On Tue, 19 Oct 2004 11:01:18 GMT, "Doug Kanter"
wrote:

~~ snippage ~~

I'm reading an interesting book called "The Botany of Desire". The author
raises the interesting question "Who's wagging whom?" We think we
domesticate or refine animals & plants, but it may be the other way around.
He mentions dogs as the obvious example, but the book specifically focuses
on apples, tulips, potatoes and marijuana. The tulip issue is particularly
interesting if you think not of the flowers themselves, but of the virus
which causes the most interesting color streaks in the petals. Those streaks
are what caused the Dutch to go bananas in the early 1600s, speculating on
tulips until people lost their homes and their life savings. Was the virus
leading humans around by the nose? It didn't hurt the tulips, but it got
lots of people to cultivate them, just to see if they'd get a color pattern
that would make them rich next season.

I'm familiar with this concept. One of my children has some skill in
the area of orchids and believes much the same about orchid
propagation. She is an osteopath with a sub specialty so the
intellectual curiosity is very obviously present.

I extend the analogy to dogs. "You're so cute and fuzzy! So what if you'll
only crap when you're off our property and on someone else's! I love being a
sociopath and helping you do that, even if it costs my neighbors hundreds of
dollars to clean their carpets!"

Well, that's an ownership problem. It's my opinion that people who
contemplate owning a dog, must prove they are worthy of owning a dog.
I also feel the same way about kids - you have to prove you are worthy
to have a child. I mean I had to do it and did four times in fact.
Why shouldn't others?

The problem with dogs is that they have been bred beyond their
original purpose. Dogs like the Papillon are bred as companion
animals and do very well in that role. They aren't real dogs however.

Dogs are man's helpmate. My experience with war dogs and my own bunch
of mad crazy insane Border Collies are a great experience. Give you
a 'fer instance - My youngest Border Skye hired herself out as a stock
dog once. I say hired herself out because one of my neighbors is a
dairy farmer and his herd got out of the pasture and was raiding the
corn field I rent out. Skye, for some reason unknowable to anyone,
saw it and took it on herself to put the cows back into the place
where she always saw them on our walks around my property.

That is one smart dog.

She has a great reputation - if one of the local farmers has their
heifers get out, they will call and I'll send Skye - "Sky, go to
Farmer Jim" and she's off through the woods. Farmer Dave - off across
the lake. She helps out rounding up the cows, then the guys call me
and I come and get her - all tuckered out and happy as the proverbial
pig. My youngest dog, Skippy, is taking up where Skye is leaving off.

Give you another 'fer instance.

My big guy, Duke, is blind. I never knew it until he was five years
old. Honest.

So the difference between your neighbors and my dogs is intelligence
and constant training. They stay in the yard, no leash, under
constant command and control.

In your case, blame the owner, not the dog. :)

Later,

Tom
-----------
"Angling may be said to be so
like the mathematics that it
can never be fully learnt..."

Izaak Walton "The Compleat Angler", 1653