Under The Tail, Blog 2

Definitely the funniest part of the job is when an owner who is learning to raise dogs, goes to her barn, pulls up the tail of a possibly in heat female, zooms in with a phone camera, and then sends me the result, along with this question, “Is my dog is heat?”

What they see, is dog privates, in 3d, in a particular stage of a reproductive cycle. But what I see is a 2D, flattened, tangle of dirty dog hair, with a barely discernible landscape of dog, usually with some sort of dark rift going down the center. I can’t judge the size nor the degree of swelling out of context with the whole dog.

So what usually happens is I recommend asking the female to allow a belly rub, and retaking the photos from that angle. Once again…I feel the mirth rise, like a naughty school child… clawing to explode in hysterics.

And the thing is, these are important questions. People who raise dogs have put a great amount of investment in by the time an adult female comes into heat, not just in finances, but in labor and love.

So the photo-examination is important, as well as humorous.

This is like one of the first social gatherings I attended when I first moved to Livermore, CO, where I used to live and where the CMD started. A group of ladies was playing cards, and they began a lively conversation about alpacas, and AI (not artificial intelligece). After the details were all verbalized, a silence ensued, and then hysteria erupted…so this is not just me.

Later in my day, when I am, say, out to eat with friends at a cafe, or getting ready to rehearse with the choir, and I have a friend ask what I did today…. then the mechanism is tripped off again… and I contain laughter as I imagine trying to explain looking at dog parts to a choir member. In Mancos where I live though, good chance that choir singer raises cattle and would laugh along with me.