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We love seeing dog-centered ideas make their way into the mainstream. This week, an older clip resurfaced of Oprah interviewing canine cognition expert Alexandra Horowitz about why dogs need time to sniff freely on walks — and we immediately sent it to each other.
For years, we’ve talked about how sniffing is not a distraction from the walk. For many dogs, it is the walk.
Sniffing lowers stress, provides mental enrichment, and gives dogs agency in environments where humans control almost everything else. For reactive dogs, we’re often even bigger proponents of replacing long neighborhood walks with decompression outings where dogs can safely explore on a long line or in secure spaces like Sniffspots.
Also: tiny world moment. We both met Dr. Horowitz years ago at a book signing here in DC, and as a Barnard alum, Jess loves that Dr. Horowitz teaches there alongside our friend and longtime community member Professor Kaya Williams (@puppyjubilee).
Is there anything cuter than Winston launching himself into the air like an excited little frog the second he hears the word “puppacino”?
Joyful behavior makes my heart sing, and so does over analyzing it – yay! The word “puppacino” had zero meaning for Winston until it got paired with the actual beverage. What I don’t know is if this hopping is something Winston already does in other situations where he is anticipating something awesome and easily moved to this new context or if the hopping originally showed up around the actual puppachino cup and then transferred to the word.
What is kind of hilarious is how tight the stimulus control is on the word “puppacino.” It’s literally as if his human trained him to jump on the word “boing” intentionally. It seems like Winston’s human enjoys this behavior (rightfully so!) since he has his dog practice it on the way to the store (it’s getting reinforced somehow!).
We also got a kick out of the fact that once Winston actually arrives at Starbucks and sees the puppacino, he immediately sits like a distinguished gentleman. Because even Winston understands that bouncing and whipped cream are not an ideal combination – or he learned that that was the fastest way to get the cup delivered to him!
This week we came across a thought-provoking post from @spicydogsbehaviour reflecting on puppies, freedom, and leash culture after observing free-roaming dogs on the beaches of Sri Lanka.
One line really hit us:
“We genuinely believe we’re protecting dogs through physical control, and most of us never even stop to question it..”
Now this author lives in a place without leash laws, so the context is different than it is for those of us here in the US. But the author acknowledges that: “Sometimes management is necessary in the human world we created. But what I find fascinating is how rarely we ask ourselves what this constant control does to the development of autonomy, decision-making, confidence, and real-life coping skills.”
They go on to talk about how quickly we control more and more of a puppy’s life in the name of safety, but the author posits, “Many dogs never actually learn how to safely navigate the world, only how to exist under management.”
We’ll leave you with this thought provoking ending from the piece: “My point is not that leashes - or any other tools for that matter - are inherently bad, dangerous or abusive. Maybe the point is simply that we have stopped questioning them. We have normalised control so deeply that freedom itself now feels irresponsible. And yet, when you spend enough time observing dogs outside of our heavily managed pet culture, you start realising that many of the fears we hold about them were never truly theirs to begin with.”
Admittedly, it’s so much harder to imagine this in a country like the US where there are leash laws, but it’s always fascinating to observe dogs in places where they live so differently. I think reflecting on the way we wield the word safety is critical for us when we have so much power in a relationship. Curious how this lands for you all.
If you’ve been reading this newsletter for a while, you already know we’ll never get tired of a good “kibble rolled in a towel” enrichment setup.
This week’s variation adds a little something extra: the enrichment snake.
Using a towel, kibble, and empty toilet paper rolls, this DIY turns everyday household items into a surprisingly engaging sniff-and-search activity for your dog (maybe even a little shredding). Cheap, easy, and genuinely enriching? That’s our favorite combination.
If you try it, tag us — we’d love to see your snake creations in action.
We’ll leave you this week with an absolutely mesmerizing video of a cuttlefish changing colors as a diver approached near Manly, Australia.
According to National Geographic, cuttlefish are “masters of disguise,” capable of transforming themselves from vibrant displays into near invisibility on the ocean floor to avoid predators. As much as I love to overanalyze behavior, this is a moment where I’m just going to let it be. I am forever grateful that we get to live in a world filled with so much magic.
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— TOC
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