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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>My next door neighbor’s dog is a rescue animal, mixed, but with ancestors clearly Scottish shepherd and English shepherd, the last several generations of which never saw a sheep. Somehow this dog gets a most puzzled look whenever she sniffs my wool pants, with instincts calling to her but not really explaining what to do.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I saw something yesterday with was most interesting. One of her friends is a big overweight Australian Labradoodle, as much flabby as fluffy.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><a href="https://www.dogbreedinfo.com/australianlabradoodle.htm">https://www.dogbreedinfo.com/australianlabradoodle.htm</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>When these two bitches get together, they play in a way I don’t see when the shepherd is in contact with other dogs in the park. These two run in concentric circles, with the athletic shepherd on the outside and the Aussie blobbing along on the inside.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>It occurred to me last night why this might be: the lab kinda looks like a sheep. Her friend runs around outside, attempting to herd her fluffy friend to the center of a non-existent flock.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Dogs bred for a job and now serving as pets must be so confused by their own instincts.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Keith talks about evolutionary psychology, which is really in some ways the human equivalent of the unemployed working dog. Perhaps we, like our pets, are vaguely compelled to do odd behaviors, to follow the puzzling instructions of our own feelings, somehow genetically encoded by evolution. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>spike<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>