Dogs, smells, alerts, coyotes...A walk in the park!

Dogs, like people, have distinct personalities. Of course, they are dogs, and thus have similarities and differences from people. They perceive things differently than we do, with smell being their dominant sense, while for most people it is sight, We verify things we hear, or smell, or touch, by looking at them; for dogs, they verify by smelling. The extent and complexity of their olfactory apparatus is impressive, and one of the things that I learned more about from

“Being a Dog: Following the Dog Into a World of Smell” (Simon and Schuster) by dog cognition researcher Alexandra Horowitz. One result of their focus on smell is that they tend to be focused downward, at the ground, following smells. In his book “Thunder Dog” (Thomas Nelson), Michael Hingson tells the amazing story of how he, a blind man, and his guide dog Roselle escaped from the 78^th floor of the World Trade Center on 9/11/2001. It is quite a story, but mixed into the main narrative is a lot of information on being blind – and what blind people can, in fact, do and accomplish – and guide dogs. One thing that stayed with me is how the dogs have to be trained to look upward and be aware on what is going on above their heads to avoid running their partners into objects that they themselves could easily go under. This is something I deal with every day walking my dogs in the park. They’re good dogs but not guide dogs, and as they occupy much of the path we are on, I have to be careful that I myself am not walking into a tree branch that is of no concern to them!

My current two dogs are also different in many ways; Molly pees and poops immediately and anywhere (sidewalk, middle of an intersection), while Rosa needs to go quite a long way from home and prefers to poop off the path, hidden, preferably on top of sticks, rocks, or even cactus that make it more difficult for me to pick up. Both stop and smell, but Rosa more often and for longer; Molly is more likely to stop, stock-still (“statue”) when she wants to make a point about the direction in which she wishes to go (or not go), and her smelling is largely directed by what might be there to eat (“edible” is not really the issue; this can include sticks and rocks!) Rosa also needs to be in the lead, and so after she stops to sniff moves up quickly to the front on the other side of Molly from me, and her leash can get caught behind Molly, causing her to instinctively stop and sit!

Rosa is also very alert to what is going on in the environment. Probably this is mostly also instinctive; both of the dogs were adopted at several years old and are not “pure-bred” whatevers, so I can’t look up if it is typical of her breed. She was also found wandering the streets of small-town Willcox with her puppies, so maybe the need to be aware was reinforced by her early life. Anyway, she is constantly looking around. She has several levels of alertness, which I note to decide if I need to take any action. The lowest level is “General alert”, looking and sniffing around to see if there might be anything to be concerned about. If a head turn only lasts a few seconds, I don’t need to pay attention. Then comes “Something alert”, where the head turn might last a bit longer, but does not show real concern. This most often means that a bird or ground squirrel or rabbit or lizard is moving nearby. Higher yet is “People/dog alert” when nearby, or approaching is a person, dog, or both (the latter being very common). This is something I do have to pay attention to, as it may require us to change our direction or step off to the side. Part of this can have to do with dog size; Molly and Rosa are good-sized, if not really large, and I am more concerned for their safety with dogs off-leash, especially large dogs. But yapping and aggressive little dogs can set my dogs off and mean I have to hold them back. One thing I know is I am pretty unreliable when it comes to predicting how my dogs and others will react to each other; it is a complex formula that is opaque to me (and probably has a lot to do with smell). I do know that other dog owners do not always have a great sense of how their dogs will react, sometimes conflating how they are with their own families with how they might react to others.

The highest level of alert is “Coyote alert”. While for me seeing a coyote or coyotes in the distance it is sometimes hard to tell them from dogs (often my first clue is “no person”), Molly and Rosa seem to have no difficulty, and react accordingly. Coyotes tend to avoid people, and while they have been known to pick off small dogs who were not being carefully watched (or held), they do not come after a person and two dogs the size of mine (although when there are pups, there can be a bunch of them, and the parent will often stand vigilant until all pass and can be intimidating). The issue is that Rosa and Molly want – very much – to chase them, and it takes a lot of strength to hold them back. If either dog were off-leash and ran after them, coyotes have their own tricks to lure them into traps where they will be outnumbered.

Overall, it is fun and interesting to walk with them, despite the occasional alarm. The desert is lovely, and in this season it is actually cold (not arctic or northern cold, but in the 30s) in the early morning when we do our first walk. I have had these dogs for several years, but learn more about them every day!