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By Root 787 0

eye contact to all canids, and the dog's use of gaze, you can get a lot of information about an unknown dog from his eyes. Constant eye contact can be threatening: do not approach a dog by gazing non-stop, which may be perceived as staring him down. If he is staring at you, you can deflect his gaze by turning away slightly, breaking eye contact. They do the same when they are tense: turning their head to the side, or distracting themselves with a yawn or a sudden interest in a smell on the ground. If you think you are the recipient of a threatening stare, you can confirm it by looking for its accompaniment: hackles up, ears up, tail up, body frozen. A stare with a tongue darting licks into the air is more adoring than aggressive.

PET FRIENDLY

Though they nearly all look pettable, not every dog likes to be petted. Attending to that is not only polite, it is sometimes imperative: a fearful or sick dog might respond to touch with aggression. There are great individual differences in dogs' sensitivity to petting, and their current interest can be changed by their state of health, their state of happiness, and past experience. For most dogs, the right touch by a human is a calming, bonding experience. Light touch is irritating or exciting; a firm hand is relaxing; too firm a hand is probably oppressive. They (and you) can be physically calmed by steady, continuous strokes from the head to rump, or by capable deep muscle massage. Watch your dog's reaction and find his preferred touch zones. And let him touch you back.

GET A MUTT

If you don't have a dog yet, or are getting another dog, I have just the breed for you: the breedless dog, the mutt. The myth that a shelter dog, especially a mixed-breed dog, will be less good or less reliable than a purebred dog is not just wrong, it is entirely backward: mixed breeds are healthier, less anxious, and live longer than purebreds. When you buy a bred dog, you are simply not buying a fixed object, guaranteed to act in certain ways—regardless of what the breeder tells you. What you might get is a dog with an overriding fixation, born of breeding for a task that he will likely never do while living with you (who nonetheless will still be wonderfully doggy). Mutts, on the other hand, with the bred characteristics diluted, wind up having lots of latent abilities and less mania.

ANTHROPOMORPHIZE WITH UMWELT IN MIND

On walks Pump was never satisfied with being on one side of the path or the other: she weaved back and forth capriciously. Holding her on leash I was constantly readjusting my hand on the thing. Sometimes I'd insist she stay to one side of me, and she sighed at me while we both glanced knowingly at the good un-smelled spots on the other side.

Even with a scientific take on the dog, we find ourselves using anthropomorphic words. Our dogs—my dog—make friends, feel guilty, have fun, get jealous; understand what we mean, think about things, know better; are sad, are happy, are scared; want, love, hope.

This way of talking is easy, and sometimes useful, but it is also part of a bigger, more exceptionable phenomenon. As we recast every moment of a dog's life in human terms, we have begun to completely lose touch with the animal in them. It is no longer the rare dog who is shampooed, clothed in garments, and feted on his birthday. That may seem benign, but it is also part of a de-animalizing of dogs that is somewhat radical. We are rarely present for their births, and many people will choose not to be present for their own dogs' deaths. We eliminate sex for the most part: we neuter dogs and we discourage the slightest lascivious thrusts of the hips. They are fed sanitized food, in bowls; they are largely restricted to a leash-length distance from our heels. In cities, their excrement is bundled up and thrown away. (Happily, we have not yet taught them to use the toilet … convenient though we know that would be.) Breed types are described like products, with specified features. It seems as though we are trying to get rid of the animal part of the dog.