Culture of dogs

I'm watching the Weims playing with Annie and the foundling Beatrice the Beagle (don't blame me, the HaintGirl named her, not me) and I am fascinated at how different the hound language is from that of the Weims. The Weims are more concerned with their dignity so they pick and choose when they want to be and how they are touched by the others. the coonhound Annie (who appears to be part Ridgeback) is not as standoffish. She mouth-wrestles and rolls around on the floor with some abandon.

Beatrice is even less concerned with her personal standing in the pack. That doesn't mean she has no dignity. In fact, in some ways her open warmth and sense of fun make her even more secure within herself and with the other dogs. She isn't tenuous when she approaches them. Beatrice just sails in and expects to be welcomed. Sometimes she is and sometimes she isn't. In either case, she holds no grudges.

The Weims on the other hand REALLY hold grudges. Okay, maybe not true grudges but they have their own little lists. Some days it seems they take names. That's what happened with Sol and Annie when they had their little battle. Sol seemed to be thinking about things and decided it was time to get on with it.

Everything is fine now. Sol and Annie run together and even cuddle in Sol's somewhat diffident way with other dogs. Don't you wish humans could get that knack? "Okay Bob, we fought it out and how its time to have a run and a cuddle. A little blood this way or that, oh well." I guess in some ways guys do that better than women. Maybe it goes back to the fact that male primates tend to have relationships based on pack position (and that changes a good bit) and female primates have longer term relationships based on shared families, events and other types of things that don't change as often. Check out De Waal's work for more on this side of our "monkey minds."

But back to dog language. Annie and Beatrice seemed to be able to communicate perfectly the moment they met. Its kind of like being in Moscow, having struggled with imperfect Russian because no one around you speaks English and suddenly up comes another English speaker. What a relief! You can relax and quit translating what you mean into their language. I think its the same for Annie. Annie and Beatrice both speak "Hound" and so they can be at ease with one another. And that's what happened. Annie let Beatrice curl up next to her belly and hang out with her. Meanwhile the Weims stuggled to understand Annie's language and, as is wont to happen in such cases, misinterpreted her motions.

Funny thing about that too is that some of the Weims are perfectly happy with learning "hound" and others are not as happy. Its like those of us who rejoice in human differences and learning about new cultures. Maybe its a natural way of being for some (humans and dogs) to accept and ultimately embrace difference in cultures and people. The reverse may be true as well.

Or could it be that there's a mixture of natural acceptance and ability to emotionally handle external changes? For example, Cloudy has never been a great one for change. Some days she doesn't even like going on walks until she's forced out the door on a lead. She's the worst one for leanring "hound." Sol loves walks and meeting new people. he's actually learning "hound" pretty well and I caught him hanging out with and playing with Beatrice.

I'll pass on more as I learn it.

Dogs as listeners and reading teachers

Some days even I am amazed at how the truth seems to seep out in odd ways. If you missed it, a great article from Yahoo News came out about dogs actually helping kids to read. It seems that the dogs are good listeners and encourage kids to read because they are happy to listen to anything.
If you want more details here's the link to the article.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051123/ap_on_re_us/teachers_pets;_
ylt=AprC2XTAUHNRrrhTUBSnumt4hMgF;
_ylu=X3oDMTBjMHVqMTQ4BHNlYwN5bnN1YmNhdA

I wonder if this means that we need to have some dogs as Listeners in the Haint sequel? hmmm.

Is there any hope? Ask Moyers...

Two posts in one day. I must have some really inspiring articles coming my way!

This next post comes via TomPaine.com, one of the best conduits of political commentary. Its the legendary Bill Moyers' insightful speech to the Environmental Press Corp in October 2005.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20051007/caring_for_creation.php

Why do I link it here? Because I get a lot of questions from readers as to whether or not I have any hope for humanity's far future. After you read this speech from one of America's great journalists, I think you'll understand why I think our species' chances are 50/50 on a REALLY good day.

More great info from the Hungarian researchers

Thank you Dr. Csanyi and the other researchers in Hungary who are leading the way in enlightening research. In case you didn't get a chance to see the report on their research with canine and lupine intelligence, check out this one from the Christian Science Monitor. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/10/28/tech/main992035.shtml

Talk about thinking outside the box and really using those "little monkey minds" as Haint would say!

You're probably thinking about now, "hey, this isn't about Joy or writing!" You're sort of right but not really. How's that for some equivocation? As some of you know, I'm working on the sequel now and a big question to answer is it what is the quintessential difference between wolves and dogs? Oh yeah, there's that human connection but that only begs the question. What's the deeper difference or differences between the two? At some point in history, dogs went one way and wolves went another evolutionarily speaking. Why? Check back for more questions and maybe a few answers. Meanwhile, checck out the great article above.

So it begins

Welcome to this new blog. I'm not sure how or where it will go but that seems to be the way I write anyway. So if Haint spoke to you, check back from time to time and see how we're doing on this end. Also, I'd love to hear back from you.

Now is the fall of our discontent... okay, I did rip that off from a much better writer but it seems to fit. I'm at the beginning of the Haint sequel and that's always the case when I get started on a new project. Though I guess its not really new. The sequel has been bleeding through for months now, pretty much ever since Haint went into print.

So much for now. Its time to actually get to work...

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