Travels With Sailor: Call of the Wild
Badlands, bad ass dog.
Sailor seems to have heard the call of the wild. Or something like that.
For as long as I’ve known Sailor — about four years, and since she was eight weeks old — she has always been a dog who devours whatever food is placed in front of her. I’ve known other dogs, like my sister’s, who graze the food bowl throughout the day, particularly when the humans in the house are eating. They are casual, social eaters.
Sailor was never like that, ever. Until now.
Lately, I’ll go into a truck stop to, say, grab a bite to eat, and leave her in the truck with a bowl of food. I’ll come back an hour later and she hasn’t eaten. At first, I suspected she wasn’t feeling well. But she eats as soon as I’m nearby, and eats with gusto.
Veterinarians, dog psychologists, trainers, et al. can feel free to chime in on this one. But I’ve heard that, in the wild, dogs prefer not to eat unless other members of the pack are around to stand guard. A dog (wolf, hyena, dingo, coyote) is vulnerable while it eats because it’s attention is focused on its food, not on potential threats.
My theory is that with all the traveling, all the new smells, and the sight of all these wild animals, such as those we’ve seen in the Black Hills, the Badlands and Yellowstone, something instinctual has kicked in with her.As long as I’m watching her, she eats. If I walk away with my back to her, she stops. But if I turn to look at her, even from 30 yards away, she’ll resume.
She doesn’t know what to make of the bison, the elk, the deer. So she barks at them. Amidst a Yellowstone snow storm, in which my truck got briefly stuck, I slowed down to photograph a horned bison by the side of the road. She started barking and the Bison, who’d been ignoring us til then, turned and stared us down.
How to apologize to him for all the senseless slaughter of his kind back when the West was being won? How to let him know I came in peace? That I wasn’t like these dudes, from back in 1870:
Pile of bison skulls in 1870. Image via Wikimedia Commons.
No matter. I stepped on the gas. Last thing I needed was a pissed-off Bison to charge my little short-bed truck.
I also think Sailor and I — with our snowy hikes in in the Black Hills, in the rocky, sage-covered terrain outside Yellowstone, in the pine forests along the Coeur D’Alene river in northern Idaho — have become more of a unit somehow. Exploring together, vulnerable together, surviving together, as it were. By now, we’ve spent four or five nights sleeping in the back of my pick-up truck together, all of them in freezing temperatures, at least two in subzero temps (maybe three — last night in Ellensberg, Wash. was damned cold). She crawls inside my sleeping bag and we keep each other warm. We’re frightened by the same noises in the night.
Meanwhile, my beard and my hair keep getting longer:
My beard: more 15-year-old-jihadist than Grizzly Adams, but I'm working on it.
I think we’re becoming a wild pack of dogs.
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yes, you are a pack and she sees you as her leader.
Grrrrreat post. More!
It’s true. My dog is completely domesticated, but she still has the pack instinct. She’s too slow to catch and kill–though when she was younger she did catch a very young possum who was pretending to be dead–but she knows the leader of the pack is the one who feeds her (my husband) and second in command is the one who loves her most (my seven-year-old).
I am third on the list, so she very reluctantly follows my commands, and only then, when the other two aren’t home.
She, too, barely looks at her food dish until we all sit down to eat. Then she is wanting to be part of the clan and will either sit by the table and hope for something good (which never happens) or go to her dish and finish it all off.
FYI, hyenas are closer to cats.
And yes, you’re probably correct that her eating habits have changed because she is now in an unfamiliar environment. A lot of effort is normally devoted to acclimating dogs to their new environment. You probably don’t have the time or a spare bison laying around to teach her to be calm about these changes. She may relax after she has spent a lot of time in the cab of your truck, but I doubt it. It sounds like she has associated a feeling of vulnerability and dependence with eating in your truck.
On a deeply personal level, I’m living vicariously through your adventures with your dog. I’m sans dog and adventures right now, but I’d like to change that in the future.
Thanks so much for writing, Aleicia. Duly noted about the hyenas. They look and sound so much like dogs, I had no idea. Thanks to Wikipedia, I have learned the following:
“Although hyenas bear some physical resemblance to canids, they make up a separate biological family that is most closely related to Herpestidae (the family of mongooses and meerkats), thereby falling within the Feliformia.”
You may be right about the truck, although she tends to be quite relaxed when we’re driving. That makes me think it’s more about whether I’m there or not. But who knows?
Having seen your photo with your dog, it makes me sad you are without (him? her?) right now. I hope it’s only temporary.
In response to another comment. See in context »Hi, Austin.
Anne Everhart here. (Patrick & David Koch’s mom). Jessie told me you were traveling about and one could read about your experiences through your blog. My hope is that your journey will bring you peace and comfort as well as renew and refresh your spirit. Stay safe and keep us posted as you continue your travels. Hugs to you and Sailor. God bless!