shadowerrata:

pervocracy:

I love how dog behavior can be so breed-specific.  Like, sure, it makes sense to me that broad-stroke things like “this one is more friendly, this one is more alert” can be genetic.  But apparently there is a combination of genes that codes for “chase prey animals into a tight herd but don’t attack them.”  And a different combination of genes that codes for “run after things, pick them up gently, and take them to a person.”  It’s not just training; you can see these behaviors even in little puppies that have never been exposed to the situation before.  I think that’s delightful and kind of mysterious.

One of the most delightful things about my roommate’s new corgi is that even though he’s two, he never really had a chance to really run and exercise his herding instinct as far as we know (he’s a rescue). Roommate got him an Indestructible Ball about as tall as he is and he is SO. HAPPY. to chase it full-tilt around the backyard, nipping at it and herding it around despite never having learned to do that, specifically.