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.
December 1st, 2005 at 8:24 pm
In the news yeaterday was a feature on the passing of the certified World’s Ugliest Dog. [ 3 time winner of the contest - won paw's down ] After 15 years with this loving friend that was a rescue from the shelter where he was pronounced “un-adoptable” due pooch-non-pulchratude, her life was emptier from this loving … well, here in the south we might use the word “haint” [ no offense ]
She got - before the national feed picked it up - over 8,000 e-mail condolences.
He was ugly. And beautiful.