A dog doesn’t have to touch you to choose you. He can settle on the floor beside your chair, leave several inches between his body and your feet, and stay there while better-padded beds sit unused across the room.…
Some dogs can identify the best seat in the house in the fifteen seconds it takes you to get a glass of water. Conveniently, it’s the one you just left.…
A dog sitting on your lap isn’t claiming ownership of you. The position can look possessive because the dog is literally occupying your body, but location alone doesn’t tell you whether she’s trying to control anything.…
Your dog did something today that made you stop and wonder. Maybe they followed you into the bathroom again. Then they started pacing for no obvious reason or dropped a toy at your feet for the fourth time in an hour.…
Your dog looks at you, glances toward the leash hanging by the door, then looks back. A moment later, he paws your leg.
Which part was the message?
The useful answer may be the whole sequence.…
Some dogs seem to organize their day around a person. You stand up, and they stand up. You walk into the kitchen, and footsteps follow a few seconds later.…
You’re sitting on the couch when another dog starts walking toward you. Yours has been lying quietly at your side, but something changes as the distance closes. She lifts her head, gets up, and steps into the narrow space between you and the approaching dog.…
Your pillow spends hours pressed against your face and hair, night after night. It picks up skin oils, breath, and all the ordinary traces of you that barely register to a human nose.…
He isn’t following you into the bathroom because he has no respect for your privacy. Respecting bathroom privacy would first require him to understand that bathrooms are supposed to be private.…
You feel it before you really notice what your dog is doing. She walks over while you’re standing in the kitchen or talking with a visitor, turns sideways, and lets part of her body settle against your leg.…