic: Monty Python’s take on confusing cats:
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2ovimx
Jenny Yasi says
Hello again, I am so enjoying your blog. About the “visually driven” point. I’ve been playing/training this matching game with my dog. It started with shoes, where I taught him to get “the other one.” I have lots of shoes, and they all smell like my stinky feet, so he had to use his visual awareness too. Then I grew the game and started playing other “matching” game. I get two of everything, two spoons, pencils, socks. I hold one up and tell him to get the other one. He has gotten so good at this! And then I can (new cue/old cue) say get me the keys, and if he doesn’t know what I mean, hold up some keys and say, “keys, the other one.” So the concept of matching pairs is really growing. And yesterday I was teaching him to speak and he whispered so I whispered, click and treat, and soon, he was “matching” my voice!!! It’s like he took the concept of visual match, and carried it over to sound matching! I’m going to record it and write about it, but I’ve been dying to tell someone! Hope you’re happy and healthy and staying out of trouble. I love all your booklets and I recommend them all the time.
Trisha says
Jenny, this is SO COOL! I love this! Such a perfect example of “growing the game”. Yay for you! Get videos!
Doggyzcare says
The interesting thing is what do dogs think once they get confused either because of us, humans, or any other thing that bothers them. Some dogs can get reckless and behave in a certain manner. While others can just stay calm and watch what is happening around them and thinking of what to do. Wait and watch the startegy. But what do they think.
Logan says
“Dogs are not visually driven” made me literally laugh out loud. Every whippet and Irish Wolfhound I’ve ever owned would beg to differ. Clearly those authors haven’t spent much time around sighthounds.