Good Days, Bad Days - and Wild Cats

Although we humans have good days and bad days, sometimes for no discernible reason, I tend to assume that a dog's perspective doesn't change much from one day to the next. I tend to expect that a dog will respond in the same way to training or potentially scary things every single day.

Shyla is a dog who makes it very obvious that she has a complex inner world that isn't always the same. Some days, she surprises me with her confidence. Other days, she surprises me with her fearfulness when I can't see anything to be afraid of.

Today was one of those days. I tend to show photos of her when she looks confident and happy. I think you'll agree with me that neither of those adjectives describes her in the next photo.

As I watched her continue to act fearful, I tried our time-honored method of playing training games to build her confidence. The games helped as you can see from her posture in the next photo (ignoring the fact that she was "hiding").

Then, we hiked for a little while, and she climbed onto her favorite boulder. Shyla looked scared again almost right away. That is not the posture of a confident dog.

I started contemplating what she perceived as scary. We did see a dog who has scared her in the past near the start of this morning's hike. However, Shyla has never remained scared for so long after seeing that relatively benign dog. It was also very windy today. Perhaps the combination of seeing that dog and the gale-force wind put Shyla over her threshold ("trigger stacking").

I also wondered about whether Shyla might be smelling scary wildlife. I later discovered that a bobcat had spent ten minutes in front of a nearby trail camera.

He did a complete body washing right in front of the camera (I'm going to make a video of it - it's incredible to see). Then, he must have sensed a prey animal because he used his stalking gait to depart.

As I thought about it, I doubted that the scent of a bobcat would scare Shyla that much.

I also know that a mountain lion has been in our neck of the woods very recently although I don't know whether he's still in the area. Perhaps Shyla smelled him? She is, without a doubt, scared of the scent of mountain lions.

As I mentally listed all the possible causes of Shyla's fearful behavior, I realized that I have "bad days" for reasons that can't be seen by outsiders. I have migraines, shoulder pain, spine pain, and things that are weighing on my mind. All of these things can make me behave differently than usual.

Why shouldn't dogs have similar inner things that cause them to act differently from usual? Perhaps Shyla had a migraine. Oh man - I hope not!

She did have fun on our morning hike, especially when she was playing in the snow or galloping at full speed. I captured a photo close to the end of our hike after she'd been playing in the forest that shows the "normal" Shyla.

Although she did bounce back, I think that it's important that I remember that she'll have good days and bad days, just like I do. Dogs are living creatures with complex inner lives - and it's worth remembering that, especially when your best friend is a dog who is prone to fearfulness.