Thursday, February 19, 2009

A Mother's Instincts

My guess is that Nala was taken from her litter very young. When I first got her, she had no understanding of dog signals: she was confused by the dog at the dog park showing its stomach, she did not take Topi's bared teeth for agression, and she did not know that sniffing butts is not rude.

Yet in the last six months, something has changed. Dramatically. This weekend we took her to a pet store and inside there was a litter up for adoption. The pups looked exactly like Nala did when I got her; they too had been abandoned and were just seven weeks old. Nala looked through the little fence as one puppy ran straight towards her. Nala leaned in, sniffing through the fence as the puppy jumped to lick her face. We took the puppy out and they instantly started nosing each other. Maybe this is normal for most dogs, but there was a time when Nala would have growled or snapped at the puppy before engaging in this sort of behavior.

After a few minutes of playing we continued with shopping. Before heading to the checkout we returned to the puppies. This time, we took Nala's little friend out and they curled up on the floor together. The puppy tried climbing on her face and batting at her, getting gentle Nala kisses all the while. Something about Nala triggered the memory of mom for this puppy; it wasn't long before puppy went from batting Nala's face to trying to nurse. At that point the rescue volunteer picked up the puppy, worried that puppy teeth on an unsuspecting Nala would get teeth in return.

All of a sudden, Nala's mothering instincts appeared. This was now her puppy. Nala jumped on the volunteer - not to get attention for herself, but to nose the puppy. Make sure it was ok. Keep a close eye on it... and the stranger that took the puppy from her.

The volunteer put the puppy down, and the two dogs resumed their affection. Again, the puppy tried to nurse from Nala (a sight that broke my heart) and again the volunteer picked the puppy up. And again, Nala jumped to protect the little one. At this point, we had to leave - both because we had a schedule and because spending much longer there might have resulted in a puppy adoption we weren't prepared for. Another shopper watching the experience asked us in disbelief, "You're just leaving the puppy? You won't take it home for her?"

I was very proud of Nala's interaction with the puppy. It took a lot of effort and intention on our part to get her to the point where she can enjoy being with other dogs. But what amazed me was the part that wasn't from our training.

For a thousand years, humans have worked at domesticating dogs, breeding them into various shapes, sizes and skills as we deemed fit. Teaching them to listen to us and ignore their instincts. And yet, I watched Nala, a dog who spent so little time with her mother that she didn't know that stomach meant submission... I watched Nala become a mom right before my eyes.

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