A Quickie Note on Dogs

by Katharine Niles

Blog Last Updated; 8/11/2009

Recently I was in a locale back east full of groomed, pure bred dogs. Got me thinking about the mutts in my neck of the woods. For white honkey Four Corners, purebreds are disdained for pound puppies or, better yet, rez dogs. A rez dog is the ultimate anti-status dog, and therefore full of status. I'm not sure if it doesn' t smack of slumming it, a little. You know, rich kid goes west, buys a kayak, finds hapless rez dog at some inevitable gas station in the middle of the desert. And then proudly states, "She's a rez dog," when asked where the dog was found.

Rancher types still possess the heelers and Aussie shepherds of the universe, for I see these dogs out working with the cows and sheep. These same types populate the pound, too; my dog surely has some heeler or shepherd in her, as well as something Arctic. She loves nothing better than deep snow, hates hot days. So a subset of the working dog around here is the sled dog.

Then there are the Rottweilers and I bristle at them. I project mean things onto Rottweiler owners. As in, wondering if they are cousins to Michael Vick. Not fair, I know. Buy why a Rottweiler? Isn't that like owning a gun designed solely to kill people and nothing else? Yes, Rottweilers scare me. But they are popular around here and I'd like to know why. No doubt I'm missing the boat on something.

I have a friend with a dog rescued from a puppy mill. These dogs are akin to the rez dogs, the pound dogs, to all dogs left by the side of the road. We're good at taking on these often difficult creatures. And we're good at taking our dogs out on trails, in snow or dust. We don't groom them to perfection, nor necessarily flaunt their pure bred status, when such exists. That just isn't how it works. So it was interesting to see the pure breds, with their coats glossy and free of tangles, in this other place. But they were still dogs, running and prancing, and I liked that. And I liked how dog preferences reflected regional differences as well. It's one of those small things that orients us, and lets us know where we are.