My Teachers

I'm not a dog trainer, nor am I a dog expert.  I've been able to teach my dogs a few things, but in general, my dogs teach me.  In this blog, I intend to share the life lessons I've learned from my dogs over the years.

It all started in September of 2016.

We adopted Samantha from a shelter when she was around three years old.  They had rescued her from an extreme case of neglect.  Her adoption profile labeled her as a "Weimaraner mix," and you can definitely see the breed resemblance.  But, most Weimaraners grow a lot bigger than Sammy.

She's only around 50 lbs, not 60-90 like most breed descriptions say.  She's a lot shorter, too, in length and height.  These dogs were bred in Germany to hunt large game like deer and bears.  Sammy shares that genetic desire to run and chase anything that moves, from go-carts to barn cats, and pursue her "prey" obsessively until something reminds her that she's tired. 

Germany's "gray ghost" is classified as a "gun dog," a hunting companion that has the natural instincts to track, flush, and retrieve the hunted.  But, Samantha doesn't have the patience of a pointer or the discipline of a retriever. 

What we have noticed, is that she runs like a Whippet.  Whippets are like small Greyhounds in a sense, lighting fast and never tiring.  These dogs are "sighthounds," programmed to notice motion and defeat their prey with speed and endurance.  Like most adult shelter dogs, we don't really know much about her history or pedigree, but there was definitely as sighthound somewhere in her family tree.

Sammy doesn't have the best of noses, and she even fails to find my husband when he hides from her behind the door.  Neither Weims nor Whippets were bred for sense of smell or tracking abilities. 

But Zorro was.

Zorro is a Treeing Walker Coonhound.  We adopted him just a couple months ago from the same shelter.  Now, Sammy is eight and Zorro is somewhere around eleven.

Walkers were bred to track their prey and tell their human where to find it.  Zorro's nose is incredible, and he can skillfully find a mouse out in the pasture or an empty Iam's can at the bottom of the kitchen trashcan.

His voice could make him a finalist on Idol, too.  Sammy's bark sounds louder in the house, but Zorro's howl travels, and we can hear him sometimes from the workshop outside.  

He howls when we leave so we'll know how to find him when we come back.  When he's happy, he switches to a quick, chopping bark, designed to let the hunter know the racoon is up a tree.

They say to research the breed before committing to a dog.  I say continue the research even after bringing the dog home.  It helps to know them better and understand what makes them tick.  

Again, I'm no expert, but one thing my dogs have taught me is this: To understand a dog, think like a dog, not a human.  Sometimes when my dogs drive me crazy, I just have to remember, they're not "being bad," they're just doing what sighthounds and scent hounds do.