Sonoita Night

Here is a nice letter written about the abundance of dog training. A goal all training should achieve. Well trained dogs have a fuller life, living more as a natural being. Owners experience more joy in the freedom of the moment.

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We turned onto the dirt ranch road that serves as the southern entrance to
the Empire-
Cienega Ranch (www.empireranchfoundation.org) just as the sun ducked behind
the mountains and the orb of the moon hung itself high in the Sonoran sky.
The Empire-Cienega is is a 42,000 acre patch of high rolling watered
grassland, (cienega means swamp) bordered by the Mustang Mountains on the
east and backdropped by the Santa Ritas on the west. From where we parked
to walk, I was embraced by grassland from horizon to horizon - on one side
the shimmering white light of the full moon, on the other, the fading pink
silhouetting the mountains whose tones were
deepening to cobalt in the fading light. On moonlit nights like this one,
the light is so bright you can see your shadow, and the waxing and waning of
colors in the sky and on the ground never fails to take my breath away.
Fortunately, the dogs love it as well.

Nagi adores this place and trundles along with his big plume of a tail
wafting from side to side. We haven't been here in a while, but he knows it
well. He has always loved trailing scent in the grasses, but he is starting
to find Lily's {Shiba Inu) hunting antics even more entertaining than
flushing birds himself. She is faster and more efficient, and he gets the
benefit of clusters of birds soaring up under his nose. She is getting to a
level of fitness that astounds me. Periodically she just makes these
quantum leaps forward in development, mentally and physically that leave me
open mouthed wondering what just happened. Recently all of her muscling and
bone have deepened and widened (month 9-10). In the mornings, she now
boings as high as the top of the
bottom half of the barn door impatiently waiting for me to get it open to
hunt mice. Just in the last week it seems that she has discovered she has
springs in her legs, but I had not yet seen the display she put on tonight.

We wandered off the road and up into the hills, the whole area blanketed in
an unimpeded stream of moonlight. Lily started pronging from place to
place, getting more and more excited as birds flushed up from her drives.
As we started down into a draw, it was as if the land, and the light, and
her heart and her heritage all joined forces and became one joyous whole. I
confess to never quite having seen a dog do what she did. By the light of
the moon, dog morphed into antelope. Down the hill she flew bounding three
feet into the air and 6-8 feet forward with each leap. It was astounding.
I was so mesmerized that I had to shake myself and whistle her back in as
she went bounding hundreds of yards ahead of me.

As the light faded, and moonlight washed over the plateau, she became a
dark form with just a flash of white tail that would periodically hurl
itself above the grass level and then down hidden from sight again, Nagi
happily following in her wake. I think he thinks that it is just now sort
of worth it, that we put up with her being a baby. For me, these moments,
when dog gets to be fully dog, are what fuels my soul. Not the ring, not
the progressions, not competition, but when I can simply take a good dog,
for a good walk, in a great place, for me, that is when I truly feel that
God's in his heaven and all's well with the world.

I read something from an author, much of whose words I deeply respect,
words which pained me to the core. She was talking about leash laws and
said "most dogs can't be offleash, nor SHOULD THEY BE..." While it is true
that being off leash carries with it a responsibility to conduct oneself in
a manner befitting noble dog, were I to have to live my life never having
these moments, never having the joy of seeing dogs in nature where they
deserve to be, I think I would die. I never take the spaciousness of my
western lands for granted. And I never take the joy of seeing a dog
experience ground, and wind, and smell, and space for granted. It is my
lifeblood.
Maryna Ozuna Copyright 2007 Ozuna