Large Fierce Mammal

As far as a Dog is concerned, every foray into the world outside the household door is a hunt to be engaged in as the nature of its breed dictates, and in this it will operate in the certainty that the handler is at one with the objectives of the mission. To fight this instead of becoming a part of it causes confusion in the Dog, and mutual frustration of both the Dog and Handler alike. In short, it removes all Natural joy from the situation, and thus, all fulfillment. A Dog can learn self-control, but it cannot ever be what it is not, and so it falls to the Handler to ensure that the vital elements of joy and fulfillment remain while the limits to self-control are mutually and realistically explored. ~ A Long Winter’s Night – Hunter’s Soul

Today’s title comes from paraphrasing something my late uncle Douglas used to say whenever he was proven right in an argument. He would lean toward any heretofore doubting Thomas present, tap his sizeable schnoz,  and say, “It’s not this nose,” before tapping his forehead saying, “It’s this knows!” The change in the quotation comes from the topic du jour, and that comes out of some advice I gave recently to one of the most Esteemed of our Esteemed Friends. You know who you are.

What I said, in part, was this:

Dogs are very attuned to their surroundings and at the same time are extremely contextual. What this means in practical terms is that your Dog will be more aware of developments in the environment through which you are travelling than you are. He may not have ALL the pieces at one time, but he will have more of them than you do. This is why his reactions to situations that appear to you as similar or identical  to others that have occurred before may come to be expressed completely differently. To visually oriented animals like us, the situations appear the same, but to a Dog they are anything but. He is constantly sampling his world and drawing his own conclusions, and therein lies the secret. His reactions to two events that seem the same to Human senses will be formed by everything he has perceived that led up to that point. All Dogs, but some more than others, are far more the working Dog – a thinking handler’s Dog with a job to do –  than a simple pet.

Having said all this, all is not (nor really ever) lost. The key is in learning your own Dog’s alert signals. This is absolutely crucial to training a Search Dog and Handler team because if the Handler can’t read his Dog nothing of any use will ever be accomplished.

Alerting is what a Dog does when it becomes sufficiently aware of something in its environment for its interest and awareness to be piqued. When at home, this is more obvious, usually expressed by the Dog in more easily detectable ways. In the field, it brings out hunting behaviours that for some will be obvious, while for others will be subtle. Our Milo for example, having Beagle in him, SCREAMS his alert to scent by suddenly zigzagging with nose down and tail up, furiously wagging like it has a mind of its own. To sounds, he will freeze with ears up and forward, staring in the direction of the source. Both of these are cues to me as his Handler that we need to proceed with caution until he can show me what has caught his attention. Don’t forget that for a Dog, with variances of percentage depending on breed, walks are something between a hunting expedition and a combat patrol. Getting into that groove with him will solidify your bond and eliminate apprehension on both ends of the leash.

Expanding on this, I offer some observations. First, learning to read your Dog, particularly in the field where the most primal influences hold sway, is an uplifting, eye opening, Spirit liberating mutual experience for the two of you. Crossing into this realm is to truly learn to speak Dog, and to realize that you’ve been at least partially deaf to everything he or she has said up until the day of epiphany. No more, “It came out of nowhere!” for you, and likewise no more, “Why is my Human acting like we’re not in this together?” for your Dog.

Thus endeth today’s lesson.