She's doing fine. And she seems to have gotten even more outgoing with strangers--major compared to when she first came to live with me. She spent the first three days after Polly left her, in the coat closet. She was wary of me, and wary of other people. Now she just loves going up to strangers to get the love, and she seems even more that way than she was last fall. Such a lovable dog!
our preferred breeds are particularly interesting. every one of them I've ever encountered has a strong and interesting personality. I've never considered not talking to ANY of my ESs (and, needless to say, BCs) in anything but proper English sentences. friends of mine have always insisted that I'm confusing them by doing this, but when I first started my friendship with Jubal's breeder, I asked her about this and she said that she'd never consider talking to any of her dogs in anything but coherent sentences and paragraphs. in the ES Society FB page, someone recently talked about leaving her dog in the company of a good friend while she was away for the weekend.
her "simple instructions" went on for PAGES. mainly, she said that if the dog seemed reluctant to follow a command, when the reasons for that command were explained logically and thoroughly, the dog would "get it," but that she was acutely sensitive to any trace of condescension. I know exactly what she meant. I bet you do as well.
in my experience, our breeds are especially wonderful with small children and start to perform a wide variety of protective herding behaviors right off the bat to a degree that still astonishes me.
four years before Natalie came to live with me, I was visiting a friend on an island in Puget Sound who has two border collies. He told me they understood English. And I quickly found it was true with Natalie.
And, yes, Natalie definitely has a strong and interesting personality.
question David: what's your experience of Natalie as far as eye contact goes? I'm asking because I remember rewading in many places that dogs in general (and herding breeds in particular) tend to be very choosey about when they make eye contact, and with whom they do so.
the thing is that my experience is the opposite. ALL of my ESs make a LOT of eye contact all the time. I was wondering if Natalie was the same because BCs uniquely herd by eye, so it occurred to me that they might be more sparing and/or selective about eye contact.
of course, since the dogs I know about most directly have been MINE, I can't really generalize, even though all of my friends (who also know my dogs extremely well) have the same experience.
if anything, my dogs have tended to LOCK eyes with people.
I have a four-year-old next door neighbor and whenever Jubal sees her, he locks eyes immediately, presses his nose against hers and then positions himself to make sure she can't go anywhere until he can make sure there's no danger.
I assume Natalie does a lot of the same stuff.
every time I see it, it's so beautiful I get a little tearful.
She makes eye contact. But she had no experience with little kids before I got her (and very little with any humans except for Polly and people who helped her on the farm. There was an incident once where we ran by a playground and she immediately went to herd some little kids but she's had very little experience with little kids, and most of it fleeting (running by them). Her major thing is to go up to strangers to get the love, and while she's done that for a few years now, she's done that distinctly more in the last week, and I'm hearing the adjective, "friendly" in reference to her a lot from people we've just met, all the sudden.
it took Jubal a year or so to realize that around here, he wasn't going to get shipped off to anywhere else and was in his forever home, so he could relax.
Natalie's first major breakthrough was after I'd had her for a little over three weeks. We'd driven down to the DC area. where both my siblings live. My sister had a big party. Until then, Natalie had been very wary of people she hadn't met. At the party, she started going up to each person, in turn. A few days later she did the same thing in coffee house.
when I brought Jubal home, he'd never seen a stairway, but he handled it.
the next day, we took him to a street fair in the East Village and he aced it, including a long visit to The Strand, which is a very dog-friendly bookstore.
...and before that, in 2000, I actually got points from the rescue group for taking on Meg and Jo, who were considered "feral." and they were incredibly sweet from day one.
Yes, I think our country would would have been in a better place, and sadly we were not given that option. Changing the subject how is Natalie?
She's doing fine. And she seems to have gotten even more outgoing with strangers--major compared to when she first came to live with me. She spent the first three days after Polly left her, in the coat closet. She was wary of me, and wary of other people. Now she just loves going up to strangers to get the love, and she seems even more that way than she was last fall. Such a lovable dog!
our preferred breeds are particularly interesting. every one of them I've ever encountered has a strong and interesting personality. I've never considered not talking to ANY of my ESs (and, needless to say, BCs) in anything but proper English sentences. friends of mine have always insisted that I'm confusing them by doing this, but when I first started my friendship with Jubal's breeder, I asked her about this and she said that she'd never consider talking to any of her dogs in anything but coherent sentences and paragraphs. in the ES Society FB page, someone recently talked about leaving her dog in the company of a good friend while she was away for the weekend.
her "simple instructions" went on for PAGES. mainly, she said that if the dog seemed reluctant to follow a command, when the reasons for that command were explained logically and thoroughly, the dog would "get it," but that she was acutely sensitive to any trace of condescension. I know exactly what she meant. I bet you do as well.
in my experience, our breeds are especially wonderful with small children and start to perform a wide variety of protective herding behaviors right off the bat to a degree that still astonishes me.
four years before Natalie came to live with me, I was visiting a friend on an island in Puget Sound who has two border collies. He told me they understood English. And I quickly found it was true with Natalie.
And, yes, Natalie definitely has a strong and interesting personality.
question David: what's your experience of Natalie as far as eye contact goes? I'm asking because I remember rewading in many places that dogs in general (and herding breeds in particular) tend to be very choosey about when they make eye contact, and with whom they do so.
the thing is that my experience is the opposite. ALL of my ESs make a LOT of eye contact all the time. I was wondering if Natalie was the same because BCs uniquely herd by eye, so it occurred to me that they might be more sparing and/or selective about eye contact.
of course, since the dogs I know about most directly have been MINE, I can't really generalize, even though all of my friends (who also know my dogs extremely well) have the same experience.
if anything, my dogs have tended to LOCK eyes with people.
I have a four-year-old next door neighbor and whenever Jubal sees her, he locks eyes immediately, presses his nose against hers and then positions himself to make sure she can't go anywhere until he can make sure there's no danger.
I assume Natalie does a lot of the same stuff.
every time I see it, it's so beautiful I get a little tearful.
She makes eye contact. But she had no experience with little kids before I got her (and very little with any humans except for Polly and people who helped her on the farm. There was an incident once where we ran by a playground and she immediately went to herd some little kids but she's had very little experience with little kids, and most of it fleeting (running by them). Her major thing is to go up to strangers to get the love, and while she's done that for a few years now, she's done that distinctly more in the last week, and I'm hearing the adjective, "friendly" in reference to her a lot from people we've just met, all the sudden.
that's lovely.
it took Jubal a year or so to realize that around here, he wasn't going to get shipped off to anywhere else and was in his forever home, so he could relax.
Natalie's first major breakthrough was after I'd had her for a little over three weeks. We'd driven down to the DC area. where both my siblings live. My sister had a big party. Until then, Natalie had been very wary of people she hadn't met. At the party, she started going up to each person, in turn. A few days later she did the same thing in coffee house.
when I brought Jubal home, he'd never seen a stairway, but he handled it.
the next day, we took him to a street fair in the East Village and he aced it, including a long visit to The Strand, which is a very dog-friendly bookstore.
...and before that, in 2000, I actually got points from the rescue group for taking on Meg and Jo, who were considered "feral." and they were incredibly sweet from day one.
She is a beautiful friend