Canine NeuroPark TM

29/05/2026

Roaming with Hounds Diary

Dog Body "Language" & Relational Observation

Big words, a?!
Well, i watched a video on my Facebook thread last night of a bull breed dog getting pats from a human kneeling next to the dog. The dog had bulging eyes, sat on its side, right stifle folded under, the dog pushes his head forward a bit lifting his lip very slighly when the human pointed at his left eye, he lip licked once, the human got up turned, the dog got up, turned, sliped while moving forwards, then looked back as the human stopped, dog turned again, shook its body and off it went.
The question was, if people thought the dog was enjoying this interaction.
And if observational "science" were up to democratic voting, the "No's" and the "OMG" had it [1.]
I kept on scrolling just to see if anyone pointed out the most worrying factor in the video.
"How the dog sat!"
I must admit I didnt scroll through all 120plus No's, OMG's and long-winded opinion pieces of body language. I stopped at a very interesting comment from a replier, that what as uncomfortable but much more diplomatic then I could be.
The post started something like this: "I am gonna be outvoted on this, but...."

The "but", intrigued me instantly, because it infered a thought process deeper then the general classifiers of the "No's" and "OMG's".
It infered a relational thought process.
This person pointed out that it was a 20 seconds video, of a breed that some have bulging eyes, of a relational incident between a handler and dog, of whom's relationship we do not have information about.

This well pointed out comment was quickly answered by, this is the foster carer and the dog came from a kill shelter.

Again, the person pointed out that that information added to the video, but she was still not overly confident of "judging" whether the dog enjoyed it or not.
To me, she was the most interesting commenter. Because she understood that every detail matters. She understood, that physical signals have no universal essence- one meaning- like many words have. Body language is nothing like spoken words.
Body language is a way to communicate through movement, and movement is inherently relational!!

It depends how things move in relation to eachother and other things.
And the way we observe them, rest in our past experience- of phylogenetic and learned origins.
We cannot escape that bias, but we can do better then group thinking- and that lady showed it. She had the currage to point something very important out. And for that I salute her.

Why have I posted this, with a picture of black blobs?

Well, here is your visual exercise to "reinforce" the above point.

Look at the picture of all the black blobs on the white back ground. What do YOU observe?
Write it down.
The answer is in the comments.
If you have seen this Pic before, sorry it will likely not work for you anymore, because you have succumb to the bias of the original picture.

1.[For discussion please first read Thomas Naigles "What its like to be a bat"]
2. Picture by R C James, Life Magazine, 19th Feb 1965, 58; 7, p120

27/05/2026

Roaming with Hounds Diary

Thoughts about breed specific behaviour & people

We often talk about breed specific behaviour in dogs to enhance excersises and, you know, "enrichment".
It is a good start to think about what breed a dog is when we look at behaviour that we like and the behaviours that dont suit our life style much.

Chasing and pulling are probably the most disliked prepared behaviours dogs express when we go on walks with them.
These behaviour expressions often leave us (i very much assume many feel the same) with a feeling of less control.

But often, those behaviours are not a problem behaviour, but a natural expression in that instant; and very much depend to where we walk with our dogs, and how confident we can feel that our dogs would hear the recall over fixing on a bunny zigzaging away.

The thing is, as much as we are told by very clever spin docs in the training indusrty- we cant actually change prepared behaviours. We can inhibit them only to arise in other situations, the "inhibitor" isn't present.
These behaviours are the expressions of the phylogenetic past- the evolutionary history and development of a species or group of organisms-

The only thing we can do is inhibit these behaviour with abersive methods & tools => I do not advice that!!

25/05/2026

Roaming with Hounds Diary

Today I was out in Rangiora with Whitty the Border Collie, after I had entertained the first lot of clients.
While picking Whitty up, her owner and I talked and enrichment came up.
That reminded me of a post I saw over the weekend, about how enrichment doesn't change behaviours, because it is very much food related. And that for long term learning to occur, abersives work better then reward based enrichment.

Well, it was one of these posts that give you a hot rush of adrenaline, where only a quick delete will calm oneself down

There is so much wrong with the statement in that post.
While it is correct that an aversive is really one trial learning-
for example:
if you touch a hot plate on the stove and burn yourself you won't generally do it a second time. No repetition is needed, to have learned that touching a hot plate is bad for ya.

HOWEVER!! One trial learning is as effective if there is a highly rewarding relieve. Such as for example, being hot, finding a nice part of the river to jump into to cool off. You won't need repeated trials to learn that spot of the river, how to get to that part of the river, to jump in when you get hot.

Learning takes many trials when many new connections need to be made, because there is not enough previous experience (memory) to generalize behaviour needed when an instance is too dissimilar.

For example:
learning a totally new movement, like a child learning to ride a bike. Or, learning a new language- While the temporal movements to displace air to exhale air pressure changes, that becomes sound when tranduced in another person's ear to sound- is prepared in all humans, English just has different movements of air displacement compared to Chinese or French. So new connections have to be added to existing memory bits, by learning through repeated trials.

Personally- im not a great fan of the word "enrichment" because of its history.

Animal enrichment theory traces back to the early 20th century, particularly during the rise of industrialized zoos and laboratories, the prevailing focus was on survival and basic physiological maintenance. Animals were often housed in barren, sterile environments designed for human observation or efficiency, with little regard for behavioral expression.

The theoretical turning point arrived in the early to mid-20th century, driven by ethologists like Konrad Lorenz and Niko Tinbergen, who began documenting the natural behaviors of species in the wild. Researchers started noticing that animals in captivity frequently exhibited "stereotypes"—repetitive, functionless behaviors like pacing or self-mutilation—which were interpreted as signs of psychological distress and environmental deprivation. This observation challenged the assumption that physical safety alone constituted good welfare.

By the 1970s and 1980s, the concept of "environmental enrichment" formally emerged. Work by psychologists such as Robert Young and later the development of the "Five Freedoms" framework shifted the paradigm. Enrichment was no longer just about adding toys; it became a structured approach to providing opportunities for animals to engage in species-typical behaviors, choice and autonomy when solving problems. Today, "enrichment" is grounded in the understanding that cognitive engagement and behavioral autonomy are as critical to animal health as nutrition and safe shelter, fundamentally reshaping standards in zoos, sanctuaries, research facilities and animal husbandry worldwide.

But for me, as pet owners we should strive to provide species specific husbandry. For the animal to be curious and explore to learn new things, it has to be in a save set up, with as much of its natural habitat it is prepared for available as possible. It secures a level of certainty - regularity- and a hint of novelty for curious exploration, thus learning to occur.

Hence, you see me always on long lines everywhere I go. Why? Because i can make a long line shorter, but i cant make a short line longer to give the dog more autonomy, to say, curve and avoide, or curve to engage, or to get to that smell at that lamp post quickly.

Or as today, a long line let's Whitty explore through shrubs along the river, while I have more time to concentrate on my footing behind the lead, without the leash going tight, which could limit Whittys movement.

The more we track the lesser Whitty chases birds over time. Because we use one prepared behaviour for another- and the action pattern for the behaviour "tracking" generalizes more often in similar instances, that chasing does.
Until, that is, something moves right in front of Whitty.

I keep on shouting into the wilderness; that if people keep their dog running like crazy at Neuropark, that the behaviour that will generalize more often in similar circumstances/ instances is the dog chasing and running🤷‍♂️

There is another reason im not the greatest fan of some enrichment practices- they focus heavily on the senses and less on the animals output.

If we add too many things, that an animal is not naturally prepared for to a niche- like a lot of human made things- we actually create a lot of error messages, and in some cases they may even be experiencially blind.
That in itself is not a bad thing, its learning happening right there. However, if we have an animal that is already on a high allostatic load, meaning energy poor, learning and moving can depleat the system more and make learning harder, if there is even enough energy available to learn something new.
Sometimes, we just have to start with lowering allostatic load first before we add new things, and rely on getting them into nature for them to find things they expect, and reduce learning to minimal things like foot placements, so proprioceptive errors etc.

And sometimes, its just a simple treat search on a walk in a field that is the most pleasurable for them.

People, I know when I talk and write, it often sounds very difficult to understand
But really- it aint rocked science.

23/05/2026

Roaming with Hounds Diary

The thing about behaviour is, that it is not reactive. It is a way to palpitate the world through predicted action and correct, if needed, with help of the sensory interfaces, quickly & efficiently.
That also means that doing new things is important, not just to learn new things, to be more efficient, but also to gain resilience over time.

Resilience- very popular word nowadays.🤔

As everything, its an abstract word combining so many things for different people, and yet- its powerful and useful to be resilient.

To become resilient, efficient, in many ways, we have to invest in doing stuff that feels hard sometimes. Just because it feels hard, aversive, doesn't always mean we should avoid that action. Sometimes, it means we should put even more effort into it. You know, bite through it. Toughen up a little. Never give up!

Bubble-wrapping aint gonna bring about resilience or more capability to cope in different instances.

Here, today, I combined the hard work of uphill hiking, curfing around & passing sheep carefully and the hounds foot work on steep terrain over rock and hard, dusty surface.

The more we do it, the easier it all becomes at a much more efficient energy output. Stability through change.
So what feels hard when we start, will eventually become easier. We just have to keep at it- and... the nice sunny weather and the view certainly helped along!

Did you know, that when you do something really hard with someone else you get on with, it litterally becomes physically easier-> allostatically cheaper ?!

21/05/2026

Roaming with Hounds Diary

As every day, I start very early with my greyhounds sniffarying somewhere quiet. The reds and purples in the sky during the drive to the red zone were just stunning- so was the warmth of the sun rising.
There is never doupt, that with a hunting dog, or 3, one will find either a rabbit hole or a rabbit that is there, but hard to see when they freeze.
They wait just for the right moment to hop away from us, so all you really observe is the white fluffy bob-tail zigzaging away from us. All the while I have the awesome job of digging my heels into the ever so dry ground and hold on to 3 x 30kg greyhounds wanting to take of at speed. Such fun!
We eventually removed ourselfs from the situation, although Archie was pouting very vocally- sharing his dislike of having to abandon the chase with the 70ish-something+kg human anchor attached to him with a long line.
As said- such fun!

We eventually sniffed, peed and pood our way back to the car- that being the dogs relieving themselfs- i did the human thing an made it home to our big white tool in the little room, at the back of the house.

My drive thereafter took me, like every Thursday, through Cashmere, Eastern Christchurch and Burwood to pick up my eagerly awaiting goofy woofy clients- for sniffary ➡️ but "sans" bunny for them, unfortunately.🐇🐇

20/05/2026

Roaming with Hounds Diary

Today's client's started with the early morning session with Cookie the Lagotto, Sammie and Mazie @ Neuropark Bexley doing some simple treat search and physio exersises through the stick maze, then tire stretch, the big ramp and the cavaletti, and of course a lot of free levy walks.
Ziba was the next canine to get a sniffary through the red zone and some off lead levy walks and treat search @ Neuropark Bexley.
Rounding that walking clients off is Mr Goldfish; Toastie at Neuropark Social.
He did some treat search in the tire stretch and surprisingly lot of concentrated levy walk without noticing dogs playing ball fetching right behind the maze. He is definately more confident today.
Back home attending to my "rudel" (group / pack) of greyhounds that are eager to get their trachea treat.
[Pics not all from today]

18/05/2026

The "I know its there" look

17/05/2026

Grey Matter Hounds Podcast Episode 3

Tracking / Man Trailing: Following the Invisible through the view point of predictive minds

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01/05/2026

"What's this smell" is coming!!!