INSIGHT

Our comfort with dogs is bone deep

By John Gierach Redstone Review

LYONS – On a recent fishing trip to Minnesota I stayed with my friend Mike, his wife Andrea, and their two dogs, Moose and Buncie. Mike and Andrea are the kind of high-quality people we’re advised to surround ourselves with if we want to be successful ourselves, and Moose and Buncie are Labrador retrievers. Moose is black with a gray muzzle and in his teens, while Buncie is yellow and isn’t yet two, but in spite of the age difference they’re great pals and share a sense of fun that’s indistinguishable from that of 11year-old boys, but that’s more forgivable when seen in dogs. The only real difference between them is that where Buncie frolics, Moose galumphs.

Moose was a great fishing dog. I say “was” because he’s too old and arthritic now to get around on trout streams, but in his day, he was good company and understood that his role on a fishing trip was that of observer rather than participant, which is all it takes.

Buncie is still too rambunctious to be a good fishing dog, but he will be. These things take time, especially when you train a dog with encouragement and rewards instead of discipline. It takes longer, but you end up with a better dog who obeys because he wants to rather than because he’s afraid not to. You can instantly spot a dog that’s been trained with kindness and patience and that tells you a lot about its owner, too.

I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t around dogs. While I was still at home, there was Butchy, then Willy and then Sam. Butchy was some kind of small, indeterminate terrier sort of thing. He was there when I was born and I don’t have a clear memory of him, but I’m told that when I was little I decided he’d look better if he was red (and idea I may have gotten from comic books) so I tried to paint him. If true, the statute of limitations has long since run out on that, but I’m still sorry about it.

It’s that early familiarity that makes me more comfortable around dogs than I am around most people and I’m not alone. I don’t know many who won’t stop to say hello to a friendly dog or who don’t know enough to leave an unfriendly one alone.

Our comfort with dogs isn’t just lifelong, but bone deep. The common wisdom is that early humans domesticated wolves somewhere back in prehistory and to this day the genetics of dogs and wolves are identical, while there’s only a 1.2 percent difference between humans and chimps, so dogs and humans have been together for a long time.

But I once read about an alternate theory that it was actually wolves who domesticated humans. They found us useful enough to allow us to share their kills and eventually we began hunting together cooperatively. It was the influx of protein from our new meat-rich diet that allowed our brains to grow big enough to develop tools, language and art and it was the habit of cooperation that resulted in what we came to call civilization. So now we feed dogs, take them for walks, scratch their ears and let them sleep on our couches out of gratitude.

After leaving home and spending an aimless decade during which I never lived for long in any one place, I had some dogs of my own. The first was an unruly blackand-tan coon hound named Plug that I rescued from the pound just hours before he was scheduled to be euthanized. After a rough period when the alpha position in our relationship was up for grabs, he became the classic one-man dog: devoted to me, but barely able to tolerate anyone else. A friend once tried to shoo Plug off a couch where he wanted to sit, but he never tried it again.

My last dog was Strider, a dalmatian who’d been driven half mad by the woman who owned him. I lived with that same woman for a while and she did the same for me, but once she was gone, Strider and I recovered together. I taught him a few basic commands without screaming or hitting and otherwise just let him be a dog. Eventually he calmed down as much as his high-strung breeding allowed and lived out his life like a recovered alcoholic: a little haunted at times, but basically okay.

That was always my story with dogs. Friends had stylish, well trained hunting dogs and I always ended up with insane hyenas that no one else wanted. They were loads of trouble, but in the end, we always seemed destined to be together.

When I finally started to get my feet under me as a writer, I was living alone and Strider was getting old and creaky. I traveled a lot then to places where I couldn’t take a dog and often left him with friends or at a kennel. He was well cared for, but I felt guilty for neglecting him and so when he died I didn’t get another dog.

But as it happened, Strider had also come with a pair of cats named Momma and Maggie (the woman had left in a huff and a hurry and never came back, leaving animals and furniture behind) so I segued easily into being a cat guy.

But I still say hello to friendly dogs and when Susan and I take our regular hikes; we gravitate to places where people walk

Gierach their dogs to facilitate that. My observation there is that friendly dogs are with friendly people who’ll say hello and maybe stop to chat for a minute, while aloof dogs are with grumpy people who’ll barely spare you a nod as you pass on the trail. It’s so easy with dogs. Unlike humans, with our layers of secrets and defenses, dogs are an open book: easily readable at a glance and vice versa. It’s all body language. A human with an ounce of sense can spot a friendly dog, and a dog can spot a human who likes them at a range of 20 yards.

I have a lot of close dog friends. There are too many to list here, but Mr. Banks comes to mind. And yes, that’s his name. He’s small (maybe 25 pounds) solid as a brick, scruffy as an old brush and profoundly pleased with himself. On walks, he trots along with the regal strut of a minor royal out strolling among commoners, and although he’s happy to say hello to anyone, he maintains his dignity as if to say, “Yes, I’m adorable, but it’s still Mr. Banks to you.”

The distinguished Mr. Banks with his human, Lyons artist Sally King.

B• R • I • E • F • S

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Photos of graduating seniors to be published in Redstone Review

LYONS – The Redstone publishes a full page of the photos of all the students graduating from Lyons High School each year. Last year for the first time we started to publish the photos of graduating seniors who live in Lyons but are graduating from schools outside of Lyons in Boulder County.

If your child is a senior, and graduating this year from a school outside of Lyons in Boulder County, and you want a photo in the Redstone, we will need a photo of your senior, a head shot, plus a small amount of information: full name, what their immediate future plans are, such as what college, university, trade school they are planning to attend, any scholarships they have received, if they plan to travel first for a year, or to work before attending school, or if they plan to have a regular job. It can only be about a sentence long. You can send the info and photo to redstarnews5@gmail.com. The photos and copy are due by May 9.

Capital improvements and projects

LYONS – The Safe Route to School 4th Avenue Pedestrian Bridge and Trail has begun mobilization and construction. The area near the St. Vrain and Park Street, Evans and 4th Avenue will have the most work in the coming months as the work progresses in the river to install the bridge abutments. Construction of a new sidewalk and ADA ramps on the west side of 4th Avenue from Evans Street to Railroad Avenue has begun. The bridge has already been fabricated in Wisconsin and will transported to Lyons. The project is funded with $1 million in federal/state funds to date.

Black Bear Hole and 2nd Avenue Trailhead Improvements have also fenced off the area and begun work to improve access and parking, and a public restroom facility. This project is funded with $282 thousand from lottery dollars through Great Outdoors Colorado. The project will require the closing of the pedestrian bridge in order to replace the boards of the bridge.

Longmont Water Pump Station Project began earlier this week. Railroad Avenue between 2nd and 3rd Avenues will be closed for the next two to three months. The parking lot will also be closed for this project, estimated to run through midJuly. They will be excavating a 100’ by 50’ by 20’ deep hole for the pump station and Railroad Avenue will be closed for much of the time that this project is going on.

Employment with the Town of Lyons

LYONS – Are you interested in working for the Town of Lyons? The town currently has four full-time year-round positions as well as seasonal parks and maintenance openings. Take a look and apply today. Go to the Town of Lyons website www.townoflyons.com or call 303-823-6622.

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