Dogs being dogs

Those of us who train and do dog sports with our dogs expect a lot of them. Our dogs are pets and beloved companions first and foremost. But they go far beyond that. Our dogs are athletes. We demand a tremendous amount from them both physically and mentally. Agility in particular requires both peak athletic effort and the ability to think and react very quickly to a huge number of human body and voice cues. Many agility dogs will turn left or right on a verbal alone, know to come tight to the handler when their hand drops to their side, know each obstacle by name and have the ability to pick which obstacle to take based purely on that. And these dogs are letting all that information click through their heads while running 30+ miles per hour around a tight little course.

Of course getting that end result means a lot of training beforehand. It usually takes performance dogs in any sport 1-2 years to get ready to show. There are hundreds and hundreds of training hours in every dog you see in the obedience ring or agility field. Most of us train several times a day in tiny spurts (heeling while the coffee brews, hand targeting while the bread's in the oven, finishes when the commercial is on), with more intensive training 3-4 times a week. Then, of course, we're also doing physical conditioning. Some people use the treadmill at the building. Others of us go on long hikes, or have the dogs carry a backpack or pull a cart.

On top of that, our working dogs are in the public a lot. We demand that they be good canine citizens in all they do. We give a lot of demos and of course show on public property. We can't have a dog that goes all wingnut if somebody wants to touch them or a dog gets too close.

If all this sounds like a lot for the dog, it is. However, our dogs love to work. Very few breeds of dogs actually do not like to get out there and exercise their brains and bodies. Just like people our dogs love having something to do. I'd venture to say that our working dogs are probably far happier and well adjusted than many dogs. I promise they're way better off than that poor dog hanging out on a chain or in a run in somebody's back yard, more lawn ornament than functioning, thinking canine.

But sometimes we dog trainers start feeling like over-ambitious soccer-mom types. Every waking moment of the dog's life to be managed, directed, groomed. And you know what? Sometimes dogs just need to be dogs.

Part of how we let our dogs be dogs is to take them to a safe area and let them run off leash. They hunt, they get muddy, they run. And run, and run, and run (hey, added bonus, physical conditioning!). But Zipper, who has been perforce raised in a big-dog world, also gets an occasional added bonus. Yesterday afternoon was such a day. It was warm enough that he could go back to his breeder's house where he was born, and be part of a Min Pin pack. He and his dam stayed all afternoon in a big fenced paddock, with his brother and various other relatives in the next paddock over. They ran around and sniffed and barked at each other and did Min Pin things.

Last night I took home a happy, tired, and self-satisfied little dog who got to spend time just being a little dog in a little dog world.